Cherry-Walnut Celebration Bread, Accidentally Out of Order

For the BBA group, we are supposed to bake and post all the recipes in  The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread in order.  Well, I baked the English Muffins and this delicious bread on the same day, and accidentally posted them out of order.  My bad.  I think I’ll have a slice of this fragrant, citrusy loaf to make myself feel better.  Toasted.  With butter.

A double decker enriched bread, filled with nuts and dried fruit, this reminds me of the Eastern European breads that the Polish side of my family introduced me to when I was a child.  I used half atta flour, buttermilk, as well as dried tart cherries because – you guessed it – I couldn’t find my cranberries.  I also substituted 3 teaspoons of lemon oil for the lemon extract.  If you didn’t know, lemon oil is a lot stronger than the extract, but I like it better because, to me, it doesn’t have an aftertaste that I often pick up in baked goods that use extract.

My only mishap occurred during the final rise:  the top braid fell off the bottom braid, lending a squat, toad-like appearance to what I had hoped would be a pretty bread.  You should go to Natashya’s blog to see what a really pretty braided loaf should look like!  And see those lighter colored areas in the cross section?  That’s the atta flour that I apparently failed to mix in properly.

Bottom line:  Pure deliciousness.  I really liked this bread, but would save it for the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.  You can see what everyone is making this week at our Flickr group, on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page. This recipe also appears on Google Books.  To see what others have been baking this week in the way of breads, be sure to check out YeastSpotting!