Starting at home: Kwarkbollen

If we want to explore the whole world of recipes, what better place to start at then at home? It's the place where you start packing and planning. The place where, among the shirts and socks, you'll start thinking of snacks for on the road. Or maybe you're like me.. and the only things you really think of are the foods you'll have to bring.


These 'buns' are one of the things I packed on our vacation to France a few weeks ago. 'Kwarkbollen' roughly translates to 'Quark buns' in English. However, anything from quark to yoghurt or cottage cheese will do. In The Netherlands we eat this 'bread' mainly during easter. I think it's available the whole year round though and it's definitely delicious the whole year round! It looks like one big bread, kind of like panettone, and is the same kind of fluffy. This recipe though, focuses on a flat cake-breadthinggie or smaller buns.

Kwarkbollen (Quark buns)
1 'bread' of 28 cm - inspired by Okoko

250 grams flour
3 tablespoons milk powder
3 teaspoons baking powder
250 grams quark or (Greek) yogurt
2 tablespoons oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons (vanilla) sugar
150 grams raisins

1. Sift the flour, milk and baking powder together into a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl, weigh the wet ingredients and the sugar. Mix them all together until smooth.
3. Make a well in the bowl with the flour and pour in your wet ingredients. Now mix those together - I like to use a fork and 'break down' the walls of flour at the sides as I go.
4. Lastly, add the raisins and roughly mix those in.
5. Line or grease a 28 cm (11 inch) cake tin. Spread the batter out thinly onto the cake tin. Don't worry about the 'bun' being very thin, it will double in size during baking. For small buns, line or grease a baking tray and drop little circles of dough onto it, leaving enough space for them to rise. Better yet, line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers and fill those for three quarters tops.
6.  Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Spread milk over the cake-bread in the last 4-5 minutes for a slightly darker and softer crust.


Maybe you've noticed from the recipe I'm a bit confused about what to call the Kwarkbollen. It's not a bun, it's definitely not bread, it doesn't really go for cake either. This means it is a dutch version of scones. Scones are also these -admittedly delicious- things that are neither cake nor bread nor buns but everything in between. They both go very nice with jam and cream and they both include raisins. I think the kwarkbollen are slightly sweeter, slightly more moist and have a softer texture, but overall I'd say kwarkbollen are just a dutch version of scones.

Try it out and tell me if you disagree!

Comments