Today I am going to introduce an extremely nostalgic recipe, it is called Dresdner Eierschecke, which loosely translates as a cheesecake from the city Dresden. You will find a lot of different varieties of this delicious cake. It may come along as a sheetcake, it may be a traditional round cake like in my case. Some are prepared with yeast dough, some with a pie crust. The word “Schecke” apprently comes from the late Middle Ages and would decribe a tunic with three parts: upper part, belt, and lower part. Thus, typically an Eierschecke would have three layers, the base (yeast dough, pie crust or a pound cake), the cheesecake or quark layer, and the top, which is like a custard.
If you ever have the chance to visit Dresden, I would highly recommend giving Eierschecke a try. Each bakery will have its own variety. Widely known is the one from the cafe Dresdner Kaffeestübchens, which makes the recipe every day from scratch according to the recipe by the grandmother.
This picture shows an Eierschekce as served in the Dresdner Kaffeestübchen. It only has two layers.
Coming to think about Dresdner Eierschecke, I am starting to reminiscing. I was fortunate enough to live in Dresden for almost ten years and also got married in Dresden. Below you will see the opera house on the left (Semperoper), looking at the old town from the new town and on the left the Church of our Lady (Frauenkriche), which was reconstructed and fully rebuild after its destruction after the Second World War. There is a reason that Dresden is considered the Florence with the river Elbe. You will find a lot of baroque buildings, one prettier than the next. If you ever have the chance to pay this city a visit, please do, it has so much to offer. Just be sure that the local word “nu” has nothing to do with the word “no”, but always either means yes or something positive.
This blog post is also nostalgic because I got below recipe from a grandmother born in Dresden. She currently lives in Munich like me to be close to her family. She was kind enough to give me two recipes to choose from, which made it even worse to pick. In the end I decided for her favorite recipe, which is the recipe below. Traditionally Eierschecke is made with yeast dough, but this one is with a pie crust. I personally like the top layer the best anyway, which is the custard. Her recipe has a big top layer, so I knew I would love it. Her recipe is made for a 26cm/10inch springform. I only made half the recipe and used an 18cm/7inch springform. If you do that, use one egg yolk for the pie crust and three eggs for the top layer. Everything else can be halved.
Eierschecke from Dresden contains a pie crust, a quark layer and a thick layer of custard or Eierschecke. For the crust mix the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl, cut the cold butter in chunks on top. Rub into crumbs with your hands quickly. Then add the egg yolk and work into a ball. Wrap and chill for at least half an hour or overnight. Cook the vanilla pudding according to instructions, but use the amount of milk given in this recipe. Let cool. for the quark filling whisk the cooled-off pudding with the quark or cream cheese. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and transfer to the springform. Be sure to also cover the sides. Spread two thirds on the dough and then chill. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. For the custard separate the eggs, add the eggs to the one third of the quark filling. Place the egg whites in another bowl. Add butter, sugra and vanilla extract to the quark filling and whisk until combined. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff then gently fold into the egg yolk mix. Spread as the last layer on top and bake on medium rack for about 60min. If the top gets too dark, cover with aluminium foil. Turn off the oven and leave the cake for about half an hour in the oven, you should keep the oven door oopen just slightly. Then let come to room temperature. As is the case with all cheese cakes, this one isi no exception and will taste best the next day after it had the chance to chill in the fridge overnight.Eierschecke from Dresden
Ingredients
Instructions
4 Comments
Ulrike
Friday June 10th, 2022 at 12:31 PMOh ja, in Dresden ist die Eierschecke ein Muss, ich schwöre auf das Rezept bin Tante Elli
Ilka
Saturday June 11th, 2022 at 07:57 AMDresden ist prima und die Eierschecke ein MUSS. Deine sieht jedenfalls toll aus.
Wir sind Anfang Juli wieder dort und rate, was wir uns gönnen werden ?
LG Ilka
Kiu
Wednesday September 14th, 2022 at 09:40 PMals jemand, der viel herumgekommen ist, hast Du ja vielleicht einen Tipp, wie man ohne Quark ans Ziel kommt – ich wohne in einem “quarklosen” Land, – Italien…
…da hört “Bella Italia” auf …
Jenny
Wednesday September 14th, 2022 at 09:44 PMHm, in Spanien gibt es Lidl und deshalb auch Quark, nicht auch in Italien? Ansonsten wäre meine Empfehlung Frischkäse oder Mascarpone mit etwas Joghurt gemischt oder Schichtkäse, falls es den gibt.