Sour Cherry Streusel Pastries

Brioche topped with a lemon cream filling, sour cherry compote, and sweet streusel, these Sour Cherry Streusel Pastries are perfect for summer.

Can you make these pastries in advance?

With almost all brioche dough, it tastes best eaten the day it is baked. That being said the dough itself can be prepped the night before, wrapped up in plastic and stored in the fridge overnight. This still allows the dough to rise but at a much slower rate meaning it won’t over proof and will be ready when you wake up in the morning!

Sour Cherries vs Sweet Cherries

Fresh sour cherries can be hard to find but they are my favorite when it comes to baking. Sweet cherries will make these pastries a bit too sweet. If you can’t find sour cherries you can also use raspberries, canned sour cherries, or cherry pie filling.

You may also like…

• Raspberry Apricot Coffee Cake
• Lemon Blueberry Streuseltaler
• Custard Pastry

Tips for making Sour Cherry Pastries

• If you can’t find fresh sour cherries, use canned sour cherries, cherry pie filling or raspberries.
• To cut down on time in the morning, you can make the dough the night before. Once the dough is fully kneaded and wrapped up on the quarter sized baking sheet, it can be kept in the fridge for anywhere from 1 hour to overnight. In the morning take the dough out of the fridge and continue with assembling!
• Adding the butter in after the dough comes together may seem counter intuitive and takes a moment to mix in but it allows the dough to create a bit of extra strength!
• When making yeasted dough, ensure that you allow your mixer to fully knead the dough, until it forms a smooth ball and the sides of the bowl are cleaned. This will happen twice while kneading the dough, once before the butter is added and once after.
• If you want smaller pastries you can always divide the dough into 10 portions instead of 8.
• Don’t be afraid to really squish down the center of the dough once puffy, the dough is strong and will puff up in the oven so make them bigger and thinner than you think.
• This recipe uses cream cheese and ricotta in the filling but just cream cheese will work too just add a little squeeze of lemon juice to thin it out a little.
• Bake the buns until the edges are just golden brown on top, all ovens and pans are different so always go based on look with these!

Ingredients

• Lemons: Lemon zest is used in the brioche dough and lemon juice is in the glaze to add flavor and tartness.
• All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for these! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
• Sugar: This recipe uses granulated sugar in the dough and streusel, and powdered sugar in the glaze.
• Yeast: In this recipe, instant yeast is used. However, if you are using active dry, simply whisk it in with the warm milk and let it sit for 10 minutes first and then add in the remaining ingredients.
• Salt: Fine sea salt is used to balance out the sweetness and enhance the flavors.
• Milk: The dough use milk as the liquid in the dough; however, it will also work with non-dairy milks such as almond milk.
• Eggs: I use standard large eggs from the store. There is one whole egg in the dough.
• Butter: The butter is used in the dough and the streusel! I recommend Kerrygold salted butter for this.
• Vanilla: A little vanilla extract is used in the dough and the streusel to enhance the flavors.
• Cream Cheese & Ricotta: This recipe uses cream cheese and ricotta in the filling but just cream cheese will work too just add a little squeeze of lemon juice to thin it out a little.
• Sour Cherries: The filling is made with fresh sour cherries but canned or cherry pie filling will work too!

How to make Sour Cherry Streusel Pastries.

Lemon Brioche

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the sugar and the zest of a lemon. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers until combined and fragrant.
• Add in the flour and yeast, and whisk to combine.
• Sprinkle in the salt. Then add in the egg, warm milk, and vanilla.
• Use a dough hook to knead everything together on medium low speed for 15 minutes until the dough has smooth edges and the bowl is clean.
• Add half of the butter in and knead again until incorporated (about 5 minutes). Add in the second half of the butter and knead once more until smooth. The dough should pass the window pane test *see notes section for more info.
• If baking same day, keep the dough in the bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap and place somewhere warm to rise.
• If prepping the dough the night before, line a quarter sized baking sheet with a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape the dough into a rough rectangle that is about an inch thick. Top the dough with another sheet of plastic wrap.
• Place the dough on the sheet pan into the fridge overnight.

Sour Cherry Filling

• Stem and pit the sour cherries.
• Add the cherries and brown sugar into a small pot. Heat the pot on the stove over low heat until the liquids start to release.
• Once actively bubbling, cook for another 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and cornstarch. Then stir in just enough water to create a smooth slurry.
• Pour the slurry into the bubbling cherries and stir to combine. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until bubbling.
• Remove from the heat and pour into a large shallow bowl to cool.
• The cherries need to be completely cooled before assembling the pastries.

Assemble Part 1

• Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
• Divide the proofed dough into 8 equal portions. Shape them into a smooth ball by first flattening out into a disk. Then bring the edges of the disk into the center in a clockwise direction. Flip the ball over so that the seam side is down and then twist the ball on the counter clockwise to create a smooth taught surface.
• Once all 8 have been turned into beautiful little dough balls, start with the first ball and use a rolling pin to roll it into a 4″ diameter circle.
• Stagger the circles on the lined baking sheet, it’s ok if they are close together but try to spread them out evenly.
• Set the baking sheet aside to allow the disks to get puffy.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.

Lemon Cream Cheese Ricotta Filling

• In a medium mixing bowl add in the cream cheese, salt, lemon zest, and ricotta.
• Beat or stir to combine. You don’t need it to be light and fluffy just completely mixed.

Streusel

• In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.
• Then add in the soft butter and vanilla. Use a fork or your fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until completely combined.

Assemble Part 2

• Once the dough circles are puffy, work one at a time. You want to almost make little pizzas where most of it is flat but with a 1/2″ border that stays puffy. The easiest way to do this is to lift them up and squish the dough in the center of each circle between your fingers to flatten and stretch it a bit.
• Make sure to leave a bit of a border but remember it’ll puff when you bake them so it’s ok to keep the border small.
• Evenly divide the cream filling between the pastries and use the back of a spoon to gently spread the filling into a flat layer in the well of each pastry.
• Top the cream filling with the cooled cherry filling.
• Last but not least crumble the streusel over the border of the pastries slightly overlapping with the edge of the cherry filling. You’ll need to press it down a little to get it to stick.
• Bake for 15 minutes in the hot oven. Then rotate 180 degrees and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• Once just barely golden brown, remove the pan from the oven and set on a rack to cool for 10 minutes while making the glaze.

Glaze

• While the roll cools, whisk together the lemon juice and powdered sugar to make a thick glaze.
• Spoon the lemon glaze over the top of the pastries.
• Serve warm! Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

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