DOUBLE CRANBERRY-ORANGE BREAD

One of the things that my hubby looks forward to this time of year is cranberry-orange bread and this is a favorite around here - it has both fresh and dried cranberries.

Gather your ingredients (well, some of them).....

 The walnuts and both of the cranberries will need to be chopped.  Put the walnuts in a freezer zip lock and easy-peasy you can use your rolling pin to "chop" the nuts (then easy to measure), when chopping dried fruit if you spray  your knife with non-stick cooking spray the fruit will not stick to your knife.  I have found that first slicing the fresh cranberries in half before doing the chop pays off in the end as these little suckers are like ball bearings and if you don't corral them they fly off your surface like marbles!

Everything mixed together except the chopped items...

Then a gentle fold of the chopped items....

This recipe makes a beautiful large loaf (using 9x5 loaf pan) but I prefer to make one or two small ones - I like to slice this bread and put on the cookie tray, makes it finger food that way.  No matter how you bake this it's just good. This recipe also comes out great in those little pans that make it perfect for gift-giving.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1½ cups cranberries, fresh or frozen, roughly chopped
• ½ cup toasted walnut halves, chopped
• ⅓ cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat to 350° F. Prepare your preferred pans, using   non-stick spray or the oil/flour method.

2. Either sift or whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

3. Combine the buttermilk, orange juice, zest and melted butter in a small bowl add the egg and stir until all combined.

4. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk gently just until combined. Gently fold in cranberries and nuts, using a rubber spatula.

5. Scrape batter into your pans and bake for about 50-55 minutes – if you are using a large loaf pan, if using smaller pans the time will be much less, I start checking at about 20 minutes, depending on the depth of the pan. A toothpick should come out clean and the edges of this bread will have started to brown and pull away from the sides of the pan.

6. Let the bread cool for about 15 minutes and then turn out onto a rack and let it completely cool, wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

Enjoy!

 Resource

Paper baking loaf trays - I keep these around as they are great for gift giving or just great to use to keep clean-up at a minimum.  They can be found at all kinds of stores, the last ones I bought were at HomeGoods - like many items they tend to have these especially around the holidays.  Here is a link to Amazon where these are available (much less expensive at a discount store). Kitchen Supply 4 x 2 x 2 Inch Paper Loaf Pan, Set of 25

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