CRANBERRY BREAD

 This recipe for Cranberry Bread is especially for my friends who love cranberries but not as fond of pumpkin since so many recipes for cranberry bread also contains pumpkin. Wayne is getting better, but if he's honest, he's not real fond for pumpkin. 

He is so funny. I can make something that has pumpkin in it and his comment after he eats a little sometimes will be, "It doesn't have much of a pumpkin taste."

This recipe came from the fabulous cookbook from the Heartstone Inn in Eureka Springs, AR. The inn looks like the perfect place to stay with it's wrap-around porch, but I think I would like to stay there just for the breakfast. I'm not kidding. I have not found a bad recipe yet from this cookbook. (This one had its first typo that I have found that wasn't caught when the cookbook was edited and even I didn't catch it until I was making the bread the first time.)

I decided to make the bread for Malinda, the teacher we "adopted" through our church. The church started this program this year because of COVID-19 and the fact that our schools had decided to go back to in-house instruction for the students who wanted to return and also on-line instruction for the students who did not want to return. Malinda is doing the on-line instruction for all of the third graders in her school district from her basement at home. I pray for her and her students every day and at least once a month take her a "care package". At the beginning of November I thought I would make her a loaf of quick bread to enjoy. In October I also baked her a mini loaf and she said it didn't last long. So this time I decided to make a full loaf. The only problem was I didn't get to taste it to make sure it was tasty. Since I had had such good luck with all of the other breads I have made from this Inn, I felt I was safe to do so.

Before I could share it here though, I had to make it again so I could taste it. I had promised our new Lead Pastor a "baked goodie" when her guess of participants at our "Drive-thru Communion" in October was closest and I hadn't made it. I pulled out two of my mini Pyrex loaf pans to make two loaves. After I ate a piece of one of them and tasted how good it was, I decided I would give her the second loaf.

The bread is awesome!!!! Maybe the best Cranberry Bread I have ever made. I know. I have probably said that before, but it's true!

This time of the year, I buy fresh cranberries as soon as they come out in the grocery stores. Seems like they last forever in the refrigerator, but I will end up sometime after the first of the year putting whatever is left in a freezer bag. Then when I want to make a recipe that calls for fresh cranberries, I can take out however much I need frozen and cut them in half. They cut so well when they are frozen. I used the last of my frozen ones when I made the bread the second time and the last time I went to the grocery store I bought four bags of fresh berries. 

Oh about that typo. Had you forgotten? When I was making the loaf for Malinda and following the directions, the directions said, "Add dry ingredients, which have been sifted together. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing well. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Pour into greased loaf pan..." Well when I added the dry ingredients the mixture was crumbly. I looked back at the list of ingredients and realized I hadn't added the orange juice. I reread the instructions and reread the ingredients and noticed two sentences had started "add dry ingredients". All I could do was add the orange juice to the crumbs and it worked out okay, I guess. When I made it the second time, I decided to alternate the dry ingredients with the orange juice like you do so often in recipes. It worked out fine that way also. So much for my OCD.

CRANBERRY BREAD

1     cup sugar

2     tablespoons butter, softened

1     egg

2     cups flour

1/2  teaspoon baking soda

1     teaspoon baking powder

1/2  teaspoon salt

3/4  cup orange juice

1     cup chopped cranberries (I just cut cranberries in half)

1/2  cup chopped nuts (I used walnut the first time and pecans the second time)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray with nonstick cooking spray an 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 - inch loaf pan or two mini loaf pans. Set aside.

Cream together the sugar, butter, and egg til creamy. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture alternately with the orange juice beginning and ending with the flour. (3 xs flour, 2 xs juice)

Fold in cranberries and nuts until

well distributed.

Pour into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes for 1 loaf and 35 - 45 minutes

for mini pans or until tests done.

(only got one of the mini loaves in the picture)

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing to finish cooling on wire rack. May need a knife to run around the inside of the pan(s) to release the bread.