24 August 2016

Quark pancakes with lemon yogurt and apple compote

Sandra breakfast/brunch, cooking with children, sweet compote, pancakes, quark 2 Comments

These summer holidays I treated the children and several of their sleepover friends to these quark pancakes for a nice late and lazy breakfast. As a sleepover treat they are a guaranteed success, but to my taste they are good for any occasion: they are so luscious you won’t need children as an excuse to serve them to guests, your loved one, or as an indulgence all to yourself.

What makes them so special is the quark batter, which is finished by folding in whisked egg whites. This results in pancakes so fluffy you’ll feel the tiny bubbles of air popping in your mouth at every bite! They are light, elegant and fresh because of the lemon zest in the batter and on top of that, they are really easy to make. You can serve them with syrup, sugar or fresh fruits. We like to eat them with lemon yogurt, topped with this superquick and easy apple compote my eldest daughter makes while I’m baking the pancakes.

Just a  note on the use of quark:

As in my home country The Netherlands quark is a very common ingredient, the use of it doesn’t need elaboration in my Dutch post. While visiting Britain and browsing on the Intenet, however, I found that outside Northern Europe it isn’t that well-known or widely available. For the people who aren’t familiar with it: quark is a fresh, creamy cheese, related to the more crumbly cottage cheese. It is prepared by curdling soured milk and then straining it. As it appears, this is something which can easily be done at home as well. I haven’t tried this yet myself, but if you’d like to give it a go, you might find the following webpage useful: http://www.splendidtable.org/story/quark-its-easy-to-make-this-two-ingredient-cheese-at-home.

In Holland quark is sold with most of the whey still in it, which gives it a yogurt-like consistency. Compared to Greek yogurt, it is very rich in protein and low in salt, making it a healthy snack on its own, a good accompaniment for cereal and a versatile base for sweet and savoury baking. Depending on the milk used and the possible commercial addition of cream, the fat content can range from 1% to 40%. For these pancakes I used 1% fat quark. If you can’t get hold of that, replacing the 500 grams of quark by 225 g ricotta and 225 g skimmed yogurt will give the same fresh and fluffy pancakes.

Happy baking!

 

Quark pancakes with lemon yogurt and apple compote – makes 12-14 pancakes

Ingredients

for the pancakes

• 3 eggs
• 500 g unflavoured, 1% fat quark (or, if you can’t get hold of that: 225 g ricotta and 225 g skimmed yogurt)
• 1 lemon, scrubbed
• 60 g buckwheat flour
• 60 g plain wheat flour
• ½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• pinch of salt

for the apple compote

• 4 firm eating apples (we used Granny Smiths), peeled and diced
• 4 tbsp. sugar
• 8 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. lemon juice, from the lemon used for the pancakes

for the lemon yoghurt

• 150 ml skimmed yogurt
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice, from the same lemon
• 1 tsp. sugar

 

Preparation

Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. Pour the egg whites into a grease-free mixer bowl and set aside.

Grate the zest off the lemon and squeeze the lemon.

Mix the quark (or the yoghurt and ricotta) with the egg yolks, the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and stir until smooth. Reserve the remaining lemon juice for the preparation of the compote and the yogurt sauce.

Mix the flours with the bicarbonate, the sugar and a pinch of salt.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Stir the flour mixture into the quark, then carefully fold the egg whites into the batter.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and brush with a little sunflower oil. Spoon in three large tablespoons of batter, leaving enough space in between them. Bake the pancakes on a moderate heat until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn them and bake until golden on the second side. Put them on a plate and keep them warm while baking the rest of the pancakes.

Meanwhile, prepare the compote. In a cooking pan, mix the diced apples with the sugar, the water and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Heat the mixture on a moderate fire while stirring occasionally. Gently simmer until the moisture has evaporated and the apples are cooked. Set aside.

To make the yogurt sauce, stir the lemon juice and the sugar into the yoghurt.

Serve the pancakes with the yogurt and a generous portion of the compote.