As fun as it is to try something new and exciting, sometimes there are old recipes that you just have to go back to when you’re looking for some comfort food. Some of them are true oldies, recipes you’ve gotten from your grandparents or great grandparents. Some are recipes you found years ago and have made themselves a staple in your baking plans.
One of the things I like making periodically throughout the year is a cherry chocolate loaf from Paul Hollywood. I first saw this recipe on the great British baking show years ago and I decided to make it. The first loaf turned out looking a little sloppy when it came to the actual braiding for the loaf but it tasted wonderful and both my dad and my sister really liked it. I liked it as well, but it’s a little too big for me to be able to eat the whole thing by myself.
I mean, I could, but I wouldn’t be able to fit in my pants afterwards.
Ironically enough the photo I have for the loaf isn’t the best one I’ve ever done. Part of that is I had to swap the usual canned dark cherries I use for frozen and thawed cherries, because the store was out of everything but frozen cherries. I think the cherries must have still been at least a little bit frozen when I added them to the dough. While I’m used to the dough getting a little sloppy from the extra moisture the cherries add, the dough was really wet this time. This meant I had to add extra flour to get the dough to a workable consistency to make the braid. Even then the braid in the bread is hard to see because the dough split open as it expanded, rather than expanding consistently.
The second hang up comes from the fact that while I’ve used the recipe a lot, this is the first time baking in my parents new oven, and the new timer is much softer than the old one. Soft enough that the bread was in the oven maybe 5 to 10 minutes longer than it should have been, leading to it having a slightly darker color. I managed to get the bread out of the oven before it burned but the bottom of the bread was darker than I had planned.
However! Despite the too wet cherries and new oven the bread turned out very tasty, and that’s what really matters.
