Cherry Almond Bread | Bread Machine Recipes

Cherry almond bread is fruity, slightly sweet and has a great crust. This homemade bread is great any time, but especially nice for special meals or holidays. 

Last Updated February 11, 2022 – Originally Posted February 10, 2010
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Cherry almond bread is fruity, slightly sweet and has a crispy crust.  The recipe gets its name from two special ingredients, cherry preserves and almond extract.  The butter makes the bread rich and delicious. 
This homemade bread is great any time, but especially nice for special meals or holidays.  For example, it makes a lovely breakfast treat for Valentine’s Day. 
Should You Melt the Butter?
Many recipes call for melted or softened butter. That’s to help the butter mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Some bread machines, including my Zojirushi, have a preheat cycle that melts the butter for you.  If your machine has that cycle then you do not need to melt the butter.  Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine for how to add cubed butter.  As you can see from the below photo, I cut the butter into four chunks and placed it at each corner of the bread pan.
Making Cherry Almond Bread
This makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with the light crust option.
Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the machine first. With my Zo, I add the liquids first.

Because preserves can be difficult to measure, I started by adding 1/2 cup of water into a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup.  Then I scooped in the preserves until the level in the cup reached the 1-cup mark.
I also added the egg to the measuring cup and gave everything a good stir.  I went through the same process with my apricot bread recipe and here’s how it looked when I made that.  

Note that this level is above the 1-cup mark because of the egg, as well as my spoon. 

Continue adding ingredients to the bread pan.
Check the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. This is especially important with this recipe because different preserves have different consistencies. Open the lid of the  bread machine and see how the dough is doing. It should be a smooth-ish, round ball.  
If the dough is too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks right. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks right.
Here’s how mine looked after adding two tablespoons of water.  

Note that the loaf of bread won’t be as large as some other loaves.  It’ll come out a little small as compared with other two-pound loaves.

Cherry Almond Bread – Bread Machine Recipe
This makes a two-pound loaf. Use the white bread or basic setting with the crust set to light.
1/2 cup water1/2 cup cherry preserves1/4 cup butter1 egg, beaten1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon almond extract3 1/2 cups bread flour2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
See below for metric measurements, as well as nutrition information, for this bread machine cherry almond bread recipe.

1/2 cup (118.29 ml) water1/2 cup (170 g) cherry preserves1/4 cup (56.75 g) butter1 egg beaten1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon almond extract3 1/2 cups (437.5 g) bread flour2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
This makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with light crust.Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the machine first.Check the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. This is especially important with this recipe because different preserves have different consistencies. Open the lid of the  bread machine and see how the dough is doing. It should be a smooth-ish, round ball.   If the dough is too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks right. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks right.
This makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with light crust.
Note that the loaf of bread won’t be as large as some other loaves.  It’ll come out a little small as compared with other two-pound loaves.
Metric Measurements: This recipe was developed and tested using US customary measurements. Metric measurements are calculated automatically.
Calories: 182kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 202mg | Potassium: 51mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 119IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 0.4mg
  All information presented within this site is intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on breadmachinediva.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. I try to provide accurate information to the best of my ability; however these figures should still be considered estimates.