Strawberry Babka

Equipement:

• Stand mixer with a dough hook attachment

• Handmixer

• 35cm x 11.5cm bread tin

Ingredients:

A. Tangzhong:

• 30g flour

• 70g full fat milk

B. Bread dough:

• Tangzhong

• 250g bread flour

• 5g instant yeast

• 7g salt

• 10g sugar

• 1 egg

• 75g full fat milk

• 60g room temp and cubed butter

C. Strawberry butter filling:

• 100g fresh strawberries

• 5g cinnamon

• 100g soft butter

• 50g brown sugar

• 100g sliced fresh berries of your choice

Toppings:

• Fresh berries

• Honey

• Pouring cream

Method:

1. Make your Tangzhong by placing all of your ingredients in a pot on medium heat and whisk until the mixture resembles mash potatoes.

2. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to cool.

3. Once cool, in a bowl with a dough hook attachment, add all your bread ingredients, except for the butter.

4. On a low speed, knead these ingredients for about 12 - 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

5. Continuing on a low speed, add your butter cubes one cube at a time. Only add the next cube when the previous cube has been incorporated into the dough.

6. Once all the butter has been added, continue kneading for another 10 mins or until the dough has passed the window pane test. To do this, take a small piece of dough and stretch it as far as you can with your fingers. If it stretches till thin that light can pass through, you can stop kneading.

7. Shape the dough into a ball, place into a bowl and cover. Leave to proof until doubled in size.

8. To make your strawberry butter, add all of your ingredients, except your sliced berries, in a bowl, and blitz with a hand mixer. Leave in the fridge to cool but not harden. The butter must be a spreadable consistency. It will look like its split, don't worry.

9. Once your dough has proofed, roll it out to the same length of your tin and triple the width.

10. Spread your cooled butter over the entirety of the surface of the dough and sprinkle your fresh berries on the one side.

11. Roll the dough along the width, into a large cigar.

12. With a sharp knife, cut the cigar in half down the centre of the dough (lengthwise) and turn the open faces upward.

13. Twist each half of the cigar over each other (plait them).

14. Stick the two tops and bottoms to each other so that the spiral is secure and sealed.

15. In your greased bread tin, place the plaited dough inside (push the plait tighter to fit into the bread tin if needed) and proof for 2 hours.

16. Pre heat the oven to 180C (convection) and bake for 25 - 30 mins.

17. Take out of the oven, brush with some honey and once cooled decorate with fresh berries.