Quark Cake

Ever since my childhood a nice slice of túrótorta or quark cake was a must during the Easter holidays. My mom usually took a piece of yeast dough to cover the baking form. Of course I had to bake it this year, after all my parents brought me a nice portion of túró that is not the same like curd or cottage cheese, because these are made with the help of rennet, but traditional túró isn't. If you are not able to find túró then I would suggest to use ricotta, though that is fresh cheese made using whey, however it has kind of a similar texture. Anyway, it is impossible to say no to a slice of this cake. It is especially perfect with fresh, juicy strawberries and beaten cream. Well, no local strawberries until somewhen in may, so I served it with some lyophilized red currants.

Ingredients: 
(for a 18 cm round baking form)
for the pastry:
125 g flour
75 g soft butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
1/2 egg
1/2 tablespoon milk
for the filling:
500 g quark
3 eggs
160 g sugar
1 vanilla pod
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tablespoons semolina

For the pastry sift flour and pour it onto a working surface. Make a hole into the middle and add diced soft butter, sugar, salt and the egg. Now start to work together the flour with the other ingredients. As soon as it is crumbly add the milk and knead until smooth. Refrigirate until needed. If you do not want to mess around with a half egg, then double the ingredients. The pastry can be kept for up to a week in the fridge or simply freeze it. For the fillin beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy, add quark, seeds of the vanilla pod, zest of the lemon and 1 tablespoons semolina and mix well. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks with a pinch of salt and fold it into the quark mixture. Cover the baking form with the pastry, sprinkle the leftover semoline onto the bottom, add the filling. If you like fold the excess pastry over the filling. Bake for 50-60 minutes over 160°C. The filling will collapse a bit once it has cooled down, but you can hide that with a nice portion of beaten cream.