Cherry Almond Quick Bread

1 ¼ C (6 ¼ oz/177 g) all-purpose flour
½ C (3 ½ oz/99g) granulated sugar
1 1.85 oz (52 g) pkg dry instant vanilla pudding mix
¾ t (3 g) baking soda
½ t (3 g) salt
2 eggs, room temperature
7 oz (7 oz/198 g) Greek yogurt, plain or vanilla
½ C (118 ml) vegetable or canola oil
½ t vanilla extract
½ t almond extract
22 maraschino cherries, patted dry/halved
Slivered almonds, for topping
Turbinado sugar (optional)

Position rack in middle of oven and heat to 350° F(177° C). Spray a 4 ½ x 8 ½-inch loaf pan with cooking spray with flour. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside. Drain cherries and blot with paper towel to soak up excess juice. This will prevent color bleeding in dough.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. In medium bowl, beat eggs and add yogurt, canola oil, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Whisk until well combined and creamy. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and stir until combined and smooth. Fold cherries into batter, taking care not to over mix.

Add batter to prepared pan, smoothing top with spatula. Scatter slivered almonds over top, lightly pressing them into surface. Optionally, sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake 46 to 50 minutes, or until wooden skewer inserted into highest point of cake comes out clean. Rotate pan one half turn midway through baking. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Makes: 1 loaf

12 Apr 18 – Mixed dry ingredients in large glass Pryex bowl and wet in medium bowl. Good size choices. Luckily, I had an opened package of instant vanilla pudding mix which I used. It was more than enough. Also used my homemade vanilla Greek yogurt in lieu of store bought. It too worked well. The original recipe called for 15 maraschino cherries cut in half. Once mixed in the dough, I decided 15 wasn’t enough. I added 6 more cherries and could have added a couple more. I also decided for appearance and taste purposes to sprinkle loaf with turbinado sugar. This was not included in the original recipe. The original recipe recommended a 9-inch loaf pan but after looking at the pictures in the post which showed a wide, squat loaf, I decided to use a smaller 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch (lb) pan. The smaller pan was the better choice. The loaf crowned just over the top edge when removed from oven. he original recipe indicated baking the bread for 38 to 40 minutes. It was still under done at 44 minutes so I ended up baking it for a total of 46 minutes. As it turned out, it still wasn’t done and when I pulled it out of the oven, the center fell. Once I cut into it, the center definitely was NOT done. I could have easily baked it for an additional 4 minutes. Will remake to find correct baking time. In the future, I’ll check it at 48 to 50 minutes. Otherwise, the flavor was very good and the ends which were properly done, were nicely moist and tender.

15 Apr 18 – Used medium Pyrex glass bow for wet ingredients and metal mixing bowl for dry. Size was fine. In lieu of using all sweetened Greek yogurt, I used 4 ½ oz of sour cream and the remainder non-fat honey yogurt. I plussed up the cherries to 20 (halved) and added 4 to 5 more on top of the batter along with turbinado sugar and sliced almonds. Baked in island oven. Checked at 45 mins and could see, without testing, the top center still giggled. Covered top with aluminun foil because it was browning and I could tell it would be in the oven another 15 min for a total baking time of 1 hr.