Have you ever sat at a bar, reached over and grabbed a couple bright red, dripping in juice maraschino cherries to munch on? These preserved cherries are the perfect fruit for making maraschino cherry quick bread as they are full of flavor!
Did you know the original maraschino cherries — sour marascas preserved in their own liqueur — are undoubtedly as old as the liqueur itself, and for centuries these ancestral maraschino cherries remained an European delicacy?
The modern day maraschino cherry – neon-red and candy-sweet, was created by Ernest Wiegand, a University of Oregon food technologist.
Wiegand worked six years to come up with the American maraschino and to this day continues its reign atop sundaes and cocktails alike.
Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of the maraschino cherry except for when I go to Chick-fil-A and get a shake.
Something about that bright red cherry juice on the whipped cream gets me every time.
This recipe for maraschino cherry quick bread is simple and easy to put together.
It packs a big punch of flavor and is a nice change to the traditional quick bread with banana and zucchini.
Maraschino Cherry Quick Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temp
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp real vanilla extract
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 16-ounce jar of maraschino cherries, chopped (reserve the juice)
Glaze
- ½ tsp maraschino cherry juice
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp milk
Instructions
Bread
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees
- Grease, line, and flour a 9x5in loaf/bread pan
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and sugars until smooth
- Add buttermilk, oil, and extracts and whisk until smooth and incorporated
- In two parts, add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until just combined and no more flour is visible
- Gently fold in chopped cherries until evenly distributed
- Pour batter into prepared pan
- Bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
NOTE: After 45 minutes check the color. If it is browning too fast, cover loosely with a
piece of foil and continue baking until done. - Let the bread sit for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan to cool completely before adding glaze
Glaze
- In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, cherry juice, and milk together until smooth. There should be no lumps.
- Drizzle over cooled bread
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
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