Cranberry Orange Bread

A cross-section

The restaurant apparently ordered wayyy too many bags of cranberries for Thanksgiving, because when I got back from my little vacation, they were practically forcing them on the rest of the staff.  So, I took some home, thinking I would make muffins or something. I got online, hoping to find something with cranberries and orange zest, because I think that combo goes rather nicely together.  I found this recipe for Cranberry Orange Loaf on allrecipes.com.  I changed it around a bit to satisfy my personal tastes, and added a simple orange glaze based on user suggestions.  I also doubled the recipe below to make two loaves instead of one.  So, here it is:

Cranberry Orange Bread

(the following recipe makes one loaf)

  

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/2 cup sliced almonds (the original recipe called for pecans, but I thought the almonds would be a nice substitution) ( I love almonds)

1/4 cup margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I added this too)
3/4 cup orange juice 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and sugar a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in orange zest, cranberries, and almonds.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar, egg, and almond extract until smooth.  Stir in orange juice.  Beat in flour mixture until just moistened.  

 Batter

Pour into prepared pan(s).  

Going into the oven

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the bread springs back when lightly touched.  Let stand 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool.  

Drizzled with orange glaze

This is where I added the orange glaze. I just whisked some powdered sugar, OJ, and vanilla extract together and poured it over the warm bread.

 Went really well with mimosas for breakfast

This recipe was super easy.  The bread turned out nice and moist, and the overall flavor was tasty.  The cranberries were still pretty tart, but I think the light glaze helped balance it out.  Took the extra loaf in to work since they made me take the cranberries in the first place!