Last week I was craving something sweet (which is nothing new…) to have with an afternoon cup of tea. As I stood, staring blankly into the fridge and freezer, I noticed a bag of frozen cranberries which were left over from Christmas. Then I remembered there was also a big orange in the fruit bowl…eureka, I could make Cranberry Orange Bread!
Ever since Christmas, and knowing I had the frozen cranberries, I had thought of making a Cranberry Bread. Originally I thought of pairing the cranberries with clementines, but orange or lemon would work perfectly too. And I had a big, fat, juicy orange, just waiting to be eaten.
All I did was slightly alter my mom’s recipe for Lemon Bread by adding cranberries, substituting sour cream, which was also languishing in the fridge, for the milk and using an orange in place of the lemon.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then beat in the eggs.
Add the sour cream and stir well to combine.
Frozen cranberries are a bit easier to chop, but fresh cranberries work perfectly in this recipe too.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, chopped cranberries, and zest. Stir to combine and to coat fruit with flour mixture.
Coating the fruit in the flour keeps it more evenly distributed in the bread and helps to prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom.
Spoon batter into prepared pan and use the back of the spoon or an offset spatula to level the mixture.
Cool ten minutes, remove bread from pan and spoon hot glaze over the warm bread. I sit it on a cooling rack that has a piece of waxed paper underneath it to catch all the drips.
When it has cooled completely, slice bread into 12 or 15 pieces, depending on how thick you like the slices. I usually slice into 12 because we like thick slices!
- LOAF
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup of softened butter
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1½ cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen)
- zest of one large orange
- GLAZE
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- Juice of one large orange
- LOAF
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs.
- Stir in the sour cream.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, chopped cranberries, and zest. Stir to combine and to coat fruit with flour mixture.
- Gradually stir flour mixture into creamed mixture. Mixing gently after each addition until just combined. Don't overbeat.
- Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- GLAZE
- In a small pot or microwaveable bowl heat orange juice, pour in sugar and stir to dissolve sugar.
- Spoon mixture over baked bread while bread is still warm.
- Let cool 30 minutes before slicing.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will do my very best to answer.
What is your favourite sweet bread (loaf)?
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