Cheesecake Buns with Cherry Compote

These pillowy soft, fluffy buns are made with enriched yeasted dough, filled with labneh and topped with an easy cherry compote. Pure temptation in every bite! Labneh is a thick and creamy strained yoghurt. You can also use other type of fresh cheeses (Quark, cream cheese or ricotta) for the recipe. Instead of compote, you can also top them with some homemade jam. They are so easy to make and so versatile that you can use so many fruits and flavourings.

Dough	Labneh Filling	Cherry Compote
160 ml Milk, at room temperature 45 g Sweetened condensed milk 25 g Sugar 4 g Active dry yeast 350 g Plain flour 1/3 tsp Sea salt 40 g Butter, softened 1 Egg yolk+1 tbsp Milk for glaze 1 tsp Icing sugar	100 g Labneh 20 g Heavy cream 1 tbsp Cornstarch 2 tbsp Powdered sugar ½ Egg A few drops of vanilla extract	250 g Fresh cherries, stoned 2 tbsp Sugar 1 tsp Cornstarch 1 tsp Fresh lemon juice

Shaping A

Shaping B

In the bowl of your mixer, whisk together milk, condensed milk, sugar and dry yeast. Add in flour, salt and softened butter. Mix at slow speed until the dough has roughly come together. Increase the speed and knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Cover and set aside to proof for 2 hours until doubled in volumn.
For the filling, mix all the ingredients until smooth.
For the compote, place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved and cherries soften and release their cherry juice, about 15 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool.
Grease a 6-jumbo-cup muffin tin. Set aside.
Turn out the dough onto a clean work surface and divide 2/3 of the dough into 6 even portions of dough, each about 80-82 grams. Shape each portion of dough into a ball. Place them into the prepared muffin tin. Lightly press them down.
Divide the remaining 1/3 of the dough into 12 portions, each about 20-22 grams. Roll each into a rope. Braid two ropes and pinch the ends together. Place it one the top of dough. Alternatively, divide the dough into 8 even portions, roll each portion of dough into a ball. Use a rolling pin to roll each dough ball into 16-18cm round. Cut the round at an angle for 7-8 times, then tuck one dough strip under another to form a wreath. Fill the center with prepared filling and top with a teaspoon of homemade jam.
Divide the labneh filling among the muffins. Brush the sides with the egg glaze. Set aside for 30 minutes until they are slightly puffy.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Bake the buns in the middle of hot oven for 22-25 minutes until golden.
Remove and cool the buns in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack. Spoon some cherry compote over and dust the sides with icing sugar.