SUMMER CHEESE, BERRIES & STREUSEL YEASTED CAKE

Written By Lenka Dhoju

Grandma’s recipe for the most delicious, juicy one-pan cake - yeasted dough topped with sweet farmer’s cheese and juicy, cinnamon & sugar tossed tart fruit 

Dough

  • 200g Flour, plain (option to sub part of the plain flour with spelt flour)

  • 120g Milk, any kind, room temperature

  • 50g Butter, unsalted and very soft

  • 12g Yeast, fresh / 4g active dry

  • 30g Sugar

  • 1 Egg yolk

  • A pinch of salt

  • Zest from 1 small lemon

Cheese Filling

  • 250g Farmer’s cheese

  • 1 Egg yolk

  • 5g Corn starch

  • 40g Sugar

Streusel

  • 30g Butter, sofetned

  • 30g Sugar

  • 50g Flour

Other

  • 400g Berries (or sub with favorite tart stone fruit/ or juicy fruit in season)

  1. Dough: In a small bowl combine 50g warm milk with 10g sugar. Add 12g fresh or 4g dry yeast and stir with a spoon. Cover with a plate/ plastic wrap and let yeasts activate for 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, combine all the remaining dry ingredients for the dough in a bigger bowl or bowl of stand mixer - 200g flour, remaining 20g sugar, lemon zest and salt. Stir well. Pour the remaining 70g of warm milk, add 1 egg yolk, 50g butter and now frothy yeast mixture. Knead the dough either with your hand first in a bowl then on a counter or with a hook attachment for 8-10 minutes. Then cover the dough with a clean towel and let it rest and rise at room temperature for approximately 45-60 minutes or until almost double in size. Covering the bowl with a blanket will keep it warmer & speed up the proving process

  2. Farmer’s cheese filling: For the filling combine all ingredients in a bowl – 250g farmer’s cheese, 40g sugar, 5g corn starch and egg yolk. Stir well and set aside 

  3. Streusel topping: In a bowl combine 30g softened butter with 30g of sugar and 50g flour. Mix everything roughly with your fingertips to get a crumbly texture. Option – you can add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to your streusel as well

  4. Prep fruit: Coat or toss berries in sugar and cinnamon - up to your taste and according to their sweetness/ ripeness. Grease your baking pan (I used square 8x8 inch/ 20 x 20 cm size pan) with butter and line it with parchment paper. Spread and press your proved dough evenly into the pan using your fingers or roll it out using a rolling pin. Top the dough with prepared cheese filling and top it with berries. Finally, sprinkle everything with prepared streusel. Bake the cake at 180°C/ 360° F for about 30 minutes. Cool before slicing

Lenka Dhoju
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