Cranberry Orange Nut Bread Recipe

During the late fall and holiday season I enjoy making sweet breads for my family, friends, and neighbors. Sweet breads are great foodie gifts to give and they’re best sellers at bake fairs. This Cranberry Orange Nut Bread can be made ahead of time, cooled, and frozen for up to 3 months. When you want to thaw it you can do so in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 3 hours.

Optional Variation: Sometimes I will toss in a 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter. It’s equally as good if you melt chocolate chips and then drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the sweet bread. Makes for a beautiful presentation if you’re serving it on the holiday table.

Before I get to the recipe I want to introduce you to Selefina, the spice shop through Adagio Teas. Selefina sells your classic spices like parsley and oregano…along with chili powder, crystallized ginger root, Cacao nibs, and everything in between. You can purchase samples sizes, regular sizes, refills, and empty spice jars if you need those! High quality, fresh spices and seasonings shipped straight to your door.

For this recipe I used the Selefina Cranberry Juice Powder to give the bread a little bit of extra flavor, plus the boost in health benefits you get from cranberries. I added 1 teaspoon of the Selefina Cranberry Juice Powder in with the flour mixture (first bowl) when sifting together the dry ingredients. I didn’t list it in the ingredients list below…as it was something EXTRA that I tossed in.

You can use the Cranberry Juice Powder in a variety of different ways. I like adding it into my oatmeal, grits (adds a nice flavor to boring grits), fruit smoothies, stirred into vanilla yogurt, vanilla ice cream, and guess what? You can make your own flavored water with it too! I’ll typicall add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. to a full bottle of water. Shake, then drink! Delicious!

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
12 oz. frozen cranberries. thawed
1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. orange zest (grated orange rind)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking or baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another large mixing bowl beat together the melted butter, large egg and milk until creamy. Beat this wet mixture into your dry mixture until well combined. Fold in the thawed cranberries and orange zest. Then fold in by hand the finely chopped walnuts or pecans. Continue to gently stir them in until distributed throughout the batter.

Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until done. Remove and let cool. Wrap.

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