Tart cranberries and sweet orange juice combine to make this Cranberry Orange Bread that is perfect for breakfast or brunch, or even for dessert! This is the perfect quick bread for the Christmas season.
Cranberry Orange Bread
For me, cranberry and orange is one of my very favorite holiday flavor combinations. Something about it just screams Christmas to me. I love the sweetness and the brightness from the orange, and the tartness from the cranberries. And we all know that we eat with our eyes first, and the orange and red colors are just stunning.
This Cranberry Orange Bread is perfect to make all holiday season long. It would even be perfect for neighbor gifts! I love serving it alongside a holiday breakfast, but it really is good all day long during the whole season!
Ingredients in Cranberry Orange Bread
This cranberry bread has:
- flour – I use all-purpose in this recipe
- sugar – you’ll need just regular, granulated sugar
- baking powder
- salt
- zest of 1 large orange – I use a microplane to zest the orange. Make sure you zest just the orange part, and not the white part under the orange
- fresh orange juice – it’s easiest if you zest the orange before you squeeze the juice from it
- eggs
- vegetable oil
- fresh cranberries – these are usually pretty easy to find at any grocery store throughout November and December
- pecans – I prefer pecans, but you could use walnuts or almonds as well
How to make Cranberry Orange Bread
This Cranberry Orange Bread is pretty simple to make!
- Prepare your loaf pan by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray and then lining it with parchment paper. I fold mine to fit and make sure to have enough hanging over the edges so that you can use those to pull the bread out when it is finished.
- Sift together all of the dry ingredients, then stir the orange zest in.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. (Kind of like a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients – so that there is a sort of bowl in the center where you will pour your wet ingredients.)
- Add the orange juice, eggs and vegetable oil to the center of the well.
- Stir everything together. You want to only stir until it is moistened and mixed. Over-stirring will toughen your bread.
- Fold the cranberries and the nuts into your batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake!
- You’ll know the bread is done when a tester inserted in the center comes out without any wet batter on it, or if you gently push on the middle of the bread, it should bounce back up.
More Cranberry Recipes
Cranberry Pudding Cake with Warm Butter Sauce
Cranberry Orange Cheesecake
Cranberry Orange Baked French Toast Casserole
Cranberry Orange Cupcakes
Tools Used to make this Cranberry Orange Bread
You will need a 9×5-inch loaf pan for this recipe. I have several different kinds in my kitchen, but the basic, nonstick pans work just fine.
Lining the pan with parchment paper helps a lot to be able to get the bread out of the pan easily.
I use a fine mesh strainer for sifting the dry ingredients. You can also use a sifter, or if you don’t have either of these, you can whisk the dry ingredients with a wire whisk.
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Cranberry Orange Bread
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Tart cranberries and sweet orange juice combine to make this Cranberry Orange Bread that is perfect for breakfast or brunch, or even for dessert! This is the perfect quick bread for the Christmas season.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- grated zest of 1 large orange
- 2/3 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the orange zest. Make a well in the center and add the orange juice, eggs and vegetable oil. Stir gently, just until almost combined. Fold in the cranberries and nuts, making sure you don’t over mix the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes:
Adapted from The Great Big Baking Book
Nutrition information provided as an estimate only. Various brands and products can change the counts. Any nutritional information should only be used as a general guideline.
Nutrition
- Calories: 212
- Sugar: 10 g
- Sodium: 125 mg
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 26 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 31 mg
Keywords: cranberry orange bread
eatme_delicious says
Hmm maybe I should try this bread as I don’t really like cranberries either. Saving this recipe!
Nirmala says
Thanks for visiting again. I also made a sweet bread over the weekend. Yours looks delicious. I hope to post shortly. Thanks for the encouragement.
maybahay says
how can anyone say no to these???
the flavours sound wonderful.
Cakelaw says
Yum – cranberry and orange is a great combination.
Joan Metz says
Be a little more tolerant…some people are allergic to nuts and some have health issues (diverticulitus) and cannot eat nuts.
Taylor says
Hi , Deborah
I have one question is 1 Tbsp of baking powder a lot
Or
Did you miss write it and it is supposed to be
1 tsp
Deborah says
Hi Taylor – the 1 tablespoon is correct! You may be able to get away with adding less, but I have not tested it with less.
Linnea says
Looks and smells delicious! Unfortunately, it seems to be taking a solid 15minutes more than the 45mins suggested to bake completely. I’m using regular size loaf pans – maybe I’ll try mini loaves next. Can’t wait to try it!
Sheryl says
Can you use frozen cranberries? If you do should they be thawed?
Deborah says
I haven’t tried it with frozen cranberries, but my guess is that they would work. And I’d just try adding them in frozen – no thawing necessary!
Ann says
Ugh, forgot the sugar, hopefully the oj will be sweet enough!
Deborah says
Uh oh! I hope it was still good for you. 🙂
Lisa Dudley says
I was tired of my usual banana bread, so I thought I’d give this a try. Delicious! The orange is not overpowering, which is good. The cranberries(I left them whole) were, as expected, tart, but not too much. They blended nicely with the flavor and added a wonderful taste. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Nanc says
How do I convert this into mini loaves
Deborah says
Hi Nanc – I haven’t tried them as mini loaves, and it would baking time would depend on the actual size of your loaf pan. The ingredients and method would remain the same. I’d probably start checking them around 20 minutes and let them bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Rhonda Meadows says
Can I substitute melted butter for the oil?
Cindy says
I made your orange cranberry bread today. It made the house smell wonderful while it was baking. It turned out great and looked just like your pictures. It tasted delicious! Great recipe.
Tina Duell says
This recipe was perfect! Giving gifts of rocky road fudge, orig Chex mix and needed one more treat! So happy I made it. It will be the best part of the gifts for my neighbors. Thank you!
Joyce says
I had a bad experience. There was more batter than one pan worth. I filled a mini pan also. The mini pan turned out fine. The larger one I cooked for 50 minutes and took it out . Wrong move! It was not done at all. After it fell apart I jammed it back in the pan and cooked it for another 15 minutes. Needless to say, we are eating this ourselves, not giving it as a gift!
Lora Gullette says
Can I use dried cranberries? If so, would it be the same amount and should I rehydrates them before using?
Deborah says
I haven’t tried dried cranberries in this bread so I couldn’t say for sure how it would turn out. I would think it would be ok. And if I were going to try it, I’d probably soak them in some orange juice or cranberry juice first.
Aidan says
This recipe is great!! I added some rum and vanilla, almond, and orange extract. Super tasty. A tad crumbly though
★★★★★
Glends Jean says
This bread tasted delicious! I’m not sure what I did, but it cracked on top, but I was interrupted several times while making it, and I really don’t care, because it tastes delicious! Hubs says so too. I told him he had to wait ‘til Thanksgiving morning for anymore. I’m making another one just in case. Hopefully there will be fewer interruptions and I won’t have any cracks. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
Dave says
I doubled the recipe and used a package of frozen cranberries that I needed to use up, was probably about 4 cups, so yes, i had plenty of cranberry goodness.
The loaf texture can out almost like a scone, which is fine with me. We loved it.
★★★★★
Shirley says
I made the Cranberry Orange Bread today. So easy! It was delicious! I love a one bowl recipe!
If I want the bread to be more moist, what can I do? Also, I was going to stir in additional sugar with the cranberries before adding them to the batter. What do you think?
I’d appreciate your input.