We got the idea for this monkey bread from a recipe that we found on our friend Linda Kilbride’s site, Recipe Goldmine. We thought our Swedish Vanilla Almond Bread would be a great starting point for this monkey bread. We drained the juice from the maraschino cherries and added that to the liquid for the bread. The result was a nice pink color in a cherry almond bread with a sticky glaze.
4 cups bread flour
1 seven gram instant yeast packet
1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup combination juice, water and egg
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoons salt
1/4 cups dry milk
2 tablespoons potato flour
1/2 teaspoon dough conditioner
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon cherry flavor
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
red food coloring (optional)
1/3 cups finely chopped slivered almonds
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1. Place two cups of flour in the mixing bowl of your stand-type mixer. Add the yeast.
2. Drain the maraschino cherries saving the juice from the cherries. Place the juice in a two-cup measuring cup. Add the egg. Add enough water to bring the mixture to the 1 1/2 cup mark. With a fork, whisk the mixture until combined and then heat the mixture in the microwave to 110 degrees.
3. Add the warm water-egg-juice mixture to the flour in the bowl and beat with a dough hook for about one minute to hydrate the yeast.
4. Add the rest of the flour, the sugar, salt, dry milk, potato flour, dough conditioner, and nutmeg. Add the 1/4 cup melted butter and almond, cherry, and vanilla extracts. With the dough hook and at medium speed, mix for four minutes or until the dough is well developed. Add the optional food coloring to get the shade desired. Remove to a large greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, one hour to 1 1/2 hours.
5. For the glaze, finely chop 1/3 cup slivered almonds. (A nut chopper or mezzaluna works well for this.) Add the granulated and brown sugars and mix. Use scissors to snip the cherries into pieces.
6. Melt the 1/2 cup butter and set aside. Coarsely chop the 1/2 cup slivered almonds. Place about 1/2 the coarsely chopped nuts and 1/2 the cherries in the bottom of a bundt pan.
7. Lightly flour a work area on a clean counter. Press the dough into a disk. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into walnut-sized chunks. Dip the chunks in the melted butter and then in the nut and sugar mixture. Place the coated chunks in a bundt pan. After a layer of chunks are in the pan, sprinkle about 1/4 of the cherries and coarsely chopped nuts over the dough in the pan. Continue coating chunks. After another layer, sprinkle the reminder of cherries and coarse nuts over the dough. Coat and place the rest of the chunks. If you have any left over butter or sugar mixture, pour it over the dough. Cover the pan and let the bread rise until doubled.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes or until it tests done with an internal temperature of 190 degrees. (Cover with aluminum foil the last ten minutes to avoid over-browning.) After five minutes, invert the bread on a large plate or serving platter. Serve warm.
