Cherry And Chocolate Bread Recipe

Decadent and rich, but not too sweet, this fudgy Chocolate Cherry Loaf Cake is loaded with dark, sweet cherries and topped with a delicious mocha glaze. This yummy cherry dessert can be made with either fresh or frozen sweet Bing cherries and is a proven crowd pleaser!

Chocolate and cherries naturally make a great flavor combo, but add coffee (yes, coffee!) to the mix and you’ve got something really spectacular!

Don’t be fooled by the fact that this recipe is made in a loaf pan. This loaf cake is nothing like my Cherry Chocolate Chunk Quick Bread which is a bit airier, nor is it dense like a pound cake.

Chocolate & Cherry Yeast Bread {soft & Sweet}

Anytime I’m given a dessert choice and one of them is something chocolatey, it’s always a no-brainer for me. Yes, I’m a confessed chocoholic, a sucker for gooey chocolate desserts. Surely, I’m not the only one, right?

Last week. I was on a mission to make the perfect chocolate cherry dessert to use up a partial bag of cherries in my freezer. If you weren’t aware, chocolate and cherries are a match made in heaven.

We were headed over to our daughter’s house for pizza night, so it was the perfect opportunity to bake a cake. With just the two of us here, a whole cake in the house is dangerous!

Chocolate, Cherry, And Hazelnut Bread

Anyway, I can report that there were plenty of “ohs” and “yums” after people tried a piece of Chocolate Cherry Loaf Cake. So much so that this will be a repeat dessert for sure!

This recipe is really easy to put together, but you want to make sure you’ve read all the instructions before you get started so there are no surprises. Here are a few things to note:

This glaze is the EASIEST, fool-proof chocolate glaze I’ve ever made. It is smooth and chocolatey and sets up quickly. It’s perfect for dipping donuts, too!

Chocolate Cherry Loaf Recipe

Simply combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder and then stir in COLD brewed coffee a tablespoon at a time until you have a smooth consistency that is suitable for pouring.

I love my OXO baking sheet with the wire rack that fits inside for recipes that require glazing. Not only is the wire rack perfect for cooling, placing it in the pan catches any chocolate glaze drips for easy clean-up. I use it all the time!

Chocolate Cherry Loaf Cake should bake for about an hour, but you may want to start checking it for doneness after 50 to 55 minutes.

Ari's Pick: Chocolate Cherry Bread

To test the cake, insert a wooden pick into the center. If it comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs, the cake is done. If the pick is wet, try again in another spot to verify that you didn’t hit a cherry. If it’s still wet, then continue baking for a few more minutes.

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Decadent and rich, but not too sweet, this fudgy Chocolate Cherry Loaf Cake is loaded with dark, sweet cherries and topped with a delicious mocha glaze.

Gluten Free Cherry Banana Bread (paleo, Dairy Free)

Serving: 1 g Calories: 320 kcal Carbohydrates: 49 g Protein: 3 g Fat: 14 g Saturated Fat: 2 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 11 g Cholesterol: 19 mg Sodium: 111 mg Fiber: 2 g Sugar: 36 g

Life Love and Good Food does not claim to be a registered dietician or nutritionist. Nutritional information shared on this site is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.This rich, dark chocolate-cherry sourdough bread is deliciously menacing; like a chocolate bar, once unwrapped, it constantly demands attention. But before I started work on this recipe, I was skeptical. I wasn’t sure that adding a high percentage of chocolate would result in a pleasant-tasting loaf, given the hearty wheat and lengthy fermentation flavors. And, for me, large quantities of cocoa powder quickly become overpowering and bitter, and adding dark chocolate chunks seemed like it would only compound the issue.

Thankfully, I was wrong. While baking, irresistible nutty, earthy, and roasted coffee aromas swirl about, an eddy of enticing fragrances that constantly pull you to the kitchen. A compulsion quickly sets in to first check the oven, then the timer, then the oven again—restless for the loaf to finish and eager to finally indulge in that magical ambrosia. I can recall only a few recipes that elicit this feverish behavior during baking (my chocolate babka and cinnamon rolls qualify), and this bread may take the top seat in that category.

