German Sweet Mini Fried Cheese Balls with Quark

This is another original German recipe that is using quark, the popular fresh cheese that we use for a lot of cakes and desserts. You can find information about quark and how to make it at home on mybestgermanrecipes.com (see below in the ingredients section).

The Quarkbällchen or mini fried cheese balls are containing quark and will be deep fried. It’s a typical Karneval speciality in the Rhineland.  They are so small and are especially good for a dessert buffet or a party. Children love them like crazy!  You can use a deep fryer or not. It is possible to boil the oil in a big enough pot on the stove; just place the balls on kitchen paper to soak up all excess oil. Happy Baking!

Ingredients Mini Fried Cheese Balls

500 g flour
500 g quark – How to make Quark at Home –
– Substitute Quark  –
1 tsp salt
250 g sugar
1 sachet baking powder Dr Oetker, 0.5 oz – almost 1 tbsp or 7g
1 sachet vanilla sugar Dr Oetker, 0.3 oz – How to make Vanilla Sugar  –
4 eggs
oil for deep frying such as sunflower or canola oil (make sure it is high quality oil!)

Cooking Instructions

– In a bowl combine all mix ingredients – EXCEPT OIL –  and mix well.
– With 2 teaspoon make small portions and place them into the hot oil of the deep fryer or use a pot with enough oil on medium heat.  The temperature should be 170 C or 340 F. If you use a pot do the spoon test: hold a wooden spoon into the hot oil. If you see it bubbles next to the spoon, the oil it hot and ready for the balls.
Make only a few at one time. The dough will increase and the balls turn themselves while cooking.
– Bake them until they have a golden color.
– place the done ones on a kitchen paper to drain the grease.
– roll them on sugar

If you don’t create a perfect round shape the balls will not be so round, they have some edges and little horns which makes them look funny.

TIP: How to Make Perfect Round Balls

1. Use ice cream scoop for the dough or
2. Fill the dough in a freezer plastic bag and close the top with a clamp or paper clips. Cut one corner of the bag off so you have an opening of about 3cm. The dough is not liquid, it is rather firm, therefore when you press the dough out you will get a small flat stripe. Cut that stripe off with a knife that had been dipped into the hot oil (they show it in the the video which is in German but you can see the actions very well).