Cseresznye Kalacs (Dark Sweet Cherry Loaf)

Hungary has tons of Kalacs (sweet loaf) varieties, especially with walnut, poppy seeds, dark cherries, and sour cherries as filling (s). A month in Hungary is always like 10 kg gained for me, seriously ???

These days, everywhere I look while grocery shopping is sweet dark cherries, so I have been baking Kalacs at least 3 times a week, for the past couple of weeks now. My husband can finish 1 whole loaf himself in a day (or by one sitting!!! But don’t tell him I told you so ?), so yeah, a.lot.of.sweet.loaf lately ?

I turned my go to dark sweet cherry loaf recipe into veganized version and I am happy to say I found a sweet success and have been making a lot of variation from the following recipe 🙂

It is originally a Hungarian sweet bread/loaf (Cseresznye Kalacs) which of course would be with dairy, but the veganized version is as best, even better maybe, since my husband keeps asking me to prepare it 😉

Give it a try and see if you like it too 😀

For the filling, you can sub the juice with cherry liquor/wine if you can find a good and vegan one(s)!

Dough:

Heat 1 c unsweetened almond milk for 50 seconds in microwave (lukewarm), then stir in 1 tbsp coconut oil to dissolve.

Add in 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tsp active dry yeast, stir

Let stand to bloom, 5 minutes

In a separate bowl, place scant 3 c flour, mix with 2 tbsp sugar, 1 envelope of vanilla sugar, and 2 tbsp icing sugar, plus a pinch or two of salt. Make a well in center

Pour in yeast mixture, knead to a lump of dough
Then rub and knead dough with 2 tbsp coconut oil

Cover with cling wrap and let rest in warm area for 30 mins

Meanwhile, prepare the filling!

Filling:

Into a pan, place 2 c pitted fresh dark cherries with 3-5 tbsp sugar, and 1/4 c sour cherry nectar. Bring to boil for 2 mins then take out cherries from pan, leaving juice. Simmer juice for mins, stir often.

Add in cherries again and cook for another 5 mins til cherries soften and juice a bit thicken.

Take off from heat.

Let’s work on the dough!

Place an aluminum foil or parchment paper on a baking sheet, set aside

Roll dough to rectangle, then spread cooked cherries and it’s juice on the dough, plus 1 c fresh pitted and halved cherries.

Roll to loaf and place on prepared sheet. Rest in warm area for 45 mins

Preheat oven to 350 F

Meanwhile, let’s make egg wash! (Vegan obviously)

Mix 1 tbsp coconut palm sugar with 1 tbsp red kidney beans aquafaba (homemade is best, because I made mine ?) Brush this eggwash on the loaf and bake for 25-30 minutes

Cool on rack, slice, enjoy.

Yummo!