Cranberry Orange Bread made with fresh cranberries and a sweet orange glaze is one of our families favorite. It’s a tradition to make this easy recipe each holiday season.
I love sweet bread’s, especially when I can use fresh produce to make them like this Lemon Blueberry Bread, Lemon Zucchini Bread, and Easy Banana Bread.
I also love making holiday sweet breads for neighbors and friends. I always make a dozen mini loaves of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread in October, and I love to give this Cranberry Orange Bread around Thanksgiving and Christmas and Lemon Almond Bread all year long! And if you’re in a holiday breakfast kind of mood, don’t miss my Gingerbread Waffles!
The cranberry/orange combination is the perfect blend of sweet and tangy, and the glaze takes it over the top. It’s beautiful and completely delicious!
Easy Cranberry Bread in 6 steps:
1. Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl add sugar and orange zest and stir well to combine. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and stir.
2. Combine wet ingredients: In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined.
3. Fold in cranberries. Cut the fresh cranberries in half and fold them into the batter.
4. Add to bread pan. Spray two 9×5 loaf pans with cooking spray and pour batter into pan(s).
5. Bake. For regular loaf pans, bake for 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For mini loaves, bake for 35-45 minutes. If your loaf starts to get too brown during cooking, place a piece of aluminum foil over the top to finish baking.
6. Cool and top with glaze. While the bread is cooling, make the orange glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the bread. Cut and serve.
Storing and freezing cranberry orange bread:
To store: Wrap the fresh cranberry bread in plastic wrap and store it for 2-3 days at room temperature.
To freeze: This cranberry bread freezes beautifully. Allow it to cool completely and place it in a freezer-safe bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
Consider trying these holiday recipes:
- Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake
- Rocky Road Fudge
- Caramel and Chocolate Dipped Pretzels
- Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies
- Brownie Truffles
- Christmas Cornflake Wreaths
- Homemade Caramels
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Recipe
Cranberry Orange Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- Zest of 2 large oranges
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 cup oil (vegetable or canola oil)
- 4 large eggs slightly beaten
- 2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups fresh cranberries halved
For the orange glaze: (Optional)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray two 9x5 loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl add sugar and orange zest and stir well to combine. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and stir. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Fold in the halved cranberries. Pour batter into prepared pans.
- For regular loaf pans, bake for 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For mini loaves, bake for 35-45 minutes. If your loaf starts to get too brown during cooking, place a piece of aluminum foil over the top to finish baking.
- Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides of the bread with a knife. Carefully remove loaf from pan. Let cool completely on wire rack.
- While the bread is cooling, make the orange glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the bread. Cut and serve. Wrap bread well and store for 2-3 days at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
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Recipe adapted from Two Peas and their Pod.
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I originally shared this recipe November 2015. Updated November 2019.
I like it
This recipe is so yummy! I decided on a whim to make 8 mini loaves for my neighbors for Christmas, although I had never made this recipe before. Everyone commented how beautiful AND delicious it was! I doubled the recipe and it was perfect for the 8 mini loaves. Mine needed about 55 mins in the oven. I am going to start making this a yearly gift for neighbors, essential workers, etc!
This recipe was so tasty and came out great. I did however find that the cranberries all floated to the top and are not evenly distributed. How can I prevent that in the future?
roll the cranberries in flour so they are evenly dusted with a light coat and then add them in to the wet mix.
This was my first cranberry bread. I made yesterday and was really happy with this recipe. The combination of the tartness of the cranberries and the sweetness of the frosting was delicious. Bread came out of the oven soft and moist. Advised from other reviewers, I dust the cranberries with flour which helped to have the cranberries evenly all over the bread. I will keep this recipe as one of my faves. Thank you very much for this awesome recipe.
The bread came out perfectly. The recipe was very easy to follow. The texture was very good, fluffy not gooey as some breads turn out. The cranberries balanced the sweetness. It’s a perfect bread for breakfast or afternoon snack. My husband loves it!
Came out perfect! I coated the cranberries in flour as was suggested in a comment and they stayed evenly suspended in the loaf during baking. Perfect sweetness, many times sweetbreads are too sweet but this was just right with the tang of the cranberries. Nice hint of orange also as I have had some where the orange takes over the flavor but this was well balanced. Thank you for a great recipe!