The holidays may be over but some days I just crave certain foods and flavors. I’m sure many of you feel the same. For me, my post-holiday craving has been for a cranberry bread infused with orange. Sounds delicious, right?!? I love the way those two flavors marry together…a perfect balance of tart and sweet. This bread is moist, easy to make and best of all, it’s a one bowl wonder.

This recipe was given to me by my Canadian cousins who have enjoyed making it for their families for over 30 years. In chatting with my cousin Motria, she told me a teacher at her son’s school gifted her students the recipe to enjoy over their Thanksgiving holiday. Since that day, my cousins have made this bread more times than they can count, for every Thanksgiving brunch, Christmas and in between. According to my cousin, “It’s one of those tried-and-true recipes.”

Here is what you will need:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tsp. orange zest
  • ¾ cup orange juice
  • 1 ½ cups craisins
  • 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F)
    2. Grease your 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with butter and then line with parchment paper.
    3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.
    4. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
    5. Add in orange zest, beaten egg and orange juice and stir until mixture is evenly moist.
    6. Fold in cranberries and craisins.
    7. Spoon into your greased loaf pan and bake for one hour 12 minutes. At the one-hour point, test your bread for doneness by inserting a toothpick or cake tester into the center. If the toothpick comes out clean, the bread is baked. If your bread requires more baking time, add on 5 minutes and then check again.
    8. Remove from oven let cool on a cooling rack, then remove the bread from the pan, remove the parchment paper and continue cooling on wire rack until it is cool enough to cut.

Notes:

When baking breads, I normally position my oven rack at the second level, but I noticed with this bread that this position was causing my bread to bake unevenly. It was causing the bottom to brown and get somewhat dry. I had to position the rack in the middle of the oven. The middle is called the default position as it allows the hot air to circulate around the food. Once I did that, my bread baked perfectly.

The last time I baked this bread I failed to notice that my sugar supply was low…I only had ¾ of a cup. But I had Golden Monkfruit sugar, so I decided to add ¼ cup of the Monkfruit to make the full cup that I needed. You can use the Golden Monkfruit sugar as a 1:1 replacement for sugar. It worked perfectly and there was no aftertaste. I may have to try using a full cup to see how the bread bakes and tastes.

I chose to only use a 1/2 cup of craisins, but as I always say, use the amount based on your taste.

I left my frozen cranberries whole…I love biting into a bread and getting a burst of flavor. I also found putting frozen cranberries into your food processor shreds them.

From my kitchen to yours…enjoy and bon appétit!