Stefan, your cheesecakes have become a real brand in Freiburg. How did you come up with the recipe?
I got it from my mum. My parents ran the Rappenecker Hütte on Schauinsland, Freiburg's local mountain, from 1986. I was 17 at the time and later took over the hut and tried out many of their recipes. But nothing made hungry people as happy after their hike or mountain bike tour as this cheesecake recipe. My mum had warned me that it was a little more time-consuming and expensive to make.
Why? What makes this cheesecake so special?
Cheesecakes are usually too egg-heavy for me. I use very few eggs and only egg whites in the filling, which makes it so fluffy. The main ingredients in my cakes are cream and quark - I have a few thousand litres of these delivered every week by Schwarzwald Milch. The creamy cheesecake cream gives my cakes a warm flavour, despite the slightly sour note from the fresh lemons.
In April 2002, you opened your stand at the Freiburg Münstermarkt (cathedral market)...
... a friend lent me the 300 euros for my first bulk purchase. And other friends let me bake in the kitchen of their pub at night. That was enough to get me started: as a newcomer, the market master only gave me a small space to start with.
