CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS BREAD

I'm not sure why this Cranberry Christmas Bread has to have the word "Christmas" in its name. The cranberries in it are dried and you can buy them any time you want. There isn't anything else in the recipe that is a seasonal ingredient that you can only find in the winter. The point I am trying to make???? Don't let the name of this bread make you feel that you can only make it for Christmas. It would be such a shame.

Since I was making it for us (Wayne told me he loved cranberries in recipes.), I used 1/2 cup of a sugar/stevia baking blend for the cup of sugar. Many of the dried cranberries I used started out very big. I should have chopped them up as they made it hard to cut a slice with a big dried cranberry. (I think that is why my mother always chopped her pecans when she made her famous pecan pies. Pecan pies made with pecan halves is so hard to cut into serving pieces. The slice isn't pretty and neat.) Anyway the next thing I make with these dried cranberries, I will make sure I chop up any really big ones.

This recipe is another quick bread recipe if made in mini loaves, you could treat friends with at Christmas. OR just go on and make a regular size loaf for them.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe without all of my marvelous pictures. 😁

CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS BREAD

1     cup sugar or substitute with your favorite sugar substitute
2     tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1     egg
2     cups flour
1     teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon soda
1/2  teaspoon salt
3/4  cup orange juice
1     cup dried cranberries
1/2  cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray a 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inch loaf pan. Set aside.

Blend together the sugar, butter, and egg.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt with a whisk.

Add the cranberries and pecans. 

Add the dry ingredients and the orange juice alternately to the butter mixture beginning and ending with the flour.

(I added about half of the flour mixture with the hand mixer,

then all of the orange juice,

and then stirred in the rest of the flour and

stirred with a wooden spoon.)

Pour batter into bowl and

bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Cool in pan on wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Run a knife around the inside edge to loosen and then turn out on wire rack to finish cooling. Wrap in foil to store.