Cranberry Fruit-Nut Bread

Can baking teach equanimity? In my case it did. A long time ago, I presented my mother-in-law with a beautiful loaf of cranberry nut bread for Christmas, which I (a novice baker at the time) managed to prepare with two toddlers underfoot in my tiny kitchen using an overly complicated recipe. Let's just say, she didn't appreciate the gift. It bothered me for a while (ok, years), but the more I came to understand her and her lovable quirkiness, philosophical pronouncements (we called her the Yogi Bera of Queens) and witnessed the devotion of her children, the disappointment of my gift's rejection disappeared. I loved spending time with Lucy, and I think of her fondly whenever I bake this bread.

This Cranberry Fruit-Nut Bread, a vintage recipe from an Amish collection I purchased a few years ago, is the best I've made so far. It's the easiest and yields the best looking loaf. Donald Trump would give it a 10. You can see the other two here and here.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and add in the cranberries and nuts.  It's better not to use a mixer (as I learned) because the cranberries get crushed.  Do it the old fashioned way with a wooden spoon for a better result.

Mix the juice, egg, orange zest and butter together.  I measured the juice, then added everything else into the measuring cup to save on clean up.

Grease (or spray) a loaf pan, and spoon the batter in, spreading it evenly.

Let it cool in the pan for ten minutes before turning it out.

Production notes: I followed this recipe exactly, using butter (not margarine) and did not cut the cranberries in half. It might result in a slightly better loaf, but I don't think it's worth the very tedious effort. You can get a teaspoon of zest from one orange. After step 5, the recipe gets weird and seems to morph into another recipe entirely. Just ignore it.

Cranberry Bread

I've had a love affair with cranberry bread -- that enticing contrast between the tart berries and the sweet bread -- ever since I made it decades ago from Recipes for a Small Planet. That healthy cookbook recipe used whole wheat flour, milk powder, etc., to presumably make it more nutritious. I've since given up on baking for health (why bother?).

This wonderful recipe is from a new collection from an estate sale near Dallas, Texas, (via eBay, of course). While I try to refrain from buying even more recipe collections (I have hundreds of recipes at home I've yet to try), in a weak moment I caved and bid on a binder full of recipes divided into three sections: Mom, Jennifre [sic] and Other. The cranberry bread is from Mom.

This bread is quick and simple to assemble -- with delicious results. (It's also easier than another cranberry bread I made a while back, which requires an extra step.)  And with fresh cranberries literally flooding the markets (farmer's and super), now is the perfect time to make this.

Cranberries, pecans and orange zest pack the flavor into this bread.

Mix the dry ingredients, add the liquid and mix just enough to combine. Add in the cranberries, nuts and zest and mix until evenly distributed.

Spoon the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for about 80 minutes.

Let the bread cool slightly, and turn out from the pan.

I followed this recipe exactly, right down to the baking time. I used fresh cranberries from the farmer's market, but frozen would work fine too. I used butter for the melted shortening. The toughest part was finding frozen OJ in my neighborhood, where residents have an affinity for fresh-squeezed, organic and other manner of modern fancy juices. I also don't believe in refrigerating this bread, as the recipe author suggests.