Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Bread

I am not the best baker in the world.  I much prefer to dice, chop, saute and cook things.  Baking requires such precise measurements and I am just not that girl.  I can do it and if often turns out wonderful results but I much prefer the fast and furious nature of cooking versus baking.  I love the sound of my knife chopping stuff.  I'm weird I know, but I like the instantaneous results of cooking too.  Baking takes hours sometimes and in my corner of the world, I just don't have time to bake alot.  Occasionally though there comes a recipe that stops me dead in my dicing/chopping tracks and makes me want to bake.  This was one of them.  :)

This was called "Crantastic Cranberry Bread" but when I clicked the link, it went to another site, who got it off another place, who got it out of a magazine, book or something I hadn't heard of.  And each one had changed it in itty bitty ways (as I did myself) so I'm dubbing it Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Bread because that's what's in it and that's what I changed, dang it.  Its just easier that way!

As is my habit on Sundays, I make muffins, pastry or something for hubs to eat during the week for work.  I felt I had muffin'd him out so when I saw this cranberry bread, I thought it would be a lovely change for him.  Let me tell you, this bread IS fabulous with a capital F.  Cranberries are tart by nature but in this recipe, they're surprisingly not so tart and evened out nicely with a sweet overtone.  Slather on some yummy Irish butter and have a mug of tea...YUM!  Its a beautiful loaf of bread and I *think* this might be making an appearance on my Thanksgiving table this year.  I hope you give it a whirl.

You see all those pockets of cranny goodness?

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Bread

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
Zest of 1 large orange
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries
1/8 cup raw sugar (or the packets work fine too)


Start by picking through your cranberries and removing any stems or tossing out any bad ones.  Rinse VERY well, drain and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  In a large bowl (or your mixer stand bowl), mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and zest.  In a small bowl, whisk together egg, cooled melted butter, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Fold in the cranberries and pour into the loaf pan.  Sprinkle raw sugar over top of the batter.

Bake until golden brown on top and toothpick/cake tester comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.  (check at 1 hour and go from there)  Cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.