Rote Grütze (German red berry pudding) with vanilla quark
North Germany's summer dessert: sour cherries, raspberries, red currants and strawberries barely set in their own deep red juice, with a cloud of cool vanilla quark. It takes ten minutes at the stove and works just as well with frozen berries in the middle of winter.
- Time
- 85 min (15 prep + 70 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 239 kcal
- Protein
- 8 g
Ingredients
Rote Grütze
- 1 cup tart cherry juice, or blackcurrant juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 vanilla pod
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar, to taste
- 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp water, cold
- 1 1/2 cups frozen sour cherries, pitted, thawed
- 1 1/4 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
- 3/4 cup red currants, stripped from the stems
- 1 cup strawberries, halved or quartered
Vanilla quark
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp quark, low-fat (Magerquark)
- 2/3 cup 2% milk
- 4 tsp vanilla sugar, or sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Steps
- Bring the juice, vanilla and sugar to the boil in a medium pan.
- Stir the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth, pour it into the boiling juice while stirring and simmer for 2 minutes, until clear and thickened.
- Add the cherries and currants and simmer for 1 minute, then add the raspberries and strawberries, stir gently and take the pan off the heat, so the fruit keeps its shape.
- Taste for sweetness and pour into a bowl or glasses. Let it cool to room temperature and then in the fridge, at least 1 hour in all. It should be barely set, soft enough to spoon.
- Whisk the quark with the milk and vanilla sugar until smooth and loose enough to pour. Serve the Rote Grütze cool with a spoonful of vanilla quark on top. It keeps 3 days in the fridge, covered, with the quark stored separately.
Good to know
Can I use frozen berries?
Yes, a 750 g bag of frozen mixed berries is what most Germans use outside summer. Add them still frozen in the last step and bring back to a simmer briefly.
What about vanilla sauce?
It is the classic partner, and lightly whipped cream is another. For a simple vanilla sauce, use whole milk in place of the quark and a little more vanilla sugar, at about 51 instead of 60.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 74
- Protein
- (14%)
- 2 g
- Fat
- (6%)
- <1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (80%)
- 15 g
- of which sugar
- 11 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 11 mg
More desserts
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 957 kcal goes into the pot and 1323 g of ingredients comes out as about 1293 g of food: 74 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.