Russischer Zupfkuchen (Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake)

Finally finished exams and back to blogging :) This was a cheesecake I made on New Years Eve, and it seriously can't get much better than this! A chocolate base, lovely vanilla filling and chocolate "sprinkles" on top - a Russian "pluck" cake would be the literal translation. It takes a bit of time to prepare, but the end result is definitely worth it! Here's how you make it :)

Ingredients (for a 28cm diameter spring form tin)

360 g of flour

40 g of cocoa powder

3 teaspoons of baking powder

200 g of sugar

a packet of vanilla sugar

1 egg

200 g of butter, cold and diced into cubes

 

For the filling:

100 g of butter

1 kg of quark

200 g of sugar

5 eggs
1 vanilla pod
vanilla sugar

Knead together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, butter, egg and sugar until it forms a shortcrust pastry dough (don't overknead it!). Form into a dough ball and cover with cling film, leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

For the filling, melt the butter and let it cool slightly. In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, quark and eggs, as well as the cooled butter. Scrape out the vanilla seeds from the vanilla pod and add into the mixture together with the vanilla sugar.

Preheat your oven to 160° C. Roll out about 3/4 of your dough and cover your springform tin, also making sure there is a rim on the sides of about 4 cm. Pour the filling in and spread out evenly. Then take the rest of your dough and sprinkle it on top (as seen above), the so-called "plucking process".

This is what the finished "plucking" result looks like

Once you're happy with your result, bake the cheese cake in the oven for about an hour, basically just making sure it's not wobbly any more once it comes out. Let the cheesecake cool and then enjoy :)