I love trying new recipes, especially cookie and bread recipes. I recently purchased a Taste of Home magazine featuring bread recipes. I decided to try the Chocolate and Cherry Stromboli because it seemed rather easy and I had all of the ingredients. It turned out fabulous and tasted so delicious! I did substitute the canola oil with peanut oil because it was what I had. If I bake this bread again, I may try melted butter instead of oil as I like the taste of butter better. Also the cherry pieces don't show up well in the chocolate so I might substitute chopped apricots next time. Because I am testing bread recipes for future gift giving, I think I would not drip on the melted chocolate if I was planning to wrap the bread as the melted dark chocolate doesn't harden (needs to be tempered). Perhaps the candy melt chocolate sold at HM Ben Franklin Crafts would harden well enough to permit wrapping the bread in cellophane bags. The recipe specifies applying an egg wash and sprinkling on coarse sugar before baking. I think really coating the loaf with coarse sugar would add the sweet taste and be attractive but not messy so there would be no need for drizzling chocolate. Ther were dozens of great sounding bread recipes that I will try out in the near future. I'll let you know which ones from this magazine are successful and why. If you are interested in perfecting your bread baking skills, I think you should get a copy of this magazine and get cooking!
