Just in time for cherry season (who am I kidding, any season), my Cherry Chocolate Chip Bread comes in at a delectable 3SP. I love it toasted (with a touch of butter) for breakfast or save it for dessert with a little ice cream and triple berry sauce! Any way you SLICE it, it’s delicious!

This is a beautiful and festive looking sweet bread, and great for any occasion. I love the combination of chocolate and cherries, but oddly not in the chocolate covered cherry candy form (but that’s a long and tragic story suited better for my therapist…), luckily this cherry chocolate chip bread doesn’t even come close to resembling a chocolate-covered cherry.

Best of all, it’s crazy easy to make, albeit a bit time consuming (mostly the baking part). The key to a tender sweet bread is to not overmix the batter, especially when you have add-ins to be folded in at the end. Mix the wet and the dry ingredients until they are just combined, and then gently fold in any add-ins.

Here are a few items of note and helpful hints for this recipe:

• You can replace the brown sugar with granulated sugar, but I prefer brown sugar in my sweet bread as it absorbs and holds more moisture resulting in bread that is moister. I also believe that brown sugar has more depth of flavor.
• You can also use all-purpose flour instead of self-rising flour, but you will have to whisk baking powder and salt into the flour. I use self-rising flour because it eliminates that step. However, I’ve tested this recipe both ways and it works well either way.
• You can use fresh, frozen, or maraschino cherries in this recipe—or a combination of the three. I first tested it using maraschino cherries and it is a little sweeter and every bit as delicious. In the first test, I used chopped jumbo maraschinos, resulting in a bit of a sweeter bread and it added 1SP.
• Try adding ¼ cup of chopped glazed nuts (I tested with pecans), it adds 1SP, but it’s worth it.
• Do not skip the melted butter in this recipe. Just trust me on this.
• Be careful not to overmix the batter. It doesn’t affect the flavor, but the texture becomes dense and chewy—great for cookies, not so much for cakes or breads, and most definitely not pie crusts!
• It takes a long time to bake. I set my timer for 50-minutes and then check it every five to ten minutes thereafter.
• I have not tested this using a muffin tin but imagine they would be every bit as delicious. Cook time and serving size will vary if you make it this way.