I love cherries.
But I waffled about this for a loooong time before I decided what to bake.
I had some dried cherries, but as much as I like them, they weren't calling out to me to bake them.
I thought I had some frozen cherries left, but if there actually was a package left in the freezer, those had been divvied up in pie-sized portions, which is way too much for bread.
Fresh cherries aren't in season yet, and I'm not fond of pitting them, anyway.
I could have bought pie filling.
And then...
Ooooh. I spied the open jar of Luxardo maraschino cherries in the fridge. They're a dark-red cherry, unlike the neon-red ones that are more common. They're a lot like Amareno cherries, actually. As soon as I thought of those cherries, the other half of the puzzle fell into place.
The bready part of the puzzle.
I decided to do swirled sweet rolls. And then I decided that almond extract would be good in the
dough.
And then I decided to do an overnight rise in the refrigerator. This isn't something I do all the time, but since it's the theme of my book, Make Ahead Bread, it's something I do when the mood strikes.
morning and have them at a reasonable hour.
If you don't have Luxardo or Amareno cherries, use what you have or what you like. Even a thick cherry jam would be good.
Since this is a rich dough, I used the Red Star platinum yeast, but if you don't have that, their active dry would be my next choice. Instant is a distant third, but would probably be fine.
If you use a different brand of active dry yeast, let it mingle with the water for a few minutes to soften before you start the mixing. If you don't, you risk having small pellets of yeast embedded in your dough.
Cherry Swirl Overnight Sweet Rolls
co-starring almond extract
Makes 12 rolls
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star Platinum yeast
2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 ounces) bread flour
2 tablespoons buttermilk powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup Luxardo Maraschino cherries or Amarena cherries, chopped
Powdered sugar drizzle (optional)
Combine the water, sugar, yeast, flour, buttermilk powder, salt, and extracts in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. (In theory, you can knead this by hand, but kneading a half-stick of butter into dough by hand isn't really fun. But, you can do it if it's your only choice.)
Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add the butter and continue kneading until it is completely incorporated and the dough is smooth and shiny.
Cover the bowl and set aside until doubled in size, about an hour.
Flour your work surface and spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray. Or, you can smear it with some softened butter, if you like.
Turn the dough out and roll it to a 12x12-inch square. Spread the chopped cherries onto the dough, leaving a inch uncovered on the far end.
Roll the dough - not too tightly - jellyroll style toward that uncovered end. Pinch the seam to seal that uncovered end to the roll you've created.
Cut the roll into 12 equal slices (I cut it half, cut the halves in half, then cut three pieces from each section.)
Place the slices, with a cut side upward, in the pan. There will be some space between them. Cover the pan with plastic wrap (I have a 9x13 baking pan with a plastic cover - this is one of my favorite pieces of baking equipment - highly recommended) and refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.
When you're ready to bake, take the rolls out of the refrigerator and heat the oven to 325 degrees.
At this point, the buns should be fully risen, but if they're slacking, you can let them sit around at room temperature for a while to finish rising. I noticed that some of the juice had leaked out of the cherries and had created a little puddle in the bottom of the pan. To keep that from burning - which would have made me really mad - I put the pan on a baking sheet for a little more bottom insulation, and I also baked the buns in the upper portion of the oven.
Bake until the buns are nicely browned and - if you're not sure if they're done - they reach an internal temperature - in the bread, not the cherries - of 195 degrees. Figure that this will take about 35 minutes, but check them sooner and allow for a few extra minutes, if required.
Remove the pan from the oven and remove the buns from the pan to cool on rack.
When the buns are cool, you can drizzle them with a powdered sugar icing drizzle - just mix powdered sugar with a small amount of water, milk, or cream, until it's a pourable consistency. It doesn't take a lot of water, so start with a little and add more as needed.
Drizzle the buns with the icing and serve.
#TwelveLoaves June: Cherries
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and it runs smoothly with the help of our friends. Thanks to the wonderful Renee Dobbs and Liz Berg for their help this month!
If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do:
- When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
- Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
- Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this June, 2014, and posted on your blog by June 30, 2014.
Buns with Cherries and Beetroot wrapped in Bacon from Luisa of Rise of the Sourdough Preacher
Cherry-Almond Focaccia from Lora of Cake Duchess
Cherry Almond Sweet Rolls from Renee of Magnolia Days
Cherry Almond Twists from Dionne of Try Anything Once Culinary
Cherry English Muffins from Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories
Cherry Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins from Alice of Hip Foodie Mom
Cherry Cream Cheese Danish from Heather of girlichef
Cherry Oatmeal Muffins from Kathya of Basic N Delicious
Cherry Quick Bread from Holly of A Baker's House
Cherry Sweet Bread Twist from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
Cherry Swirl Overnight Sweet Rolls from Donna of Cookistry
Double Cherry Muffins from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins with Streusel Topping from Sherron of Simply Gourmet
Dried Cherry and Mahlab Scones from Felice of All That's Left Are the Crumbs
Sweet Cherry Rolls with Almond Cream Cheese Glaze from Renee of Kudos Kitchen by Reneé