LEFTOVER STOLLEN? STOLLEN CHEESECAKE WITH BLUEBERRIES

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Working on some projects in our condo in Portland seven years ago, the best of all husbands didn’t want to waste precious time with cooking or going out for dinner. But men have to eat, whether they are tiling and putting up sinks, or whether they are kissed by the muse, composing immortal masterpieces for posterity.

So he went to the supermarket to get chips and bean dip, and, also, grabbed a piece of Dresdner Stollen, a leftover from Christmas (and heavily discounted!)

Most of it he brought home (for who can live of stollen for a sustained time?). And there it was, waiting for eager eaters, where there were only two people who, after the holidays, were “stollened-out” for the rest of the year.

St. Honoré, the patron saint of bakers, must have heard my weary sigh, when I saw this dried “Stollen of Christmas Past”. The very next day I found in my blog list a post by master baker Wolfgang Süpke: the Leftovers Stollen Torte!

Having a smaller piece of stollen, I downsized the recipe from 28 cm/11″ diameter to 21 cm/9″. (Keiko’s Cakes has a practical conversion-tool to recalculate recipe amounts for different pan sizes.)

Living in Maine, I used (frozen) wild blueberries instead of a preserve, also doubling the amount. The quark in the filling (an ingredient you have a hard time finding here) I substituted with cream cheese.

The store-bought stollen was rather sweet, so I reduced the sugar a bit. And adding some lemon and vanilla to the cream cheese filling certainly wouldn’t hurt.

We love this leftovers-torte. The sweetness of the stollen bottom is balanced by the berries and lemony cream filling. Since that first time, I have made it every year after the holidays – with Dresdner stollen, panettone, and even with poppyseed stollen.

Every Christmas, we pull ourselves together to leave a piece of stollen for the coveted leftovers torte. What is better than a stollen? STOLLEN-CHEESECAKE !!!

STOLLEN CHEESECAKE WITH BLUEBERRIES (adapted from Wolfgang Süpke)

12 Servings (21-cm/9-inch Cake)

Cake
560 g/20 oz blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used wild Maine blueberries)
420 g/15 oz leftover stollen, cut into 1.5-cm/0.6″ thick slices
130 g/4.5 oz sugar
17 g/0.6 oz gelatin powder (flavorless)
56 g/2 oz cold water
225 g/8 oz whipping or heavy cream, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz plain or low fat yogurt, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. lemon juice, or more, to taste
2 tsp. lemon zest, or more, to taste

Frosting and decoration
1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream (optional)
blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)

In medium saucepan, bring blueberries with 20 g/0.7 oz of the sugar to a boil over medium heat and cook, stirring now and then, until they break down, and the liquid is reduced by at least a third (too much juice will leak out of the cake bottom.)

Grease a 21-cm/9-inch cake rim (or ring of a springform pan), then dust with powdered sugar. Place ring on a parchment lined baking sheet. Arrange stollen slices within the ring, filling out holes with smaller pieces.

Spoon cooked blueberries and their reduced juices evenly over stollen bottom.

In a small bowl, stir gelatin into cold water, and let sit until water is absorbed. Microwave mixture until gelatin has melted, stirring now and then. (Or melt it in a double boiler over simmering water.)

For the filling, whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form. In a second large bowl, mix cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest, until well blended. Stir in whipped cream, mixing well.

Temper melted gelatin by adding 3 tablespoons of the cream mixture, one by one, quickly mixing until well combined. (If it clumps because you didn’t work fast enough, briefly re-nuke the gelatin in the microwave.)

Pour tempered gelatin into the cream mixture, stirring until well blended. Spoon filling over blueberries, smoothing the surface with a rubber spatula. Cover cake ring with plastic wrap (or a plate), and refrigerate the cake overnight.

Before serving, remove cake ring. For a perfect torte, frost the sides of the cake with whipped cream, then pipe rosettes on top and decorate with blueberries.

Or, if you don’t want to bother with a fancy decoration (meanwhile I’m too lazy for it), skip this step and simply sprinkle some blueberries over the top.

Store Stollen Cheesecake, covered, in the fridge. It keeps fresh for several days, and even tastes better when it has more time to develop its flavor.

This post was originally published on my old blog in 2013. I re-wrote, updated and, also, changed the layout to better fit the WordPress format.