Yeast cake with curd cheese filling

One of my favourite recipes for a yeast cake. This recipe makes a large tray of delicious yeasted cake. This yeast cake with curd cheese filling combines elements of my yeast cake with plum butter and curd cheese buchteln. I wanted to incorporate the idea of adding whipped egg whites to the curd cheese filling, which keeps the filling close to the dough and prevents the characteristic hollow spaces from forming. Remember that the curd cheese used for this cake should be good quality. This cake is simply delicious!

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 750 g strong white bread flour
• 2 large eggs
• 300 ml milk
• 90 g caster sugar
• 8 g vanillin sugar
• 100 g butter, melted
• 1 tsp salt
• 12 g dried yeast or 24 g fresh yeast

Additionally:

• 2 tbsp milk, for brushing the dough

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter – instructions here). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for long enough to make a soft and elastic dough. Place in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Once risen, remove the dough from the bowl and knead briefly. Divide it into 2 portions. Roll each portion into a rectangle approximately 4 mm thick and 38 cm long. Spread with the curd cheese filling and roll up into a log. Repeat with the second portion of dough. Place the two rolls in a 25 × 38 cm baking tin lined with baking paper, leaving some space between them. Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size; the rolls should almost touch each other. Once risen, use a sharp knife to make a cut along the centre of each roll, almost down to the base of the tin. Leave until the rolls spread out to the sides and fill the tin. Just before baking, brush with milk and sprinkle with crumble topping.

Bake at 180°C, for about 50 minutes, or longer if necessary, until fully baked. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Ingredients for the curd cheese filling:

• 650 g full-fat or semi-fat curd cheese, ground three times
• 90 g caster sugar
• 8 g vanillin sugar or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• 3 large eggs, separated

Place the curd cheese, both sugars and the egg yolks in a bowl and mix together with a spoon. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold them into the curd cheese mixture just before spreading the filling over the dough.

Ingredients for the crumble topping:

• 100 g butter, melted
• 20 tbsp plain flour
• 8 tbsp caster sugar
• 8 g vanillin sugar

Rub all the ingredients together with your fingertips until a crumble forms.

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!