Cranberry Orange Mini-Loaves

Still looking for some last-minute holiday gifts? Make your friends and family some of this cranberry bread. Everyone knows that carbs make the best gifts. Unless your friends are on the Atkins diet, in which case, they shouldn't be your friends anyways.

In a Sandra Lee-esque moment, I bought a bunch of Christmas-themed mini loaf pans for $1 each (no, I did not create a matching tablescape). If you live near a Christmas Tree Shop, you might be able to find some yourself. I had made a regular sized loaf of cranberry bread a few weeks ago just to test drive the recipe. I made it extra festive and tasty this time around by adding more cranberries and sprinkling the tops of the loaves with turbinado sugar before baking. This recipe makes one regular sized loaf, or four mini loaves.

Cranberry Orange Bread
adapted from How to Cook Everything


Ingredients:
4 Tbsp. cold butter, plus more for greasing the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp. orange zest
1 egg
1 1/2 cups cranberries, washed, dried, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan(s).

2. Stir together the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into bits, then use a fork or 2 knives to cut it into the dry ingredients until there are no pieces bigger than a small pea (you can use a food processor for this step, but not for the remaining steps).

3. Beat together orange juice, zest, and egg. Pour into dry ingredients, mixing just enough to moisten; do not beat, and do not mix until the batter is smooth.

4. Fold in the cranberries and pecan, then spoon the batter into loaf pan(s). Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For one large loaf pan, bake about an hour. For mini loaves, bake about 40 minutes. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Download a printable recipe here.

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