Maraschino Cherry Pistachio Bread with Cherry Glaze

This simple & easy Cherry Pistachio Bread is so soft, moist, and sweet! Serve it as bread OR dessert. Doused in a potent cherry glaze, loaded with maraschino cherries, and sprinkled with salted pistachios, this Cherry Pistachio Bread recipe features a killer combo of flavors.

Good morning! Happy Sunday! Our whole weekend was rain, rain, rain so far. I LOVE rainy days, so I don’t mind, and now that we have a brand new roof, I mind even less.

While we were waiting for a new roof installment, I would cringe every time it rained.

With the weather being what it was, it’s been a Netflix & Chill weekend, except we don’t have Netflix. Amazon Prime & Chill. Should we get Netflix though?? I’m curious what your favorite Netflix original shows are… please share below. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of tv series there are these days.

I like having options, but it’s overwhelming.

On the subject of options and being overwhelmed, I’ve now made my Grandma’s Pistachio Bread into a Maraschino Cherry Pistachio Bread with Cherry Glaze!

So if you’re keeping track (which you’re likely not), I’ve adapted my Grandma’s Pistachio Bread into a few other things, these Pistachio Bread Cinnamon Streusel Muffins, this Triple Chocolate Pistachio Bread, and now a Cherry Pistachio Bread.

It’s a bit ugly, there’s no two ways about that. It’s like a fluorescent yellow-green bread, checkered with BRIGHT red maraschino cherries, then a light pink glaze, and neon-ish green pistachios. This Cherry Pistachio Bread is quite a clash of various greens and reds.

Putting that aside, cherry and pistachio are undeniably awesome together, and there’s a splash of almond in this too, which really helps enhance the pistachio side of things.

The cherry glaze is STRONG. Loaded up good with maraschino cherry juice and cherry extract, so it’s potent. That’s how I love my glazes – potent! Do you feel the same?? I typically like to get punched in the face with flavor.

This delicious Cherry Pistachio Bread is almost like cake. It’s soft, moist, and quite sweet, but leans just a bit bread-like with it’s texture, being slightly more dense than a fluffy, airy cake. It’s a nice hybrid, so it works as straight-up dessert, if that’s how you’d want to use it.

Perfect for basically any occasion – picnics, brunches, holidays. And like all my other pistachio bread recipes, it’s very simple! It starts with a cake mix, and only requires a few ingredients. You can whip this up pretty fast.

I’ve used my Grandma’s Pistachio Bread recipe to create a bunch of bundt cakes too. It’s proved to be an excellent bundt cake base, so check out some of the popular adaptations here: Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze, Coconut Pistachio Bundt Cake, Cherry Amaretto Bundt Cake, Oreo Bundt Cake, and German Chocolate Bundt Cake.

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Maraschino Cherry Pistachio Bread with Cherry Glaze

This simple & easy Cherry Pistachio Bread is so soft, moist, and sweet! Serve it as bread OR dessert. Doused in a potent cherry glaze, loaded with maraschino cherries, and sprinkled with salted pistachios, this Cherry Pistachio Bread recipe features a killer combo of flavors.

Course Bread

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 8

Author Sarah

Ingredients

For cherry pistachio bread:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3.4 oz. box instant pistachio pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 tsp. cherry extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 16 oz. jar maraschino cherries drained (reserve juice), chopped, patted dry

For cherry glaze:

• 1/4 cup reserved maraschino cherry juice
• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 1 tsp. cherry extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

For cherry pistachio bread:

1. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, cherry extract, and almond extract. Mixture will be thick!

2. Gently stir in cherries.

3. Spread batter into a well-greased tube pan or bundt pan.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until edges are golden, and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

5. Remove to a wire rack to cool. 

6. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate to cool completely. Do not cool bread completely in pan - it will stick! 

7. While bread cools, prepare glaze.

For cherry glaze:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together maraschino cherry juice, melted butter, cherry extract, and 3 cups powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Add additional powdered sugar, as needed, to achieve a thick glaze that won't easily run off the bread.

3. Drizzle over cooled bread.

4. Allow 10-15 minutes for glaze to set. Cut and serve.

Recipe Notes

I find cherry extract easily at Walmart in their line of Watkins' brand extracts! I also find it readily at Publix.