Cherry Tea Ring or Rosca de Reyes

Four or five years ago my friend Sarah went to a party after Christmas with some Latino friends and came back saying she got the baby Jesus.  I could not make heads or tails out of what she was saying but understanding eventually dawned.  In many cultures around the world they make a much bigger deal out of Epiphany, the celebration the first week January when the three wise men came to visit the baby Jesus.  One of the traditions is to bake a cake made to look like a crown (for the three kings) with a small porcelain Baby Jesus baked into it.  It's called Rosca de Reyes, and if you get the baby Jesus in your piece, you have to bring food for Candlemas (another holiday we don't celebrate).  New Orleans has a similar tradition, called King's Cake, where if you find the figurine, or sometimes a coin, you get to be king for the day.  All of those cultural factoids are just so I can explain this recipe.  For the last couple of years I have been trying various recipes for different countries' Epiphany breads and bring them to church, and we use them for our communion bread the week of Epiphany.  My Church of Christ background would call eating a sweet yeasted bread for communion sacrilege, but I digress.

This year's was especially tasty, found once again on my bread wondersite, King Arthur Flour.  I felt there was absolutely no reason to relegate this to a once a year bread, especially when you could try it with different fillings.  It's a very versatile sweet dough recipe.  I imagine it would make excellent cinnamon rolls, too.

To make the original Rosca de Reyes recipe which has dried fruit and nuts in the filling and decorated with candied orange peel, it can be found here: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/three-kings-cake-rosca-de-reyes-or-roscand242n-de-reyes-recipe
I highly recommend it as is, but this time I made it more like a cherry tea ring.

For the Dough:

• 2/3 cup milk (I had some half and half that needed to be used, so I substituted it for the milk, but I think it tasted the same as when I used skim milk)
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

For the Filling:

• 1 can (around 15 oz) of pitted tart cherries
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the Icing:

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• water or milk
• 1) For the dough: Heat the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan or at medium power in your microwave. Pour the hot milk over the butter, sugar, and salt, and stir occasionally until the butter melts. Cool the mixture to lukewarm.
  
  2) In a mixing bowl combine the milk mixture, eggs, and yeast. Add the flour 1 cup at a time, and mix until a soft, smooth dough forms. You can also use your bread machine, set on the dough cycle, for this step.
  
  3) Place the dough in a greased container, cover it, and set it in a draft-free place to rise until doubled (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Or let your bread machine complete the dough cycle.
  
  4) After the first rise, deflate the dough, cover, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; roll into a 20" x 12" rectangle.
  
  5) For the filling: Combine the sugars, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the the dough, leaving a bit of room at each end so it doesn't ooze out when you roll it up. Sprinkle the cherries on top of the butter/sugar mixture.
  
  6) Assembly: Starting with the long edge, roll the dough up jelly-roll style. Pinch the seam together to seal it firmly, then bring the ends together to form a ring. To keep the bread round, grease the outside of a small bowl or custard cup and put it on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the ring, seam side down, around the bowl and tuck one end inside the other, pinching it together to seal it. (I put the custard cup in the middle a couple times I made it and the last time I just left the hole in the middle empty and hoped it wouldn't close up, and it did fine)
  
  7) Flatten the ring slightly, and using a pair of scissors, make cuts in the dough at 1 1/2" intervals around the outside edge. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled (about 30 to 40 minutes).
  
  8) To bake: Once the dough is shaped and is rising for the second time, preheat the oven to 350°F. When the dough is risen, remove the plastic wrap..
  
  9) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, covering the loaf loosely with foil after the first 15 minutes, as it will brown quickly. Remove the bread from the oven when the inner parts of the slits look cooked and the interior measures 190°F when measured with an instant-read thermometer. Cool the bread on a rack.
  
  10) Icing: Beat the butter in a mixer until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix well. If
  you like thick icing, you're done. I was going for more of a glaze consistency, so I add either milk or water until in thins out to how I like it. I don't always ice it, as it tastes just fine without it, but I had made some icing for some cookies earlier in the week and had some left over. It seemed like a good use for it.