Chocolate Cherry Sourdough In

I started to develop this chocolate sourdough bread as a beautiful Valentine’s Day treat, but after testing it for weeks, I’ve found that it’s perfectly suitable for any time of the year. I mean, chocolate + cherries + bread—when isn’t that seasonally appropriate?

You’ve probably run across recipes that call for blooming dried spices in a hot liquid (usually oil). Did you know that you can bloom cocoa powder too? As it does for spices, blooming intensifies the flavor of the chocolate significantly.Additionally, it means we can use less cocoa powder overall, eliminating the issue of excessive bitterness in the final loaf.

For this recipe, I chose to bloom the cocoa powder in neutral-flavored canola oil, transforming the two into a syrup-like liquid (similar in consistency to the barley malt slurry in my Sourdough Bagels). I then add this mixture to the dough at the end of mixing.

Chocolate Cherry Loaf Cake

The canola oil itself is a boon to the bread: it brings a measure of tenderness and sheen to the crumb, making both the crumb and crust more tender.

The majority of the flour in this dark chocolate-cherry sourdough bread is white flour, though I include a portion of whole wheat for increased fermentation activity and flavor. This whole wheat flour can be freshly milled, too, if you’d like to use your grain mill.

A small percentage of the white flour is high-protein white bread flour, which brings strength and added structure to the dough. If you don’t have any high-protein flour on hand, using all medium-protein flour or even all-purpose flour will work well, too; just keep an eye on the hydration of the dough, and if necessary, don’t add all the reserved water (water 2) in mixing.

Cherry Chocolate Banana Bread

I use dried and sweetened tart cherries, which are quite moist, but if yours are very dry and hard, soak them overnight while the levain ripens in a small measure of the mixing water (taken from Water 1 in the ingredients) to help rehydrate them.

This chocolate sourdough bread takes two days to make (not including the levain). The cold overnight proof gives the dough ample time to fermentation, thus increasing the final fermentation flavors and making for a more manageable dough to score before baking. To switch this to a direct bake (i.e. to bake it the same day it’s mixed), leave the dough out to proof on the counter for 2 to 3 hours until it passes the poke test (a finger poke springs slowly back).

If it's cold right now where you're baking, be sure to see my guide on how to bake sourdough bread in the winter for tips on how to keep this dough on its schedule.

Cherry Chocolate Bread Recipe

Mix the following ingredients for the levain in a jar and leave them covered at a warm temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), to ripen overnight.

Put the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and heat until very warm, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the cocoa powder and whisk continuously until the powder dissolves and the mixture becomes thick, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool.

I mixed and strengthened this dough by hand using the slap and fold technique, but you could use a KitchenAid stand mixer or a large spiral mixer.

Mini Cherry Chocolate Chip Bread

Add the sugar, salt, and levain to the top of the dough that was just in autolyse, and use a splash of water to moisten. Mix thoroughly. If the dough feels like it can handle it, add the remaining water. Next, knead the dough for a few minutes using either the slap and fold technique or folds in the bowl. For this dough, I kneaded for about 5 minutes until the dough smoothed and became elastic.

Pour the bloomed cocoa onto the dough and mix it in by pinching and folding until it’s thoroughly incorporated. If you want the dough to be completely dark in color, mix the cocoa in well at this point, but if you’d like a more marbled sourdough bread look, mix it more gently and stop before it’s fully dispersed. Transfer the dough back to the bowl or to a container for bulk fermentation and cover.

At a warm room temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), bulk fermentation should take about 4 hours. If your kitchen is cooler, place your bulk container in a small home dough proofer, or extend the bulk fermentation time to give the dough more time to ferment. The dough is ready when it is smooth, puffy, and well-risen.

Paul Hollywood's Chocolate Cherry Bread

This dough will require 3 sets