Deep fried Cream cheeseballs

Warren, if you know what they were called in German, I could look up the recipe for you on a German site.

Sorry, the sign was in English. The lady did say she mixed cream cheese with flour and some other ingredients.

I found a couple of recipes for deep fried cheese balls; however, they were savory instead of sweet, grated cheese mixed with egg whites and herbs and rolled in bread crumbs. Sorry - would have loved to try out a sweet recipe.

It sort of sounds like "quark bällchen". Since quark is not well known in the US, the woman may have just decided to call it cream cheese to sell it to English speaking customers. They are sold as little balls, similar to donuts, or also in the form of a crescent, but not as large as a croissant. Sometimes they have regular sugar on the outside.

They have a very light and soft consistency, as well as being very tasty.

Does this sound like what you had?

Jo
That does sound like them. They kinda melted in your mouth. Thanks.

Wow. Physics meets pastry. Maybe they make them at the LHC in Geneva!

So do we get the recipe?

I found this link.

http://ostwestwind.twoday.net/stories/4628930/

Cool. Cream cheese seems like it might be a bit stiff but worth a try...Thanks!

Daniel, if you let the cream cheese come to room temperature, it shouldn't be hard to mix in.

I'd look online for a quark recipe. It's quite a bit different from cream cheese. I think my in-laws make a version of it by straining plain yogurt through a cheesecloth.

Quark is very easy to make - I make it by essentially "baking" buttermilk. I just add a quart of buttermilk to a baking dish (glass or ceramic), and bake it for 6 hours or longer at the oven's lowest temperature.

After I pull it out, I drain the whey, and strain the cheese in cheesecloth (actually, I've also used the IKEA blue/white dishcloths successfully, as they are highly absorbant) by tying it over a faucet so the remaining whey can drip out.

Allow about 45 minutes or so to drain, then refrigerate and enjoy. It's great in baking recipes, but can also be used as a wonderful bagel spread by mixing in lemon zest and sugar. If it's too dry, just incorporate a Tab. or so of 1/2 and 1/2 or cream.

My neighbor, who is German, loves the stuff and bakes with it constantly.

Hey, wiki tells all about how to make quark. Who knew? Maybe some day they will sell it in the states. I know in many restaurants here, they substitute quark for sour cream on baked potatoes, so maybe you can reverse that and make your little doughnut balls with sour cream instead of quark? Give it a try and see how it works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28cheese%29

Our store sells Quark. but if you can't find it locally and don't wish to make it, you might try ricotta as a substitute. The texture is similar.

Warren, I believe I have also had some of those; however, it was in Tongeren, Belgium at an antiques show. My d-i-l got some at a frites stand, and gave me a sampling. They were fabulous. I also wanted to know what they were called, and get the recipe, but have not had any luck. Wish I had gone to the stand and asked. Oh, well.

Lots of recipes on the web, but here's one in English (you'll still have to deal with some metric measurements):

2 Large eggs
40g Sugar
500g Low fat quark
20g melted butter
266g Flour
67g corn starch
4tsp baking powder

Beat eggs with sugar until foamy, add melted butter and quark in portions - mix until smooth.

In another bowl mix the dry ingredients and add to the quark mixture.

Preheat deep-fat fryer to 190 °C.

Using an ice-cream scoop slide the balls into the hot oil, making sure not to crowd the pan. Fry until golden brown, approx 7 mins.

The recipes I found in German also called for vanilla sugar (Vanillezucker), which would be a nice addition.

Have fun figuring out how to measure that 266g of flour. That's a bit more than half a pound---maybe 2 cups? I'd go by when the testure of the dough seemed right.

My son's exchange student friends from Germany just happened to be visiting Canada again, so I asked them about "quark bällchen". Turns out you pronounce it qua balzen, or somethng like that it and it sure sounds that these are the treats I had.