I’ve done a number of things from the “The Children’s Book of Baking Bread”. There was one with jam and cheese in it and I wanted to make it from the first time I saw it.
A note here: if it has eggs in it, it’s a cake to me, not bread. That’s why I also treat challah (well, maybe I could hesitate here) and brioche as a cake. Some of them could fall under my own third category. In Polish we have a term “drożdżówka” (pronounced “drosh-joov-kah”, more or less) which simply is a sweet roll made with yeasted dough. These are usually smaller than regular cakes, a single serving size. If it’s bigger, it’s a cake.
By the way, all the UK people, go to your local Polish shop and ask for a drożdżówka. You’ll get a +10 to your foreign language skills and have something delicious to enjoy with your tea.
I walked into the kitchen wanting to make a cake and there was a collision in there. Gosia wanted to make a cake as well and her idea was similar to mine, so when I saw she was about to change her plans, I challenged her to a cake duel. This is the outcome.
Cakes comparison
The cake I chose was a simple one, some dough, some cheese, some jam, some braiding, some baking. Since it’s spring and it feels wrong not to use fresh fruit, I decided to use fresh strawberries. Also, instead of cream cheese I used an only proper cheese, twaróg (tvah-roog, with a rolling “r” and a phonic “g”).
As mentioned, the recipe comes from “The Children’s Book of Baking Bread” (sources).
Time Planning
About 2.5 hours is needed for kneading, proofing and baking, but you should also remember that the ingredients should be in room temperature – take them out of the fridge a couple hours before you begin. Cold ingredients will mean you’ll need more time for kneading.
Prepare a round baking tin and line it with baking parchment.
Yes, I didn’t read the recipe and threw everything into a bowl. Cold. Gosia told me to get it kneaded with a mixer and it would be ok. She saved my cake.
Ingredients
The dough
425 g strong white wheat flour
50 g sugar
4 g (1.5 teaspoon) instant yeast
50 g butter
200 g milk
1 egg
Filling
150 g semi-skimmed quark
20 g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
several strawberries (prepare more, you’ll have some to eat while waiting for the cake)
Instructions
Pour half of the milk into a saucepan and add butter to it. Put it on low heat until the butter melts. Take it off the heat and add the rest of milk
Whisk the egg and add to a bowl with dry dough ingredients
Add milk & butter. Mix till it all forms a dough, then knead for about 10 minutes. Or leave it to your mixer for some 6-7 minutes
Cover with cling film and leave for an hour to rise
In the meantime mix the quark, vanilla extract and sugar to form a rather dry paste
Use a rolling pin or your hands (for a less level result) and make a rectangle 250 mm x 300 mm. Place it on the baking parchment, on the tray. From the corners on your left hand side cut out squares 4 cm x 4 cm. Next, cut out a bit more – a right triangle with 4 cm and 2 cm sides. In result, you’ve cut out a trapezium. From the corners on the right hand side cut out trapeziums with the bases of 2 cm and 4 cm and 4 cm of height. You’ll be left with two wings up and down and two margins left and right. Cut the wings 11 times, creating 12 strips to braid.
Dough cut-out
The dough you've cut out can be used to make small rolls. I left it for my kids to get creative
Kids’ bakes
Spread the cheese in the middle, more or less taking up 15 x 20 cm. Put halved strawberries on it
Filling in place
First, fold the side margins – you can stretch them a bit so that they are thinner. Next start braiding the wing strips alternately from up and down
Braided cake
Cover the cake with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes
About 15 minutes before baking set the oven to 190 C degrees without a fan. Know your oven
Bake for 25 minutes, until it catches a nice colour. Be careful not to overbake it which I have done
I was expecting strawberries to release some juice, but I was surprised to see it flow from the cake onto the parchment. It’s not really a problem, just an observation.
Yeast cake with strawberries and quark cheese
Using strawberries was a spot-on. They were very tasty, very aromatic. I think I also used less sugar then I would add with jam.
The verdict
There is one great disadvantage with such a challenge: you have a cake at home for five days and we’ve seen ants coming from the garden. They disappeared when we ate the last piece.
Our cakes side by side
Gosia: Tomek’s cake was delicious, not too sweet, but the sweetness of strawberries made it very good. It was more dense than mine and because of using the bread flour it felt more like a bun, not cake. The Quark and strawberries and a good idea for braiding – what more could you want? Even the kids chose his cake…
Tomek: I think Gosia’s cake was much more delicate and moist. How many times have you had a yeast cake at home that was nice and moist even five days after baking?
Cakes’ slices
You: What do you think? Which cake you’d enjoy more to a morning coffee? We’re waiting for your comments.
