This sweet loaf bread, it's like a tea cake, has sweet tart fresh cherries and punchy blue poppy seeds. Add some orange zest and love and you have a healthy happy winner...
Sweet Cherry Bread. I've already discussed cherries. And yes, they are worth the price for a special treat. So now lets get a little creative before those $8 a pound cherries go bad, and make a yummy tea cake loaf. I take my favorite bread lemon-poppy seed and twist it up a few orange zesty degrees. And did you know that poppy seeds are high in calcium. Just another bonus to this healthy treat that tastes like summer brunch.
Sweet Orange Cherry Poppy seed Loaf
vegan
1 ¼ cups Spelt or Wheat Flour
½ cup vegan sugar
2 tablespoon agave syrup
⅓ cup plain soy milk
¼ cup plain soy yogurt
¼ cup poppy seeds
1 ½ tablespoon baking powder
¼ cup canola or coconut oil
1 teaspoon Xantham Gum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted, halved and quartered
2 tablespoon pulpy orange juice, fresh
1 ½ tablespoon orange zest
1 tsp. salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
To make:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine soy milk, oil, agave syrup, sugar, poppy seeds, vanilla extract and orange juice in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, xantham gum, salt, orange zest and cinnamon.
Stir dry ingredients into liquid ingredients.
Stir until you have a well blended thick batter.
Fold in the cherries.
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Top with a few leftover cherries.
Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Test doneness with a toothpick.
Serve warm or store at room temp for a few days.
Freeze slices for prolonged tea cake enjoyment.
Anonymous says
I love this loaf! I have made it several times (the vegan way) and it's one of my favorite recipes. I'd like to know what it tastes like with unscented coconut oil (I can't find it) but I still enjoy the strong taste of coconut oil in this bread.
Heidi says
Mmmm! I made mine non-vegan with these changes:
3/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 egg white
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 cup applesauce (instead of oil)
2 T orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 t lemon zest
2 T poppy seeds
1 t vanilla extract
1 t cinnamon
1 cup fresh quartered cherries
Such a pretty loaf. It was done at 30 minutes. I think my version could use a wee bit more sugar; I didn't how to convert the syrup and vegan sugar so I just guessed. Or, perhaps marinating the cherries in sugar for a bit before would help with the acrid taste they lend.
Kathy says
Lucysmom,
Absolutely. If you are not vegan, here is what I would do. Substitute the soy milk for whatever type of milk you'd like-only reduce the amount by a bit. And simply add in two eggs to firm up the bread. You will not need the xanthum gum. You can use whatever grain sugar you'd like and you can even use whatever flour you'd like. If you want an extra firm bread instead of moist, substitute the yogurt for an egg white. Those are my changes. Here's the ingredients list un-veganized, just for you:
Sweet Orange Cherry Poppy seed Loaf
non-vegan version.
1 1/4 cups Flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup plain soy milk
2 eggs + 1 egg white (egg white opt'l for more firmness)
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup canola or coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted, halved and quartered
2 Tbsp pulpy orange juice, fresh
1 1/2 Tbsp orange zest
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Hope that helps,
Kathy
lucysmom says
Would there be a way to make this in a no vegan way. I would love to make this but I would not like to invest in all of those ingredients since I don't eat vegan. It sounds like an amazing recipe. Would love to try it.
Kathy says
Sweet Karoline,
I learned about Xanthum Gum from the Babycakes cookbook. According to them it gives gluten-free cake and cookie batter "viscosity and stickiness". Since this recipe is not gluten-free, the Xanthum Gum is not vital. I've used it a few times and love it. You can omit it, but I enjoy the texture it adds. It's a fun ingredient to experiment with.
It is costly though. One tiny bag is $12.99.
Great question though!
Kathy
dreaminitvegan says
I love poppyseed bread and the cherries in this look really really good!
Anonymous says
Quick question for you:
What does the xanthan gum do for baked goods?
Thanks:)
Justin says
this looks and sounds amazingly good