This Cranberry Orange Bread is full of bright flavors! A great bread recipe for the holidays.
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Cranberry and orange go SO well together, and I especially love to use them during the winter holidays. My mom loves the two together, and making a bread with them was on my list this year! This Cranberry Orange Bread gets dangerously close to a cake, but oh well!
I use fresh cranberries in this bread because they give the bread moisture and tartness, but you could use dried cranberries as well. It also makes an amazing Cranberry Orange Bread Pudding if you don’t eat it all first!
The easiest way to zest citrus is with a microplane. You can get a microplane online here! I use it ALL the time so it is definitely worth having in the kitchen. You can zest citrus and finely grate things like chocolate or cheese with it. The orange juice really brings the citrus flavor to the bread. Fresh juice is best (from the orange you zested!) but bottled could work as well.
Putting the bread together only takes a few minutes, as most of the time needed is in the oven or with cooling. It is SO DIFFICULT waiting for it to cool, because it makes the house smell amazing, but it is needed! A cooled bread means it will slice more easily with less crumbling.
I hope you enjoy making this bread for your friends, family, and yourself! It makes a great homemade holiday present, if you can bring yourself to give it away!
Cranberry Orange Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup buttermilk (see note)
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- 1/3 cup orange juice fresh is best
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon orange zest (from 1 medium orange)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F with the rack in the middle position.
- Generously coat a 9x5 bread loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, orange juice, egg, and orange zest.
- Roughly chop the cranberries if larger berries.
- Add the milk mixture and cranberries to the flour mixture. Gently fold together until just incorporated. Do not over-mix.
- Scoop the batter into the bread pan and smooth out the surface with a spatula.
- Bake at 375F until golden brown for approximately 1 hour. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Remove from oven. Let the bread rest in the pan for 10 minutes then remove from pan and let cool on wire rack until completely cool.
Eating this in the morning for breakfast, yep the kids will love it with their hearts.