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Quark Bread

jkandell's picture
jkandell

Quark Bread

A while back I had made this Hamelman "Farmer's Bread" with yogurt, per his directions, and found it boring. But after a friend dropped off some home-made Quark cheese this week, I decided to give it another go since he mentioned he was recreating a quark bread from his days in germany. And it's really good!  A nice pain-au-levain type taste in only 4 hours start to finish.

Quark is a simple german farmer's cheese. My friend made it by adding a little commercial buttermilk to heated milk, letting it sit for 16 hours at 22°-30°C / 72°-86°F (cooler than for yogurt), then separating out the whey by hanging it in cheesecloth for awhile.  The process is quite similar to paneer, but with some fermentation first. The resulting soft cheese is a bit like cream cheese, a bit like yogurt, a bit like sour cream, a bit like cottage cheese. I recognized its flavor from Russian and Ashkenazi deserts like blintzes.

I adapted the recipe for Hamelman's "Farmer's Bread" from second edition. The flavor of the bread reminded me of a sourdough pain au levain--but with the moisture of dairy, a very subtle sour odor, and nice taste from the quark. But in only 4 hours start to finish. A keeper.  Next time I might double the Quark.

Quark Bread 

  • Water (initial), 269g, 70%+
  • Quark, 27g, 7%  
  • Sugar 1t, 5g, 1.2%
  • Salt, 1 1/4t, 8g, 2%
  • All purpose, 338g, 88%
  • Whole Rye flour, 46g, 12%
  • Instant yeast, 1.28g, 1/2t, 1% 

Put first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the quark to the water along with the sugar and salt, and mix it in well.  Then add in the flours and yeast and mix to incorporate the ingredients.

The dough will be quite sticky, so use wet hands to do the folds within the bowl, which will gradually add more hydration above the initial 70%.

Bulk ferment 3 hours. During that time: stretch and fold it after 20m, and then at 40m point, and then at the 1 hour, and the 2 hour points (78F room temp). It may take longer in a cooler room. Desired dough temperature 75F.

Shape as a boule on a well floured surface, place seam side up in a well floured baneton, and final ferment 1 hour at 75-78F.

Bake at 450F, under a bowl for first 15m. About 35-40m total.  You want this bread to get a full rich brown crust.  

 

Comments

tpassin's picture
tpassin

This sounds interesting!  That wedge looks very inviting.  I wonder just mixing some yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese together might come close enough?

TomP

Abe's picture
Abe

After a quick search some came back with more complicated recipes but this one seems very doable and might prove to be an interesting experiment...

LINK to Quark Recipe

Making quark this way seems exactly the same as making a cottage cheese separating the curds from the whey using lemon juice. If this makes 'quark' then it's very similar to a cottage cheese with a more tangy taste. So to make it even simpler, if you don't wish to make it, then a good substitute would be a plain cottage cheese + some lemon juice. 

Abe's picture
Abe

Adding lemon juice to cottage cheese will water it down. So building on your idea of sour cream reminded me of a European food called Smetana (not the composer). My Grandfather used to like it and I think it was a mix of Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese. Won't water it down as much either. 

I;m leaning towards this as a good substitute, Tom. 

tpassin's picture
tpassin

Thanks for your thoughts, Abe. I used to like a mix of yogurt and cottage cheese.  The yogurt corrected some of the blandness of cottage cheese (at least what is called that in the US) and the cottage cheese tamed some of the sour of the yogurt.   This seems to be right in same vicinity.

I haven't considered trying to make a similar cheese because I can't ever get milk to curdle correctly any more. I used to be able to do so in the 2005 time frame, but not for a long time.  Probably the ultra pasteurization process, I think.

Abe's picture
Abe

It reminded me of smetana. Apparently, after just looking it up, it is the soured cream that is the smetana and is often eaten with cottage cheese or quark. My grandfather loved it but I couldn't bring myself to ever try it. All these things are in a similar vein. Very Eastern European/Russian type foods.

jkandell's picture
jkandell

Quark has different names in different places. In Russia it's called tvorog (творог), túró in Hungarian, rahka in Finnish, kohupiim in Estonian. You can also buy in commercially in russian markets in the USA as "farmer's cheese".

Benito's picture
Benito

I’ve never heard of Quark cheese before, having spent next to no time in Germany.  It sounds easy to make and the flavour sounds excellent especially as an addition to a bread.  Thanks for sharing this.

Benny