Bishop's Bread - a Christmas Favorite

Submitted by NikiM

"A yummy treat to serve at brunch, or after dinner as a sweet treat. Cherries, pecans, and chocolate is a plenty in this wonderful bread. Throw out the fruitcake and move in the Bishop's Bread!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 25mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 1 Loaf
• Serves: 9

ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
• 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup chopped pecans
• 1⁄2 cup chopped well drained maraschino cherry (best to use the 'candied' ones from a jar,)
• 1⁄2 cup raisins (optional) or 1/2 cup chopped dates (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

directions

1. Prehead Oven to350°.
2. Mixture 1.
3. In mixing bowl, beat egg with electric mixer for about 1 minute.
4. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla to the egg. Beat well.
5. Blend in the buttermilk.
6. Mixture 2.
7. In another bowl sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
8. Add pecans, cherries, raisins or dates, and chocolate chips. Blend gently - Careful not to mash the cherries.
9. Combine Mixture 1 and Mixture 2. Blend gently - Careful not to mash the cherries.
10. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9x5-inch loaf pan.
11. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. (If cherries weren't drained well enough, the excess moisture will increase baking time).
12. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Reviews

[Annacia]

I loved this bread for taste and festivity. The reason that I giving this 4 instead of 5 stars is that it doesn't really rise. The buttermilk and soda was just just enough to round the top of the loaf that remained the size as the dough was when I placed it into the pan. The next time I'll add baking powder because I was really hoping for a loaf that would reach the top of the pan anyway. That said the mix of ingredients is wonderful, I used hazel nuts, bittersweet chocolate, the raisins and red and green cherries, yummmmmmm. Splenda was used for the sugar. Made for Sweet December 2013.