Recipe: Mom’s Cranberry Bread

Gently warmed and slathered with butter, this cranberry bread tastes like Christmas morning to me. The flavor is sweet yet tart, and the look beautiful thanks to the cranberries studded throughout. I’ve been missing my mother, who passed away this year in late September and decided to update this recipe. She made this cranberry bread pretty much every Christmas for 20 years. 

When she noticed cranberries on sale at Thanksgiving many years ago, my ever-frugal mother decided to try them in a bread. The idea is based on her Swedish grandmother’s habit of making breads with dried fruit around the holidays. Slipped into a plastic bags tied with a handsome bow, cranberry bread makes a lovely (and low-cost) holiday gift. It’s also an unexpected addition to a traditional holiday menu, plus it can offer a nice alternative to cranberry sauce. It’s the bomb when used with leftover turkey for sandwiches.

Walnuts are an obvious seasonal choice for nuts here, but I’ve used almonds and pecans with great success. My husband, Mike, doesn’t like nuts in baked goods. (He considers a “texture violation.”) I leave them out if making it just for us. This makes one standard-size loaf, three or four mini loaves or about a dozen cranberry bread muffins. I’ve become a little obsessed with silicon baking gear, so last year I made this recipe into batches of muffins and handed out four each to friends with the recipe printed on a little card and a silicon muffin tray as a gift.

Recipe: Mom’s Cranberry Bread

I like to use a micro-planer for the orange peel; it spreads the flavor more evenly throughout the finished bread. This yields one large loaf, or two modest-sized loaves or three small loaves or about 12 to 16 muffins depending on how much you fill them. If you use salted butter, cut the addition of salt to 1 teaspoon. My husband doesn't like nuts in bread, and we have some nut allergies in our family, so I often leave them out. Let cool before slicing.

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Course Baking

Cuisine American

Equipment

• loaf pan or muffin tray

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups (230 g) fresh or thawed frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (150 g) chopped nuts optional
• 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
• 4 cups (500g) all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups (400g) sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons shortening, vegan butter or unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cups orange juice
• 2 eggs well beaten

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Generously grease and lightly flour one or two 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan(s) or 3 mini loaf pans. If using this recipe to make muffins, line a muffin tin with parchment or paper cups.

  Prepare cranberries, nuts (if using) and orange peel. Set aside.

  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda. Cut in shortening, vegan butter or butter to incorporate it in the bowl. Stir in orange juice, egg and orange peel mixing just to moisten.

  Fold in the prepared cranberries and nuts (if using) with a spatula. Spoon into a prepared pan(s) up to about halfway up. For a loaf, bake 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. For mini loaves or muffins, baked for 25 minutes and then check with a toothpick. Cool on rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely. Wrap and store overnight.

Notes

These can be made ahead and frozen. Be sure to double wrap before freezing and let thaw overnight for best results.

Keyword Baking, Bread, cranberries, cranberry, food gifts, gifts, holidays, leftovers, Thanksgiving

This post was originally published in 2014; it has been updated. As with all my posts, it may contain affiliate links. Photo by Brent Hofacker.