This bread is soooo good.
I have made 5 cranberry orange bread loafs in the past month. I gave them away for gifts but of course had to test it first…definitely gift worthy.
The flavors of this bread come together so well. My favorite combo is the vanilla, almond, orange and cranberry – fresh, sweet, tart and simply different from a chocolate or vanilla flavor. Ya know…I need to bake with fruit more. Do not get me wrong, I love ALL things sweet but it’s nice to change it up a bit. I typically eat a yogurt every morning for breakfast and lately I’ve been adding blackberries (they have been on sale, woot woot!). Now all I can think about is blackberry cobbler. I just love how my healthy eating habits turn into my indulgent cravings. These are the problems I have to deal with everyday. 😉
If you can, buy the freshest dried cranberries you can find – you want them to be big and plump. Some grocery stores have a trail mix or nut/dried fruit section where you can fill little bags up of all your favorite snackies. Yes, if you have one of those, get the cranberries from there. It’s not the end of the world if you use the prepackaged ones though.
Another must-do is to thoroughly mix the orange zest into the sugar so the freshness of the zest gets equally incorporated throughout the bread. To do this, simply massage the zest into the sugar with your hands. Your hands will then smell like they’ve taken a bath in fresh orange juice which smells pretty amazing!
What takes this bread over the top is the orange drizzle. It helps keep the bread moist and gives it that sweet touch that it needs. This is definitely a dessert bread, and it’s absolutely wonderful with coffee. Make a loaf and wake up to it for breakfast…your day will definitely be off to a good start!
Enjoy!
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- 1½ cups flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup fresh orange juice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- zest of one orange
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8x4-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, mix orange zest and sugar by mixing and rubbing with your fingers - the sugar will be pale orange. Then add flour, baking powder and salt and whisk. Finally, whisk in oil, ⅓ cup orange juice, vanilla extract, almond extract and eggs until smooth. Stir in cranberries, leaving a few for garnishing.
- Spoon batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove. Cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, whisk powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of orange juice and vanilla in a bowl. Add more orange juice, a ½ teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle on top of bread and garnish with cranberries.
Source: Stuck on Sweet, Recipe Adapted From: Betty Crocker
Almost too pretty to eat!
This looks wonderful! I love cranberry bread and that glaze looks delish!
Is it breakfast yet? I’d love 2 slices please.
It’s so good with coffee! 😉
Thank you for the nice recipe.