Maraschino Cherry Almond Bread

While cleaning out my kitchen cupboards, I found an unopened jar of maraschino cherries. It was certainly odd to find them as I don’t use them regularly, so I spent a little while trying to figure out why I’d bought them. Was it for Christmas baking? No. Maybe for garnishing my Shirley Temples … pause here for you to regain your composure from laughing … no to that too.

With no recollection of why I had these cherries, I had a look around to find a way to use them up. I found this recipe for Maraschino Cherry Almond Bread to try. Will I need to replenish my stock of maraschino cherries? Let’s see how it went.

So! The cherries.

Maraschino cherries.

Which were chopped coarsely.

Coarsely chopped cherries.

The butter and sugar were creamed together.

Butter and sugar were creamed together.

Then the eggs were added, one at a time.

One egg added.

The other egg is added in and there’s a whatfoodimade action shot™ to show what that looked like.

All the eggs are added and beaten.

Happily, while cleaning out the cupboards I found some almond extract.
(I think it’s almond extract.)

Almond extract?

The flour, baking powder cherries and cherry juice are all added and mixed.
The batter is pink!

Pink loaf batter.

Here’s the batter loaded into a 9′ x 5″ loaf pan.

Getting ready to be baked.

This is what it looked like when it came out to the oven.

Maraschino Cherry Almond Bread.

And here is the loaf, served. I would make it again, despite the colour, so I’m adding maraschino cherries to my shopping list.

Slices of maraschino cherry almond bread.

Here’s the original recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Maraschino-Cherry-Almond-Bread

Maraschino Cherry Almond Bread

Ingredients

1 (10 ounce size) jar maraschino cherries
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Drain cherries, reserving juice; add enough water to juice to measure 1/2 cup. Chop cherries coarsely; blot dry and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with reserved juice. Fold in cherries.

Pour into a greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.