A beautifully soft and fluffy yeast cake, filled with curd cheese filling and juicy cranberries, shaped into an elegant braid. It smells incredible while baking, tastes even better, and simply melts in your mouth. If you prefer, you can swap the icing for a classic crumble topping. A perfect recipe for anyone who loves traditional sweet curd cheese buns!
Ingredients for soaked cranberries:
- 80 g dried cranberries
- 40 ml orange or apple juice
Place the cranberries in a small saucepan and pour over the juice. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and set aside for about 1 hour, or until the liquid has been absorbed. If any liquid remains, drain and pat the cranberries dry.
Ingredients for the cheese filling:
- 500 g full-fat or semi-fat curd cheese, finely ground
- 125 g mascarpone
- 1 large egg (or 2 small)
- 90 g caster sugar
- 16 g vanillin sugar (or seeds from 1 vanilla pod)
Mix all ingredients until smooth. Stir in the soaked cranberries. If the filling is too loose, add 1–2 teaspoons of cornflour.
Ingredients for the yeast dough:
- 540 g strong white bread flour
- 80 g caster sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 g dried yeast (or 20 g fresh yeast)
- 75 g butter, melted
- 250 ml milk
- 2 large eggs
Mix the flour with dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, prepare a starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Place in a lightly floured bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).
Divide the dough into 2 portions and the filling into 2 parts. Roll each piece into a rectangle (approx. 30 x 22 cm). Spread with the cheese and cranberry filling, then roll up like a Swiss roll and gently flatten. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll lengthwise, leaving one end intact. Twist the strands together into a braid and seal the ends. Place into a greased and floured loaf tin (approx. 30 x 11 cm) and leave to rise again for about 40 minutes, or until doubled. Repeat with the second portion.
Preheat the oven to 175°C. Brush the risen loaves with beaten egg mixed with milk. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until golden. While still warm, drizzle with icing.
Ingredients for brushing:
- 1 egg + 1 tablespoon milk
Ingredients for icing:
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 3 – 4 tablespoons hot water
Mix until smooth, adjusting consistency as needed.
Method for bread machine users:
Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.
Enjoy!
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