Lighter Baked Lemon Cheesecake

Lighter Baked Lemon Cheesecake with summer fruit compote

Quark is a mild and creamy fresh cheese without the sour taste of yoghurt. It has much a lower fat content than cream cheeses and has no salt added and, therefore, is perfect for those of us trying to keep their waistlines! It also is full of protein and is loaded with minerals, including calcium which, according to the medics, helps us to build and maintain strong bones.

So, what can we do with it? In the past, I have used quark as a foil to make interesting dips with the addition of chives, or horseradish, chopped herbs, or sweet chilli sauce for example. Another idea would be to mix it with caramelised onions and roasted garlic. Spread onto crostini it would make a perfect appetiser.

Quark, of course, can also be sweetened with fruit puree, or honey and, in today’s offering, it is used as an ingredient in this very simple Lighter Baked Lemon Cheesecake which I served today with a summer fruit compote.

Ingredients

You will need:

3 free-range eggs, separated

75g caster sugar

2 tablespoons of plain flour

250g carton of quark

2 lemons, zest and juice

Icing sugar for dusting

Beat the egg yolks and sugar to a pale cream. Then add the quark, zest, juice and flour and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites until fairly stiff and then fold them gently into the quark mixture.

Pour into a greased and lined 20cm tin and bake at 180C (160C fan) or gas mark 4 for about 50 minutes until set and brown. 

Cool in the tin before turning out and dusting lightly with icing sugar.

Dusted with icing sugar

Enjoy!