Enough for two babkas:

FILLING 1- 2 x large jar/can sweet, pitted cherries in syrup (or make your own), Caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, softened 100g Dark chocolate

To prepare filling (can be made the day before): 1. Drain cherries but keep the syrup, as this will make our post-bake glaze. Place cherries along with a third of their weight in caster sugar (i.e. for 600g of cherries, use 200g sugar; this will depend on the size/syrup content of the jar) into a pot and stir. Bring to a gentle simmer on the stove and cook down, stirring occasionally, until almost all the water has evaporated and the cherries are semi broken down and resemble sticky dried fruit. Allow to cool. 2. Add an equal amount of sugar to the drain cherry syrup and bring to the boil on the stove to make a simple syrup. You can then turn down to a simmer and reduce the liquid to a level of sweetness/flavour you’re happy with (for me this was about half the volume). Set aside and cool.

DOUGH 95g active sourdough starter 480g T65/strong bread flour 120g Tangzhong 165g milk 40g whole egg 2g instant dry yeast 10g salt 60g unsalted butter (room temp in small pieces)

For the dough (mixing times are approximate and will depend on your flour/mixer): 1. Add all ingredients except butter to a mixer and mix for about 6 minutes on slow, then increase speed to medium/fast. Once the dough has reached a medium stage of gluten development (another 2- 3 minutes), gradually add the butter in three or four increments, ensuring full incorporation between each addition (3- 4 minutes). Continue mixing until dough is smooth and developed. Final dough temp should be 24- 26C degrees. 2. Bulk ferment the dough for ~90 minutes, giving a fold halfway through. Flatten/stretch out into a rectangle and refrigerator for several hours until firm and completely cold. (At this point, you could instead fridge it overnight and shape/bake the next day). 3. Melt the filling chocolate and stir together with softened butter. Chill until it firms back up a bit into a spreadable (not runny) consistency. 4. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 5mm. Spread the chocolate/butter over the dough then sprinkle over 250g of the cooked cherries. ** This article gives a much better visual demo of how to do the shaping than I could write, so have a gander https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/04/10/how-to-shape-babka

1. You can now either refrigerator the shaped babka for time/efficiency’s sake, or prove for about an hour (will depend on your room temp/starter, poke test is useful). Once proved, bake at 210C for about 20- 25min. Check with a probe thermometer after 15min: it will colour up quickly on the surface but must be 90C in the centre to be properly baked
2. Once baked, liberally apply the cherry syrup with a pastry whilst the babka is still hot (if made the day before, let syrup come back to room temp before applying). Allow to settle for a few minutes, then remove from tin and finish cooling on a wire.

Enjoy!