This delicious cherry bread recipe is quick and so much easier than traditional homemade bread! Each bite is packed with sweet cherries and topped with an almond cherry glaze.
1-2drops cherry extract or 1 tablespoon maraschino juice
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, almond extract, vanilla, vegetable oil, milk, cherry juice, eggs, and sour cream. Whisk to combine well.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.
Drain maraschino cherries from the rest of the juice (you’ve already used ¼ cup of the juice in the bread batter) and coarsely chop the cherries into halves and/or quarters.
Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of the flour mixture over the cherries and toss to combine.
Stir the remaining flour mixture into the milk/eggs mixture. Stir just until wet and dry ingredients are combined - lumps and streaks of flour in the batter are fine.
Gently fold the cherries into the batter to distribute evenly, but do not overmix.
Pour batter into a greased or parchment-lined 9x5 loaf pan.
Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cover bread with aluminum foil after 45 minutes to prevent it from over-browning on top.
Remove from the oven and cool. (You can turn the bread out onto a wire cooling rack after it has cooled for an initial 10 minutes in the pan.)
Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the bread. The glaze will set, dry to the touch after about 30 minutes.
Notes
Storage: Wrap bread tightly with plastic wrap. Store on the countertop for 3-4 days or freeze for up to 1 month.Notes:The cherry juice will color the bread a pinkish/peach tint. For more color, you can add a couple of drops of red food coloring.You can find cherry extract at most grocery stores if you’d like to add additional cherry flavoring (and a bit more color). Use in addition to or instead of the vanilla extract. The almond extract is perfect with the maraschino cherries. You can add almond extract to the glaze for more flavor, too.Tossing the cherries in the flour will help them to remain suspended throughout the batter as it cooks instead of sinking to the bottom.