Candy Cane Bread

Dough:
2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoon SAF yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
Approx. 6 cups flour

Toppings:
2 cans cherry pie filling
maraschino cherries
slices of green gumdrops

Thin Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Heat sour cream over low heat until luke warm.  Mix together the sour cream, water, butter, sugar, salt and eggs in mixer.  In a separate bowl, mix yeast with 2 cups of the flour and slowly add flour/yeast mixture, beating until smooth.  Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.  Knead about 10 minutes.  Place into a greased bowl and turn dough over so greased side is up.  Cover tight with lid (spray lid if needed).  Let rise about an hour, or until doubled in size.  Heat oven to 375.  Punch down dough and divide into 3 equal parts.  Roll each part into a 15- x 6-inch rectangle and place on greased baking sheet.  Cut dough with kitchen shears, about 1 1/2 inches on each side, leaving 3 inches in the middle.  Cut them at 1 1/2-inch intervals.  Spread filling in middle and criss-cross strips over the filling.  Stretch the dough to 22 inches and curve to form cane.  Pinch the ends together to prevent filling from coming out.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.  While it's warm, brush with butter and drizzle icing on top.  Add maraschino cherries and gumdrop slices to look like holly leaves.  Makes 3 candy canes.