This light, creamy dessert inspired by the traditional German cake recipe, or Kuchen, uses a pie-like pastry bottom to hold up the thick, sweet custard-based filling. Blueberries add a mild sweetness in this recipe, but you can use any berry for a delicious combination of moist custard, tart berries, and cakey crust. A little lemon zest adds just enough depth and lemon essence to perfume the entire plate.
Makes one 9-inch cake.
Ingredients
Cake crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large egg whites (save yolks for the filling)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Filling:
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 large whole egg
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons lemon zest
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
For the cake crust, in a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add butter, egg whites, and almond extract and gently stir until mixture becomes doughy (like a lighter pie dough); set aside.
For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, combine yogurt, 2 tablespoons flour, sugar, egg yolks, whole egg, lemon zest, salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until smooth. Using a springform pan, lightly grease the sides and bottom to ensure a clean release. Spread dough along the bottom; sprinkle blueberries on top and pour the custard filling over the berries. Bake for about 55 minutes or until center appears set when shaken gently. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. The kuchen is best if it has time to set and is served cold, so cover it and let chill in refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours.
