Oven-baked fruit flan

[kedigato]

This is the cake that I made on Sunday. I put our red peaches on one side and tinned apricots on the other, almond slivers on top.

[capney]

Thats the sweet taken care of V. And wonderful it looks to

[DAG]

Yes I fancy some of that too!

Looks to me like you've got the wrong sister Robert!

[victoria]

Sadly, I don't like the looks of it, Sis, sorry! ... peaches and apricots are on the bottom of my list ... but I'm sure it was delicious and all enjoyed.

[kedigato]

This is the one I made last weekend with damsons on it, also the wonderful crumble.

I served fresh unsweetened whipped cream with it.


The damsons put on and waiting for the crumble -




- crumble added -




- Just out of the oven -




- close-up of crumble -

[kedigato]

Recipes for the above -


Quark Oil Dough

150g Quark
75g sugar
6 tablespoons oil (I usually use sunflower for this recipe)
4 tablespoons milk

Mix together, then add

300g plain flour - sifted
7g baking powder
(or SR flour)

Mix well.

Roll out and put on the oven pan. I use baking paper, but you could grease it.

Put the fruit(s) of your choice all over the dough.

Bake in a preheated oven or put crumble on it first if you want to. It is so much tastier with crumble.

200°C 25 minutes (until the crust is brown)








Crumble

100g butter
200g sugar
200g plain flour
100g ground almonds

Mix well together then crumble on top of the pie.

The crumble will probably look like fine breadcrumbs, so get a handful of it and squeeze together, then put on the flan in little lumps.

[kedigato]

Quark -


Quark is a type of fresh cheese, also known as tvorog, topfen, etc. It is made by warming soured milk until the desired degree of denaturation of milk proteins and then strained. Dictionaries usually translate it as curd cheese or cottage cheese, although most commercial varieties of cottage cheese are made with rennet, whereas traditional quark is not. It is soft, white and un-aged, similar to some types of fromage frais. It is distinct from ricotta because ricotta (Italian: recooked) is made from scalded whey. Quark usually has much lower fat content (about the same as yoghurt) than cream cheeses and has no salt added.

In Germany, quark is sold in small plastic tubs and usually comes in two different varieties, "Magerquark" (lean quark) and "Sahnequark" (cream quark) with added cream. While the former is often used for baking and as health food, e.g. as a breakfast spread, the latter also forms the basis of a large number of quark desserts. Much like yoghurts in most parts of the world, these treats mostly come with fruit flavouring ("Früchtequark", i.e. fruit quark), and are often also simply referred to as quark. As the large popularity of quark desserts is limited to mainly Germany, confusion might arise when talking about quark with non-Germans.



From Wikipedia.


Please see the whole article here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28cheese%29

[DAG]

That does look yummy!

Arney wants to know what the purpose of using Quark is in that recipe? What does it do please?

[kedigato]

Thanks DAG.

I think it, and the oil & milk, replace the margarine or butter.

[shadowdragon]

Kedi, do you know if we have Quark over here in the States? If not, I know it says its not the same but would cottage cheese work as an alternative?

[kedigato]

Funny you should ask that, Audra, as I have been wondering exactly that these past couple of weeks.

I was sure I saw Quark in one of the bigger supermarket chains in the States on this last trip. (Walmart? Save-a-Lot? Publix?) Peter said no, but then he never looks out for certain things like I do.

We were discussing / argueing about it just last week, also about my idea of perhaps being able to substitute cottage cheese (mashed up finely with a fork) or a low-fat cream cheese, adding a little milk if it was too thick. The consistancy of Quark is about like whipped Philadelphia - if anyone ever got the idea to whip it! ;D

I've often bought Walmart's and Save-a-Lot's brand of cream cheese, and I have also bought the latter's low-fat cream cheese (can't think of the name of it at the moment, but it tastes just as good as the regular). If I can't find Quark next time in Florida, this is what I'll buy to make this flan. Since cottage cheese is made up of "bits", (!), I'd go for a cream cheese.

I'd try it out the next time I make this flan, but that will be in 2-3 weeks. Perhaps you might try it out before? Good luck if you do and please tell us what you used as a substitute and how it turned out.

[shadowdragon]

I think I may try it with cream cheese after I work out the measurement conversion. We have whipped cream cheese in the store, so I will pick some up when I go shopping next week. I have never seen Quark out here. I can see it being possible in the more major metropolitan areas(especially on the coasts), but out here on the prairie in the land of meat,potatoes and corn its hard to find items like that sometimes.

[shadowdragon]

Hmmm, looks like conversion isn't so easy. Going to have to buy a kitchen scale when I go shopping. I've been needing one anyway. Why can't we just go to measurements the rest of world has? So silly that we don't use the same measurements.

[kedigato]

Audra - we have a section on the bottom RHS of the Home Page with various conversion charts in it.

This one is good for converting recipes and is so easy to use - www.lewa.com/conversions.htm

When you do buy a kitchen scale, be sure to look if it has a conversion button on it. The ones I have here and in the house in Florida, can be set to show weights in either grams or ounces. I assume that the American ones now also have such seeing as how many food stuffs give the gram weight as well as the ounces.

BTW, talking about such, the bathroom scales in the States are super. We bought our kids and ourselves one as you can set them to weigh yourself in pounds, or kilos and even stones! I've checked here but so far only managed to find ones with pounds or kilos.

[kedigato]

I made the flan with damsons again yesterday, of course, with the crumble and also had freshly whipped cream to serve with it.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it when it was served with cream, but did get a pic after we had eaten some -





Oh, sorry, didn't want you to see us all eating directly from the oven pan!!!!!!!


This is the one I meant to show. Was it my second or third?