More Summer Recipes: Cherry-Apricot Bread

Here’s a fun bread to make!  I make it using the dough cycle of the bread machine, then bake the finished loaf in the oven.  This time of year, most of the ingredients can be found locally!

Bread:

1 cup warm water
1 egg, beaten lightly
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup rye flour (or use whole wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup fructose or sugar
4 Tbs butter, softened
1 tsp bread machine yeast

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Filling:

1/2 cup fresh apricots, pitted
1/4 cup fresh pie cherries, pitted
1 Tbs fructose or sugar
1 tsp corn starch
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of cloves

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1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts

In the bread machine pan, combine the water, egg, and butter.  Then add the flour, then the remaining bread ingredients.  Set the bread machine to the dough cycle.  Adjust the moisture if necessary, adding flour or water until you have a doughball in the machine.

Combine the filling ingredients in a salsa maker or blender and chop fine.  The mixture will be runny.

Grease a cookie sheet.

When the dough is finished, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put the dough on the cookie sheet.  (Mine was a bit wet, so I added more flour and kneaded it a little.)  Press out the dough until it is about an inch thick.  Then roll up the edges like a canoe– you’re going to put the filling in and you don’t want it to run out the sides.

Pour in the filling and spread it evenly over the dough.  Sprinkle the nuts evenly over the filling.  Now gently fold the side of the dough up and over the filling so the dough meets in the middle.  Do this carefully, working the sides and the ends so the dough doesn’t run out.  If the edges of the dough get filling on them, you’ll have to dust them with flour to get them to seal.

Pinch the dough together to seal in the filling.  Bake the bread at 350 for 40 minutes, or until done.  The result is not what you’d expect: you get a bread with a ribbon of filling through it, and absolutely delicious!