You are going to love our best cranberry orange bread recipe with glaze. Moist, tender, and soft, this cranberry orange bread recipe is a combination of sweet and tangy delight. The glaze drizzles down the moist bread, and its aroma makes your kitchen smell like a real bakery; this cranberry orange loaf is a treat to all your senses, quite literally!
Plus, the recipe for orange cranberry bread is super easy to make and stays moist for 3-4 days straight, making it the perfect holiday homemade gift.
If you are looking for more easy baking recipes, we have a delicious Banana Bread With Dried Cranberries, buttery and chewy Cookies and Cream Cookies or Cinnamon Banan Bread With Raisins for something different.
We have plenty of baking recipes for breakfast or to enjoy as a quick snack to satisfy your sweet tooth.
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With Christmas just around the corner, your cranberry bread with orange juice would be the talk of the table!
I absolutely love using fresh cranberries in the recipe; they pop and add a jammy texture to the overall orange cranberry loaf.
The tartness of fresh cranberries balances the sweetness of the batter, so it’s perfect for everyone to munch on, even if you are not a big sweet lover. Trust me when I say this; you will treasure every bite of this crumbly goodness.
Ingredients
- Orange zest - enhances the tangy flavor of the recipe. When added to the glaze, it gives a very holiday-like color and charm to the bread. Cranberries and orange zest make the bread deliciously mouth-watering giving it a festive look.
- Orange juice provides multiple benefits to your recipe:
- It enhances the overall sweet-tangy flavor of your orange glaze cranberry bread.
- It’s an excellent substitute for baking powder. Orange juice works as an acid for the leavening agent.
- Vitamin C inside the orange juice works as a dough enhancer, making your bread fluffier.
- Orange juice gives your bread a tender crumb which is crucial while making cranberry orange bread.
- Fresh cranberries - The tartness of cranberries balances the sweetness of your overall bread. Plus, the popped cranberries have a jammy texture that further compliments your loaf. Kids would absolutely love this fresh cranberry orange bread because of the jam.
- Orange juice and fresh cranberries add a fruity flavor to the recipe—making it one of the best orange cranberry bread recipes ever. Additionally, cranberries are rich in antioxidants and are a natural detoxifying agent. So, it’s delicious, healthy, and also a perfect breakfast.
- For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down to where you'll find the recipe card.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place parchment paper inside the loaf pan leaving enough space to create small overhangs. It will help to pull out the bread out easily later. (I used a 8 ½" x 4 ½" loaf pan)
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl combine milk and orange juice. Set aside.
In third large mixing bowl, beat butter until soft and add sugar and orange zest. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Then follow with eggs, adding them one by one. Beat until all combined.
Add in the flour mixture. Beat on low until all combined. Slowly add in the mixed milk and orange juice. Mix until combined. The batter will get thick, scrape down the sides with a spatula.
In a separate bowl, toss the cranberries with 1 teaspoon of flour until well coated. Fold the cranberries into the batter.
Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes then remove it and transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the glaze by combining confectioner's sugar and orange juice. The glaze should be thick and pourable. Drizzle over cooled cranberry bread and let set for a couple of minutes.
Serve the bread right away!
Tips
- Butter the pan and coat it with flour. If you are not using parchment paper, brush an ample amount of butter on the insides of the butter loaf pan. Next, cover/dust the buttered pan with flour. You don’t want too much flour on your pan or the bread, so remove excess flour by putting the pan upside down. That’s how you keep your bread from sticking to the pan.
- Don’t consider vanilla extract to be optional. While many consider vanilla extract to be optional, I suggest you don’t skip adding it to all your baked goods. Vanilla extract adds sweet and rich notes to your overall recipe and enhances other flavors in the batter as well.
- Consider vanilla to be like salt. Without salt, your recipe would always taste bland. The same goes for vanilla; it brings an aromatic life to your recipe. Vanilla’s absence might not be visible, but its presence would make your cranberry orange bread taste like heaven— vanilla extract takes your recipe to the next professional level!
