Christmas Goodies Part 3

Last Christmas goodie is a cherry pie roll that I have grown up with.  In my family, we had a Christmas breakfast tradition of scrambled eggs, sausage, hot chocolate and this cherry pie roll.  I loved having a special breakfast Christmas day.  We would even eat on this Christmas decorated china, so it felt extra special.  I wasn't able to have this breakfast this year since Scott worked so early in the morning, but it's a tradition I'd like to continue once we start a family of our own.  Here's the recipe:

Cherry Pie Roll

In a saucepan, combine:

½ cup sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup butter

½ tsp. salt

Warm until the butter melts—do not boil.  Pour the mixture into another large mixing bowl.  Let it cool completely.

Combine two .25 oz. packages of yeast with ½ cup warm water and a teaspoon of sugar.  Do not stir the yeast in the water.  Just let it sit on top.  It will look funny and the yeast will not completely dissolve all the way. 

Once the butter mixture is cooled, add the yeast to the mixture.  Add in 3 ½ cups of flour.  Mix and combine with Kitchen Aid type mixer.

Let the dough raise for about 1 hour in a cool temperature.  The garage could work or somewhere by a window or door.  You don’t want the dough in a super warm room.

 I forgot to take pictures of the making the dough process, but here is what the dough should look like when done!

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Filling: 8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling

Beat together the cream cheese, milk and vanilla.  It will have little clumps throughout.  You won’t be able to get rid of the clumps no matter how hard you try.  Just get the clumps as small as you can.

Split the dough in half and lay half of the dough down on a lightly floured surface.  You want to roll the dough into an oval shape.  Before putting on the filling, lay the dough onto your cookie sheet.  Trust me, if you put the filling on before you transfer it, you won’t be able move it without it falling apart.  Once your dough is on your cookie sheet, make a skinny layer of the cream cheese filling down the middle of the dough.  Then put a layer of the cherry pie filling on top of the cream cheese.  Make sure that the filling doesn’t come too close to the edges or you won’t be able to braid it very well.

Next, you will make slits down the side.  Once you’ve made the slits, you will then start braiding the bread.  Make sure that you are sealing the filling inside while you are braiding the dough.  You don’t want all of the delicious filling to ooze out!  Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Add glaze to the top while still warm and serve!

The glaze is just a basic powdered sugar and milk glaze.  I didn't add glaze to my cherry roll, but it does add a little sweetness.  You could even add a few red sprinkles for fun as well. 

It's actually taken me a couple of tries to make it look this nice.  For me, it's not a Christmas without a cherry roll, so this is a Christmas goodie that will continue to be made year after year.