Country Chocolate Cheesecake

Spoil yourself with our country chocolate cheesecake. And yes, it is as delectable as it looks!

Pastry:
1 cup (250 ml) whole wheat pastry flour or bread flour (an unbleached, pre-mixed blend of wheat and rye)
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup (60 ml) Rapadura sugar or Sucanat
2/3 cup (165 ml) cold butter, cut in 1/4-inch cubes
2-3 Tbsp (30--45 ml) ice water
Pinch of salt

Filling:
3 cups (750 ml) quark
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup (250 ml) Rapadura sugar or Sucanat
1/2 cup (125 ml) cocoa powder
1/2 cup (125 ml) butter
1/2 cup (125 ml) Rapadura sugar or Sucanat
1 Tbsp (15 ml) vanilla extract

To make pastry:
Sift flour. Add baking powder, Rapadura sugar and salt. Thoroughly mix together. Put dough on the kitchen counter and make a hole in the center. Crack the egg in the hole. Distribute the butter cubes throughout the flour. (Be careful that the butter cubes don't clump together.) Mix the flour with the butter and egg, working from the outside in. Slowly add ice water to mixture. Cut the dough with a pastry cutter until it has a crumbled consistency. Slowly work the mixture with your hands until you can form a ball. Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to one hour.

To make filling:
Beat egg yolk with one cup of Rapadura sugar or Sucanat until pale and sugar and egg yolk have completely dissolved. Add vanilla and quark and mix thoroughly. Beat egg whites until very stiff. Fold egg whites into the mixture and set in the fridge.

In the meantime add butter, cocoa powder and half a cup of Rapadura sugar together in a small saucepan. Mix until all the ingredients look like melted chocolate. Butter an 11-inch springform pan. Sprinkle your counter with one tablespoon of flour and roll out the dough until it is round and the size of the bottom of the springform. Place the dough in the springform and with your hand flatten out the dough so it doesn't have any air bubbles. Poke the dough with a fork. This prevents the dough from cracking.

Add half the quark mixture and half the chocolate to the springform pan. Stir it gently with the tip of a butter knife in a spiral in order to get the marble pattern. Continue adding the rest of the mixture until you fill the form.

Bake at 190°C (375°F) degrees for 50 minutes on the top rack and put a bowl of cold water on the bottom rack to help the air circulate better. This prevents the cake from drying out. After 50 minutes turn off the oven, but leave the cake inside for another 20-25 minutes. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.

Source: alive #219, January 2001