Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake

Rhubarb season has been in full swing and this Estonian Rabarbi Kohupiimakook - Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake seemed like a great introduction to food from this small land in Eastern Europe. Have you been to Estonia?

Like blooming magnolia trees, rhubarb is one of the first inkling’s of brighter days and this year seems we need it more with the pandemic and being stuck indoors as well as a seemingly never ending winter.

The last trip to a new foreign land in the pre Covid world was Estonia in bleak October, which according to travel guides is the very time of year you should not visit. We sought out saunas and chocolate cafes to get through the cold days.

Ingredients and substitutions for Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake

• Rhubarb: Fresh rhubarb is best here as it soaks up the sugar and gives us the perfect sweet interior. You could use less traditional strawberries, blackberries or even cherries instead, if you prefer.
• Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best to create a nice light crumb to our crust and crumble.
• Butter: Plain unsalted or salted butter works great here. Cold and cubed helps us incorporate into the flour easiest.
• Sugar: Superfine or caster sugar is best here thanks to it's fine texture that will help draw out the moisture in our rhubarb whilst also dissolving perfectly helping give us a smooth filling.
• Quark: Quark is more commonly used in Central Europe due to it’s very light creaminess. If you cannot readily purchase Quark one almost exact substitute would be Greek yogurt or fromage frais or a richer substitute would be mascarpone in equal measure.
• Eggs: As well as adding structure to the cheesecake, the egg binds everything together so is essential.
• Cardamom: The warm flavor of cardamom is traditional here. You could substitute in naturally sweet ground cinnamon, if you prefer.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake:

Prepare the shortbread crust: The shortbread crust provide the base and topping for this recipe.

Press: ⅔ of the shortbread crust evenly in the base of your tin.

1

Spiced rhubarb: Slice and stir the ground spices with your rhubarb which will allow a subtle flavor to be infused into the bright tart rhubarb well after baking.

2

Cheesecake filling: Make the loose cheesecake filling and pour this over the shortbread base.

3

Rhubarb: Top the cheesecake filling with the rhubarb.

4

Finish with crumble: The remaining shortbread crust is crumbled over the top.

5

Baking: Due to the light cream cheese filling the cheesecake will feel quite jiggly, so bake this baby until it's just jiggly in the center.

Allow plenty of chill time: Once the crumble cheesecake has baked, allow to cool for 1 hour and then give it plenty of time to refrigerate which will help it set.

Serve: Slice and serve up!

More cheesecake recipes you'll enjoy

New York Cheesecake

Cherry Cheesecake

Key Lime Cheesecake

Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake

Sylvie Taylor

A shortbread base, light cream cheese filling, streaks of bright rhubarb and crumble topping makes this Estonian Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake very unique and a perfect dessert for spring!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Chill time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Estonian

Servings 16

Calories 338 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Shortbread crumble

• 350 grams / 2 cups + 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 85 grams / ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
• 4 grams / 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 250 grams / 9 ounces butter cold and cubed

Rhubarb filling

• 600 grams / 1.3 pounds rhubarb ends removed and chopped into 1 inch slices
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cheesecake filling

• 220 grams / 4 large eggs room temperature
• 150 grams / ¾ cup superfine/caster sugar
• 500 grams / 1 pound quark room temperature
• 100 grams / 3.5 ounces sour cream
• 17 grams / 2 tablespoons plain flour

Instructions

 

Shortbread crumble

• Greaseproof a baking tin and preheat your oven to 200C/400F.
• To make the shortbread crumble, place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl and stir together.
• Add in the cubed butter and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Place ⅔’s of the crumble mixture into the base of the baking tin and press down evenly.
• Place in the oven and bake for 5 minutes until lightly golden on top.
• Remove and set aside.

Rhubarb filling

• Place the rhubarb into a bowl and sprinkle the ground cardamom and ground cinnamon over the top, stir together and set aside.

Cheesecake filling

• Place the eggs and sugar into a bowl, whisking to combine.
• Add in the quark, sour cream and flour to the eggs and sugar and whisk until smooth.

Assembly

• Pour the cream cheese filling into your tin and lay your rhubarb slices over the top.
• Sprinkle the remaining shortbread crumble over the top.
• Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour until golden on top and only jiggly in the center of the tin.
• Remove and allow to cool and then refrigerate for 4 hours or preferably overnight.
• Remove, slice and serve.
• Dig in!

Notes

• The tin you use: The tin used here was a high 20cm square tin, however, due to this being a cheesecake, the best tin to use would be a square or rectangle springform to make removing your slices much easier.
• Quark: Quark has a low fat content and isn’t commonly sold outside Europe. If you cannot readily purchase Quark so a great replacement would be Greek yogurt or fromage frais or a richer substitute would be mascarpone.
• Baked texture consistency: The cream filling will be thinner than usual cream cheese filling due to the quark and even when removed from the oven, the center of the cake will be quite jiggly.
• Serving: You will need to allow it cool fully and then refrigerate and is definitely best served the day after it’s made.

Adapted from nami-nami.ee

Nutrition

Calories: 338kcal

Keyword cake, cheesecake, rhubarb

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