CRANBERRY COTTAGE BREAD

 

I mentioned in an earlier post that October is Pastor Appreciation Month in the United Methodist Church. I usually find something to bake to give them to show my appreciation. Surprise! Surprise!

One of the loaves I made was NORMA'S CRANBERRY PUMPKIN BREADNorma's Cranberry Pumpkin Bread which I had made before and shared here on my blog. It came from a cookbook I have called Yolanda's All New Cranberry Cookbook by Yolanda Lodi. I ordered it online after getting back from a vacation on Cape Cod several years ago. I have made so many recipe from the cookbook and still have more I want to try. 

The second loaf recipe I made was my husband's favorite banana bread recipe called BANANA SPLIT BREAD. It really is a good banana bread recipe.

The third bread I decided to make was this Cranberry Cottage Bread which was also from Yolanda's cookbook. It uses dried cranberries whereas the first one uses fresh cranberries. The cottage referred to in the title is cottage cheese not a small cozy house. The recipe also surprises you with dried apricots. It is really a delicious quick bread also.

It isn't quite as quick as the other two because if you really want to make a tasty and beautiful loaf/slice, you really need to make sure that you finely chop the dried fruit. You want to make sure that the dried fruit is evenly distributed within the loaf. I was very meticulous in doing this and it probably took me 30 minutes to do both of them. The first time I made the recipe I measured the whole fruit and then chopped as the recipe implied by the placement of the words "finely chopped". The second time I decided to measure the fruit again after I finely chopped it and saw it was more than 1 cup. So I moved the "finely chopped" to before the fruit instead of afterwards in the recipe since the batter was a little easier to work with since the second time around, I had added less chopped fruit. 

(PRINT RECIPE)

CRANBERRY COTTAGE BREAD

1/2     cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2/3     cup dark-brown sugar (I just used light)

2        large eggs

1        cup cottage cheese

3        cups all-purpose flour

3        teaspoons baking powder

1        teaspoon baking soda

1/2     teaspoon salt

1        cup finely chopped dried apricots

1        cup finely chopped sweetened dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan or three mini-loaf pans. Set aside.

Finely chop the dried apricots and dried cranberries.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, with a mixer at low speed, cream the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.

(I did increase the speed to medium once the mixture was blended to fully cream the mixture.)

Add one egg at a time, making sure the batter continues to be fluffy.

Stir in the cottage cheese until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt,

dried apricots and

dried cranberries.

Add to the large bowl. Mix with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened.

(Batter will be stiff and sticky.) (Since I made the recipe twice because I needed four mini-loaves, the second time I added the dry ingredients a little at a time and it was much easier to mix up.)

Divide the batter into the loaf pan(s). (I actually weighed my pans with the batter to make sure they were fairly evenly filled.)

(As I said the batter is stiff and sticky. You might want to moisten your finger tips with water or oil or flour.

I found a knife worked well too.)

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the bread tests done for the one large loaf. Bake the mini loaves for about 40 minutes testing for doneness.

Cool on a wire rack.

(I removed the loaves after a few minutes.)