Guava-Cherry Loaf

When sweet dark cherries are abundant, we make a lot of sweet cherry loaf in this house, as my husband loooooveees dark cherries so much.

Sweet loaf is known as Kalacs in Hungary and I have made various kinds using just sugar and cinnamon, mixture of raisin and/or other dried fruits, chocolate, preseves, to fresh fruits.

This following recipe is a variety of my original Hungarian Sweet Cherry Loaf (cseresznye Kalacs), a couple posts down ?

1 c sweetened fortified soy milk, heat in microwave for 1 minute
Stir in 1 tbsp vegan margarine to melt
Stir in 1 tbsp sugar
Sprinkle 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
Let stand 5 mins to bloom

In a bowl, mix:

3 c flour
1 envelope vanilla sugar
2 tbsp sugar

Pour in yeast mixture and knead

Let rest covered for 30 mins

Meanwhile, prepare filling:

2 c fresh dark cherries, pitted
2 tbsp sugar (optional)
1/4 c guava juice

Bring to boil, stirring often, cook for 10 minutes or so, til thickened and softened.

Take off from heat, set aside

Remove pits from 6-8 fresh dark cherries, slice

Roll dough to rectangle and spread filling, reserving a little juice for ‘egg wash’.

Spread cooked cherries and fresh cherry slices all over. Roll and shape dough to loaf. Let rest for 45 mins

Preheat oven to 350 F

Brush loaf with Guava-Cherry thick juice as shown on the picture

Bake loaf for 35 mins

Cool on rack, slice and enjoy (slightly warm is aweeesssooommmeee!)

Great to be accompanied with a glass of cold cashew milk!