Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

Cranberry orange bread is packed with fresh cranberries, orange zest, crunchy pecans and drizzled with an orange glaze.

This recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread sure is special!

Cranberry Orange Bread is a recipe straight from my Mom’s recipe files. It’s the sort of recipe that I grew up on, but never noticed how special it was, until I was living on my own and missed it! I asked my Mom to share her recipe, and of course, I made a few changes by adding pecans and an orange glaze to make it even better.

I love this cranberry orange bread because it uses fresh cranberries! During the week of Thanksgiving, I always buy a few extra, and store them in the freezer for this quick bread all winter long. It makes an awesome breakfast because the tart cranberries and crunchy pecans are so great with the orange flavors from the zest and glaze.

Orange Cranberry Bread ingredients

• All-Purpose Flour. This is a full-size loaf of bread, so it calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour. The best way to measure your flour is to fluff it in the container, scoop it into the measuring cup, and level it off with a knife. One cup of flour weighs between 120-130 grams each, if you would like to bake by weight.
• Sugar. Regular granulated sugar for this recipe.
• Baking Powder. We’re only using baking powder, not baking soda today, because we don’t want the bread to overly brown on top.
• Fresh Cranberries. We need 2 cups of chopped cranberries, which means you need to chop them in half and then measure them. Chop a handful in half, add it to the measuring cup, and repeat until you have 2 cups worth of halved cranberries.
• Pecans. Nuts are always optional in my recipes, and I really like the crunch of ½ cup of pecans in the batter.
• Eggs. Two large eggs, beaten in a separate bowl before being added to the batter.
• Milk. I always bake with whole milk. Adding milk to a bread dough makes the final result more tender and soft, which is why muffin and quick bread recipes often contain milk, while chewy cookies do not.
• Vanilla Extract. Real vanilla pure extract.
• Butter. We will be melting half a stick of butter (4 tablespoons), so no need to bring the butter to room temperature.
• Fresh Navel Orange. Try to find a large, heavy navel orange with a bright orange rind. Wash it very well, and then zest all of it and juice it. We will use 2 tablespoons of the juice for the bread, and the rest for the glaze after baking.
• Powdered Sugar. A small amount of powdered sugar (also called confectioner’s sugar) to make the glaze on the bread. The frosting on the cranberry orange bread is optional, but it really contains a lot of orange flavor, so I don’t skip it.

Cranberry Orange Bread Recipe notes

If you’ve made a quick bread in a loaf pan before, you’ll find this batter to be thicker than others. While some quick breads have a thin, runny batter, this bread batter is full of so much stuff that it tends to be on the thicker side. Plus, the fresh cranberries soften and release juices in the oven, so the bread will have plenty of moisture while baking, I promise! 

Second thing about this bread is that slicing this many fresh cranberries in half is a bit tedious, but I promise it’s worth the effort! I do have a trick to make it faster, though. If you have two plastic deli lids leftover from the olive bar at a grocery store, you can pile as many cranberries between two of them as you can. Then, press your hand gently on the top of the lids, and cut the cranberries in half all at once. If that sounds complicated, just cut each cranberry in half while listening to a great podcast.

The third thing about this cranberry bread is that it uses my 'muffin method' for super tender results. While most cookie and cake recipes call for mixing wet and dry ingredients separately before combining, this recipe calls for the sugar (a wet ingredient) to be mixed in with the flour. This step results in a super soft crumbed bread. This bread melts in your mouth!

How to make cranberry orange bread:

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Then stir in the cranberries and pecans. Coating the cranberries and pecans in flour helps them from sinking to the bottom of the bread while it bakes.
   
2. Next, in a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, orange juice and zest, vanilla,  and melted butter.
   
3. Combine the two mixtures, but note it will be a stiff batter. Scrape it in into the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out dry with only a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
   
4. While the bread cools, make the glaze using the rest of the orange juice and a bit of powered sugar. Drizzle it on top after the bread cools, and then slice and serve.

How to serve this recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread

The best way to create neat, clean slices is to let the bread cool completely before slicing. Use a serrated knife and cut thin ¾-1-inch slices. Serve on a plate with tea or coffee.

Orange Cranberry Bread storage

Let the bread cool completely, wrap in two layers of plastic wrap, place in a storage bag and keep in the fridge. It will keep for up to 1 week this way. You can also freeze for up to 3 months. I recommend slicing before freezing. Thaw in fridge overnight.

Cranberry Orange Bread Recipe FAQs

More cranberry recipes you'll love

If you love baking with fresh cranberries, try my chocolate cranberry muffins, cranberry orange pavlova, leftover cranberry sauce bars, and crockpot cranberry sauce.

For dried cranberries, you've got to make my small batch white chocolate cranberry cookies or my cranberry orange cookies!