It’s a lovely Estonian-style cake, since as we all know, rye bread and curd cheese aren’t exactly common abroad. With its homely local flavors, it’s a perfect fit for midsummer celebrations. The cake itself is simple to make — the only thing to pay real attention to is toasting the bread cubes properly in the oven and letting them dry out completely. If the cubes stay soft, the crumb won’t come together as nicely.
For crushing the hard bread cubes, you’ll need a sturdy food processor — a hand blender attachment probably won’t cut it. But if you don’t have a processor, a strong potato masher or mortar and pestle will do just fine. It’ll just take a bit longer — but look at it this way: you’ll get an arm workout and pre-burn the cake calories. Win-win.
Rye Crumb Curd Cake with Blueberries
Ingredients
Preparation
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Cut the bread into cubes and toast in the oven at 160°C for about 45–60 minutes, or until the cubes are completely hard and dry, stirring occasionally. Place the dried cubes in a food processor and blend until fine crumbs form. Add the coconut sugar and melted butter, and mix well. Set aside 6 tablespoons of the crumb mixture in a small bowl — you’ll use it to sprinkle on top of the cake later.
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Preheat the oven to 180°C. For the filling, mix together the curd cheese, eggs, cinnamon, and agave syrup. Rinse the blueberries. Line a 26 cm round cake pan with parchment paper and assemble the layers: first press the rye crumb base into the bottom, then pour over the curd filling, and finally scatter the blueberries on top. Gently press the berries into the filling with your fingers.
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Bake the cake at 180°C for 45–55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes.
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Before serving, sprinkle the reserved rye crumbs on top of the cooled cake.
Note
*This amount equals about 310 g of rye crumbs or roughly 17 slices of bread.