- Grate the orange zest in advance: You’d need an orange zest for the batter and the drizzling glaze. So, it’s best to grate it before cutting the orange for fresh juice. Once cut and squeezed, it would be impossible to zest the orange for the glaze.
- After rinsing and drying your fresh cranberries, coat them with flour to keep them from sinking at the bottom of the pan. Don’t use too much; ½ -1 tablespoon of flour will be enough.
- Even out the batter in the pan to allow the loaf to rise evenly. I usually like to push some of the batter into the center of the bread, working my way up from the sides. Not too much but will give the bread a nice rise. Make a small cut in the middle too.
- Don’t simply dump the glaze on your cranberry orange bread. Instead, take your time to make it look appetizing.
- Be generous with the drizzle amount because it sweetens your bread, but do it nicely! Cranberry orange bread isn’t overly sweet, so drizzling glaze provides just the right amount of sweetness to surprise your taste buds subtly.
Freezing and Storing Instructions
- Allow your cranberry orange bread to cool completely and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Store at room temperature for 2-3 days.
- You can keep it longer, for about 4-5 days as well but the texture may not be the same and moist anymore.
- Freeze in an airtight container, preferably wrapped individually in parchment paper, for up to 3 months.
Recipe Questions and Answers
No, you don’t need to remove the pulp. A little pulp would do your bread more good than bad. Our aim is to make the cranberry bread fruity and tangy, so the pulp is good!
Yes, why not! I absolutely love roasted nuts in my dessert. You can add half a cup of roasted walnut or pecan to prepare your own unique cranberry orange nut bread or cranberry pecan bread.
Chop the nuts coarsely and roast them to enhance your bread’s nutty flavor.
Add nuts after you are done mixing cranberries in the batter. You can mix or sprinkle them over the batter to make it look extra delicious.
Yes, of course! You can make your exceptional dried cranberry orange bread.
If you don’t prefer the tartness of fresh cranberries, you can substitute them with dried cranberries. They are often sweeter in taste and would satisfy your sweet tooth immensely.
Dried cranberry bread recipes aren’t complex, either. Here’s what to do:
If you are not a fan of sweet cranberry loaf, use ⅔rd cup of dried cranberries instead of one whole cup. It depends on you and your choice of sweetness in the bread.
The more dried cranberries in your bread, the sweeter it will be. However, don’t add more than a cup of cranberries.
To make the dried cranberries juicy and jammy, pre-soak them in warm water for 10-15 minutes.
Cranberry is a small, nutritious, seasonal fruit (October-December), so you can purchase and store them for later use.
Yes, you can use frozen cranberries in the recipe. However, ensure that you don’t thaw them. Rinse, pat dry, and add them to the batter.
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📖Recipe
Cranberry Orange Bread Recipe With Glaze
Ingredients
Cranberry Bread
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup milk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- ¼ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, for cranberries
Orange Glaze
- 2 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For Decoration
- Cranberries
- Rosemary
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place parchment paper on the loaf pan. (I used a 8 ½" x 4 ½" loaf pan)
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl combine milk and orange juice. Set aside.
- In third large mixing bowl, beat butter until soft and add sugar and orange zest. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Then follow with eggs, adding them one by one. Beat until all combined.
- Add in the flour mixture. Beat on low until all combined. Slowly add in the mixed milk and orange juice. Mix until combined. The batter will get thick, scrape down the sides with a spatula.
- In a separate bowl, toss the cranberries with 1 teaspoon of flour until well coated. Fold the cranberries into the batter.
- Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes then remove it and transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by combining confectioners sugar and orange juice. The glaze should be thick and pourable. Drizzle over cooled cranberry bread and let set for a couple of minutes.
- Serve the bread right away!
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Recipe has been adapted from here.
Rita
Rich and moist with a delicious flavor of orange and tart cranberries.