In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften. Add milk, eggs, cherry pie filling, oil, 4 cups flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla to yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
Gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have a dough stiff enough to knead. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
Put dough into an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Turn dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide dough in half. Shape dough into loaves and place in well-greased 10 x 5-inch pans or, shape half into a loaf, and other half into 12 large dinner rolls. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
Bake in a preheated 375°F oven. Loaves bake about 30 minutes, rolls about 20.
Immediately remove bread or rolls from pans and cool on a wire rack to prevent crust from becoming soggy. For a shiny crust, brush tops of bread or rolls lightly with vegetable oil. Makes 2 large loaves, or 1 large loaf and 12 dinner rolls.
I actually halved this recipe and put all the ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle. When finished, I shaped the dough into two loaves and set aside to rise for an hour. Then baked at 375 for 30 minutes.
*I use this same recipe for apple pie bread. I use apple pie filling instead of cherry, brown sugar instead of white, and cinnamon instead of vanilla. It's really yummy too!
-- Edited by Robin on Sunday 27th of February 2011 07:46:15 PM
