Quarkstollenkonfekt (Quarkstollen Bites)

I made these today. They are similar to the Stollen Bites I made 2 weeks ago. The difference is the addition of quark, which is an Austrian fresh cheese similar to cottage cheese. Quark is hard to find here in the States. I make my own. Austrians like their quark. They use it a lot in baking and even make cheesecake out of it or quark strudel. The other difference between these quark stollen bites and the regular stollen bites is that these are risen with baking powder whereas the other ones have yeast in them. I used to make a big stollen every year, the size of a regular loaf of bread. It always turned out to be too crumbly. I was delighted when I found the recipe for these on the internet because they taste better. Each of the bites is rolled in butter or ghee and then covered with powdered sugar. Every bite is loaded with raisins, chopped almonds and candied orange and lemon peel. For spice I used cinnamon. This is the kind of "cookie" that tastes better with age, like the other cookie I baked today, Honeycake squares (Lebkuchen). I usually start my holiday baking them. Since I ran out of them and have some orders to fill I baked some more today.

My husband has the next 3 days off work and I will hand him the baby and bake as many cookies as I can till Sunday which is the last day I will be selling them at the temple. It will be your last chance to buy them. I won't bake them again until next Christmas. But maybe you do not mind waiting that long...

I guarentee you, they taste yummy!