Black Forest Cherry Buns

I love Black Forest Cake with moist chocolate layer cake, cherry pie filling and tons of fresh whip cream.  It really is an old fashion, wonderful cake and should be made more often by home bakers.  I will be making my version soon and posting it.

This bun is in honor of that wonderful cake.  They are perfect for breakfast or brunch.  They are not overly sweet like cinnamon buns.  They are just right.  Love them with a good cup of strong coffee.  Enjoy!

 Beautiful!

 Ready to be rolled jelly roll style

Dough Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
4 T. melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 room temperature egg
pinch salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
3 cups all purpose flour and  a little extra to form dough into ball

Filling Ingredients:
1 large can of cherry pie filling (I used Comstock)
Chocolate Cake Crumbled about 3 cups (recipe below) or 3 large cupcakes

Icing Glaze
Powder Sugar 1 cup
Add about 2 T. heavy cream or a little more to make
a thick paste that is able to drizzle from a spoon

In a glass measuring cup slightly heat water and milk about 5 to 10 seconds in microwave.  You should be able to put your finger in the milk and it should be slightly warm.  Add from the 1/2 cup sugar, one teaspoon sugar and add to the milk/water mixture.  Stir well.  Add yeast and stir well.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to activate yeast about 5 minutes.  When yeast is bubbly your ready to go. 

In a food processor, add flour, salt, melted butter, egg and milk/yeast/water mixture.  Process, you may have to add a little extra flour to bring the dough together into a ball.  It should be a soft dough ball.  You can do this whole procedure by hand or using a heavy duty stand mixer.  I love doing it in my 14 cup food processor.  It is super fast. 

Grease a big bowl with butter or oil and place dough into bowl.  Must cover with plastic wrap and place in warm spot, preferably. Let rest until double in bulk about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours.  Punch down, and let rise another 1/2 hour.  Your ready to roll the dough.  On a lightly floured surface roll dough into a rectangle about 16x22.  Place 1 can of ready made cherry pie filling, and add crumble up chocolate cake.  I used about 3 large Texas size chocolate cupcakes.  Roll the dough from the long side like a jelly roll.  Slice into 1 1/2 inch slices.  Place into a well greased pan, I used 11x15.    Cover with plastic wrap and let double in size about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Bake at a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  Let cool in pan for about 30 minutes and drizzle with icing. 

My favorite Chocolate Cake
1 cup strong coffee
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

In a Pyrex bowl.  Add coffee, sugar, chocolate chips, butter and microwave until every thing is melted.  You can do this in a sauce pan.  Add flour baking soda and mix well with a whisk.  Add egg quickly and whisk.  You must do this quickly as to not cook the egg. Add vanilla and mix.  I used a large Texas size muffin pan, lined with paper liners.  Place in preheated oven 350 degrees.  Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until done.  Make about 6 large cupcake or 12 regular.  You will have a few left over from this recipe, but freeze them for next time or just enjoy an extra sweet treat. 

 Dig in!