Cherry and chocolate buns

Cherry and chocolate buns are simply irresistible. You already know how well cherries and chocolate work together – there was no way these could be missing here. I had to wait a little for good cherries (I rely on deliveries to local Polish shops), but it was absolutely worth it. I won’t say how many my husband managed to eat… but let’s just say they’re very hard to resist ;).

Makes 12 buns.

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 the dried yeast (or prepare a starter if using fresh yeast). 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 1½ hours).

Roll out the dough into a rectangle roughly 40 × 30 cm, lightly dusting with flour if needed. Brush with melted butter, then sprinkle with the sugar mixed with cocoa and cinnamon, followed by grated chocolate. Arrange the cherries evenly over the top (see filling below). Roll up tightly along the longer side to form a log. Cut into 12 equal slices (about 3–3.5 cm each) using a sharp knife or thread. Place on a lined baking tray, cover and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes, until puffed.

Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly. Drizzle with icing while still a little warm.

Ingredients for the cherry chocolate filling:

• 80 g butter, melted
• 60 g soft brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 60 g chocolate (dark, milk, or a mix)
• 700 g cherries (up to 800 g if you can fit them!)

Stone the cherries. Mix the brown sugar with cocoa and cinnamon. Grate the chocolate.

Ingredients for the icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons boiling water

Mix together until smooth, adjusting the consistency with more water or icing sugar 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!