Now, that autumn has started it’s time to get some new season apples from the farmer’s market – don’t they look great, all rosy! They’ll make a nice accompaniment, sweetly spiced with cinnamon, to Quark Pancakes. When I decided to start this blog, I knew my Quark Pancakes would be one of my first posts. It’s always a winner, as the quark makes the pancakes fluffy and light.

Quark is a German almost fat free soft cheese, a bit like curd cheese or ricotta but creamier yet lighter and more tangy. In the UK quark is now available in big supermarkets but if you can’t get hold of it, you could replace it with ricotta in this recipe.

This brunch dish is quickly made and fills the house with nice smells of cinnamon, apples and sweet pancakes!

For 4 portions you need:

• 25g butter
• 50g demera sugar
• 4-6 apples (depending on size), peeled, quartered and cored
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
  (for the spiced apples)

• 200g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 150g quark (if this is not easy to get hold of you could substitue with ricotta)
• 150ml milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• oil for baking
  (for the pancakes)

• optional: small pot half fat crème fraiche

Start by preparing your ingredients, i.e. measure them out and peel/core/cut apples, then make the Spiced Apples by melting the butter and sugar in a medium sized frying pan or pot over a low heat. Add apples, spices and cook for a 5-8 mins, preferably with a loosely covering lid, until the apples are softened but not mushy.

Set aside in a bowl and make the pancakes by mixing the flour and baking powder together. In another, slightly bigger bowl whisk the eggs, quark, milk & sugar and then whisk the flour-baking powder mix in.

To bake, heat a little oil in a frying pan and use 2 tbsp of batter per pancake, which should result in pancakes of about 8-10 cms diameter.
They require about 3-4 min baking per side.

If you want to keep them warm whilst baking the rest, pile them up in a lightly heated oven (75 degrees).

To serve pile about 3-4 pancakes on each plate and top with the apples and for an extra treat, a dollop of half fat crème fraiche.

Enjoy!