Strawberry Cheesecake Babka!
Remember that cinnamon swirl bread you would get as a treat when you were little? Well imagine that, but a million times more delicious! You can fill your babka with all sorts of different fillings, if you want to make it with a cinnamon bun filling you can get that cinnamon swirl bread flavour, the most common flavour is chocolate, but today we are making STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE! For that we are filling a rich brioche dough with a cheesecake layer, as well as strawberry jam.
So fluffy and buttery!
Strawberry Cheesecake Babka
Yield: 1 loaf (8”x4” loaf pan or an 8” round cake pan)
Once dough is on it’s final proof in the loaf pan, Preheat the oven to 350*F
Brioche Dough:
2 1/4 cup Flour
2 teaspoons Yeast
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup Milk, warm
2/3 cup Butter, soft
Cheesecake Filling:
1/2 cup Cream Cheese (4 oz.), soft
pinch Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Sour cream
1/4-1/2 cup Strawberry jam (or whatever flavour you like!)
Glaze (optional):
1 Tablespoon Apricot Jam
2 teaspoons Water
In the bowl of your mixer stir together the brioche dry ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and sugar
Add the eggs and milk to your dry ingredients, then mix with a dough hook for about 6 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, and is in a ball around the hook.
Now with the mixer running, slowly add the soft butter about 1 tablespoon at a time. toss in one small piece of butter, then let it knead into the dough before adding another piece. This will take about 10 minutes to do, to get the butter incorporated, ending with a sticky soft dough.
Plop the dough into a greased bowl and let it proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until doubled.
While the dough is proofing, stir together all your cheesecake filling ingredients except for the jam. Then set to the side at room temperature.
Once dough has relaxed pop it onto a floured counter and roll into a large rectangle about 10”x15”
Smear your cheesecake filling on top of the rectangle leaving about 1” of dough without filling on the top edge.
Next smear on your strawberry jam on top of the cheesecake layer.
Now roll your dough up like a cinnamon bun. Once you have rolled up the entire dough, pinch together the top edge.
Using a large sharp knife slice the log right down the middle so you end up with two long wormies of dough.
Now grab one log and lift it over the other log and then continue until you have a “rope” sort of braid looking log of dough. Try to keep the cut side of each log facing the top so we can see all the exposed layers from the top. Pinch together the ends.
Now place your dough into a greased loaf or cake pan. This is a little messy, but just do your best to get it all in there!
Cover with saran wrap and let your dough proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until doubled.
Preheat your oven to 350*F
Once you bread is proofed, remove the saran wrap and pop into the oven for 40-60 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when stabbed into it.
When your loaf comes out of the oven you can paint the top with a little bit of apricot jam thinned out with warm water. This isn’t necessary, but add a little shine!
Now enjoy!