I was looking for an interesting dessert to serve over the holiday weekend and found a quark and yogurt cheesecake (quark is a soft, spreadable cheese with a texture that is a bit lighter than tubbed cream cheese, but not as runny as cottage cheese.  The only mainstream grocery store brand I know that carries it is Liberté, but you might be able to find quark in stores specializing in “old world” foods) from the Dairy Goodness  site that was created by one of my favourite celebrity chefs, Anna Olson.  I decided to attempt the recipe and give it a bit of a Cynthia twist.  So instead of regular yogurt that was listed on the recipe, I used Greek.  That way, I was able to skip the first step where you place the cheese and yogurt mixture through a cheese cloth.

For the crust, I followed used chocolate quinoa crumbs, following this recipe from Enerjive (except I replaced the butter with a mixture of olive oil, Greek yogurt and milk). You can follow that recipe or use whatever crust recipe you want.  The filling was, however, inspired by the above mentioned link, which is as follows:

• 500 g (a little over 2 cups) low fat or fat-free plain Greek yogurt
• 500 g quark
• 2 egg whites
• 500 g of frozen raspberries, separated in half
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 125 mL maple syrup or honey (optional)

 Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix the yogurt and quark together
2. Fold in the egg whites, followed by the vanilla and the optional maple syrup or honey
3. Add half of the frozen raspberries (250 g), fold
4. Add the remaining raspberries to the pre-made crust and add in the filling
5. Bake for about 30-40 minutes in a 350 F oven or until set
6. Let cool and then chill in refrigerator for a minimum of four hours.
7. Serve with berry preserves.