Sharp and zesty lemon curd, creamy smooth soft cheese all wrapped up in a super soft and puffy dough. This bake has it all when it comes to flavour and texture. It’s a beautiful all-in-one dessert. It may look complicated, but it’s extremely easy to make.
The three elements are made with simple recipes. The cream cheese part of the filling only needs to be mixed together. The lemon curd is cooked in a pan to a certain temperature and then cooled down. And the dough is made without kneading or folding. To simplify it even further you could replace the lemon curd with some type of jam.
Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.
Ingredients
For the cream cheese filling –
20g (0.7oz) flour
10g (0.35oz) lemon juice
30g (1oz) sugar
180g (6.4oz) full fat cream cheese
For the lemon curd –
50g (1.75oz) lemon juice
1 medium egg (50g; 1.75oz)
50g (1.75oz) sugar
Zest off all the lemons
25g (0.9oz) butter
For the dough –
90g (3.2oz) milk
30g (1oz) yogurt
4g (0.14oz) instant dry yeast or 4.8g (0.17oz) active dry yeast or 12g (0.42oz) fresh yeast
6g (0.21oz) salt
1 egg (50g; 1.75oz)
20g (0.7oz) butter
20g (0.7oz) sugar
6g (0.21oz) vanilla paste
300g (10.6oz) white bread flour
To top –
1 egg for glazing
Pearl sugar for decoration
To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.
The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration.
If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.
If you are curious about why the dough contains butter, egg, and sugar, click the links to learn more about the effects those ingredients have on bread dough.
Method
- Make the cream cheese filling. In a bowl combine the sugar, lemon juice, flour, and cream cheese. Mix until smooth. Cover and leave in the fridge for later.
- Make the lemon curd. In a small pan combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, and egg. Whisk together. Cook on medium – high heat whisking occasionally. Bring it up to a temperature of between 75C – 80C (167F – 176F). As soon as it hits that temperature take it off the heat. Whisk in the butter. Pour the curd in a bowl, cover and refrigerate it until completely cold.
- Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the milk, yogurt, yeast, salt, egg, butter, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well. Add the flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 24C (75F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer. Adjust fermentation time accordingly.
- Cover and ferment for 1.5 hours.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape into balls. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Shape and fill the dough.
- Place the shaped loaves on a non-stick paper lined baking tray.
- Cover and proof for 1 hour.
- Glaze with egg, leave to dry for 5 minutes and glaze again. Decorate.
- Bake at 170C (340F) fan on or 190C (375F) fan off for 25 minutes.
Leave to cool down completely and then tuck in!
Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.
Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.
