For ages I’ve been relying on a recipe for cranberry quick bread that I got on the back of a bag of fresh cranberries from Ocean Spray about twenty years ago. It calls for a lot of orange juice, which I find too intense. Since I don’t make the bread that often as cranberries are only really available in Fall/Winter, it’s never been a problem. I got a bag of fresh cranberries last week with vague plans of making the bread while my friend, Gordon, was visiting from New York, but I never got around to it. They’ve been sitting in my fridge until yesterday.

fresh cranberry quick bread

Over X-mas another friend, David, gave us some homemade crystallized orange and lemon peel and some mixed nuts roasted in spices. I wanted some recipe that combined all three but didn’t know where to turn. Oh, my! I looked at the New Joy. They’ve got several recipes for quick breads but strangely none with fresh cranberries. I ended up improvising, combining two of their recipes: the one for a quick bread with fresh pears and pecans, and the one for dried cranberries with nuts.

This bread is moist, light compared to other quick breads, sour from the fruit, crunchy from the nuts, chewy from the crystallized peel and sweet. I had three slices for breakie the first day!

Fresh Cranberry Quick Bread

1 bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Zest from half lemon and half orange
Juice from one orange (I used mandarin)
¼ cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup crystallized lemon and orange peel, chopped (optional)
½ cup mixed spiced nuts, chopped (optional)

fresh cranberry quick bread goes well with your morning coffee

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9” by 5” loaf pan.

Mix flour, sugar and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.

Beat egg with vanilla, zest, orange juice, water and vegetable oil. Mix cranberries into wet ingredients. Fold dry ingredients into wet. If using crystallized peel and nuts, fold them in after batter starts to become fully moistened. Pour batter into loaf pan.

Bake for 1 ¼ hours until a toothpick piercing the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove to cooling rack. Let rest for about fifteen minutes. Remove from pan. Allow to cool completely.

Serve with coffee at breakfast, at dinner with a savory meal or as a started with a creamy goat or blue cheese.