Dough
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup warm water
2 TBS. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
4-5 1/2 cups flour
Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Icing
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix yeast in water, let dissolve. Add sugar, butter, milk & eggs. Mix together. Add salt to flour and stir well. Add 2 cups of flour at a time until the dough is a smooth mixture—just a little sticky. Knead until smooth.
Let dough rise 1 1/2 hours, punch down, let rise 10-15 minutes. Divide into three balls of dough. Roll dough into rectangles. Spread 1/3 of the cream cheese filling down the center of each rectangle. Spread 1/3 of cherry pie filling on top of cream cheese filling. Cut 1” strips down each long side of dough to weave with. Braid the bread by starting with the strips in each corner. Lay them over the filling. Continue braiding and tuck in the last braid. Gently pick up the braids and place on greased cookie sheet. All three braids will fit on one sheet. Let braids raise for 15-30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Keep in airtight container—preferably your mouth! When braids come out of the over nice and hot, it takes all your will power not to eat them! However, they taste delicious hot without icing too! When cool, drizzle with icing. Enjoy...This is best when shared with family & friends—it’s almost like heaven!
I made this for a ward activity a few months ago, and it was the first dessert gone! I messed up a little in making it though, instead of using melted butter for the icing, I just used softened, and then to make it more liquidy I used milk, so my icing ended up more like a butter cream frosting, it should be more of a glaze that gets drizzled over the bread! Either way, it's delicious!
