Broiche for Father's Day: Part Two

OK, another early morning (such is the life of a baker) for the second part of Father's Day Brunch.  I figured it out around 11:30pm last night.  Rich coffee cake with sweet cheese and strawberry filling.  Maybe a struels topping and icing/glaze if I want everyone to go into a diabetic coma.

Sweet cheese filling is very much like cheese cake, with all the same ingredients but in different proportions.  Cream cheese, sugar (duh), vanilla, egg and this recipe called for a little flour and lemon zest. All that goes into a mixing bowl and gets beaten for a few minutes.  Then shove it into the fridge to chill - though it seems like it would be easier to spread at room temp.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Next the strawberry part of the filling.  First and foremost are the fresh strawberries picked from our backyard, compliments of my husband...Who also cleaned and hulled them.  (He's great!)  Then there's a little lemon juice, a few tablespoons of sugar and cornstarch to thickened.  Put that in a pot and stir, stir, stir until it's all hot and bubbly.  Transfer that to a bowl and chill thoroughly.

I'm eating my breakfast and waiting for everything to cool off.  Then comes the "fun" part.  Rolling out the broiche dough.  Wet and sticky but that buttery dough is so good once baked.  I can't wait.  Of course, I'll be trying something new today.  I'm going to attempt a braid.  It doesn't look difficult in the baking books but if you read yesterday's post you'll know that something is bound to go wrong.  We'll all have to wait and see.

The first time I made this recipe the dough was extremely wet.  It was such a sticky mess I had to call in my husband to dump more flour on it and help me out in general.  My hands were completely covered in the gooey stuff.  So this time I completely covered my hands, work surface and dough in a LOT of flour.  As evident in the above photo.

Of course, because it's never a dull moment or rather something always goes wrong...I rolled out the dough no problem, spread on the cream cheese no problem (Hey I'm doing well!).  Then I cut out my strips and start braiding.  Oh CRAP!  I forgot the strawberries!  Well, it's a good thing I was planning on making two of these things.  (that's how much cream cheese filling there was)  The next loaf went as planned.

The strawberries are such a color contrast I think it's really quite lovely.  Next is the topping.  Cinnamon and sugar (brown and white), some other spices.  Sprinkle all that goodness on top and bake.
The mistaken braid, I just put the strawberries on top and the cinnamon-sugar topping on top of that. And actually I think it looked AND tasted better.  I'll let you decide on the looks.

First the braid according to plan:

Both fillings on the inside and cin-sugar topping outside of braid. Looks OK, but nothing to write home about or start you salivating.  This photo was taken prior to baking.

This photo was taken after baking.  Still it's not that exciting.

Next is the mistaken loaf.

Cream cheese inside.
Braided.
Strawberries and cin-suage on the outside.

Maybe it's just me but I think this one looks better even before its bakes.

 Prior to baking

After baking.  Doesn't this look more tempting?  I think it's the red showing through that really draws your attention.  Also, the cin-sugar topping really brought out the sweet of the strawberries.  Here's to mistakes!  Another happy discovery.