Cranberry-Nut Bread

  • ⅓ cup orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange zest from 1 large orange
  • ⅔ cup buttermilk
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing pan
  • 1 large egg, beaten lightly
  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ cups frozen or fresh cranberries (about 6 ounces), chopped coarse
  • ½ cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped coarse
Healthy Living is pleased to feature seasonal recipes from the ‘favorites list’ of Gather Round Chef Service, a Burlington-based personal chef company led by Chef Ariel Voorhees. This month’s recipe: Butternut Squash Risotto with Toasted Pepitas!

Breads, Breakfast, Desserts

Servings: One 9-inch loaf Source: Cooksillustrated.com

Come Thanksgiving time, everyone meticulously plans the big event: the gorgeous feast that we’ll share with friends and family on Thanksgiving day. But all that planning can leave a cook exhausted and unprepared when it comes to the other meals of the holiday week. Sure, Thanksgiving dinner is important and glorious, but what about breakfasts and lunches for the rest of the week? Particularly when you’re hosting out-of-town guests, it can be a huge help to stock your pantry and freezer with breakfast and snack foods that require no effort to keep your guests fed and happy. And when you’re the guest, arriving with a gift of shareable, ready-to-eat food like this is always appreciated!

So every year in this season, I look forward to baking the Cranberry-Nut quick bread because it makes a fabulous breakfast bread as well as a special-feeling snack. It gains brightness from the cranberries and buttermilk, sweetness from the orange juice and sugar, and heartiness from the nuts. It freezes and thaws beautifully; just wrap it well with parchment and aluminum foil once it has cooled completely. The recipe calls for half of a standard 12-ounce package of cranberries, so I usually double the recipe and make two loaves at once. Eat one now, freeze the other for later!

DIRECTIONS

To toast pecans, heat griddle over medium heat. Add pecans, chopped coarse; toast, shaking pan frequently, until nuts are fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom of 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Stir together orange juice, zest, buttermilk, butter, and egg in small bowl. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir liquid ingredients into dry with rubber spatula until just moistened. Gently stir in cranberries and pecans. Do not over-mix.

Scrape batter into loaf pan and spread with rubber spatula into corners of pan. Bake 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees; continue to bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes longer. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool at least 1 hour before serving. (Resist the urge to cut into the bread while it is hot out of the oven! The texture improves as it cools, making it easier to slice.)

Nutrition

Calories: 2895