Cheese Poppy Seed Cake with Pears

Ingredients

• 180 g flour
• 40 g sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 g butter
• flour (for the work surface)
• fat (for the pan)
• 250 g poppy seed mix (1 packet)
• 2 pears
• 4 tbsp whipping cream
• 0.5 tsp grated lemon zest
• sugar (optional)
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Egg white
• 150 g yogurt
• 2 tbsp Cornstarch
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 350 g quark
• powdered sugar (for dusting)

Instructions

1. 1.

   Mix flour, sugar and salt on a work surface. Add butter in chunks and quickly knead with the eggs into a shortcrust dough. Wrap the dough in foil and chill for half an hour. Then roll it thinly on a lightly floured surface and line a springform pan base (trim to fit). Shape the remaining dough into a log, place it along the rim of the springform pan and press flat with fingers, ensuring the dough base connects well with the edge. Whisk the poppy seed mix with cream and lemon zest until creamy. Peel, quarter and core the pears, grate finely on a vegetable grater. Mix into the poppy mixture and sweeten with sugar to taste. Spread this over the shortcrust base. Preheat oven to 175 °C (convection). Separate the egg: beat the whites to stiff peaks, gradually adding powdered sugar until the meringue is white and glossy. Whisk quark with yogurt, yolk, lemon juice and cornstarch. Fold in the meringue and spread the quark cream over the poppy mixture in the springform pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, then raise temperature to 200 °C and bake another 10 minutes until fully baked and lightly browned on top. Remove, loosen the rim of the springform pan and let the cake cool.