I hadn’t planned on doing any Christmas baking because I still had a mini pumpkin pie in the freezer from Thanksgiving. Then, I changed my mind, because it was Christmas, after all.
So I went rooting around my pantry and freezer to see what I could find.
In the freezer, I found a half package of cranberries, left over from making a half batch of cranberry sauce, so I made a fast and easy cranberry loaf.
Cranberry-Orange Quick Bread – makes 1 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan
Cranberry Preparation
~1 1/2 cups/170 gm frozen cranberries, partially thawed and cut in half
1 tsp flour
Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, large
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
2 tsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly oil or butter the loaf pan. (See NOTE below.)
Toss the cranberries with the flour and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
In a medium bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
Stir the web ingredients into the dry ingredients just until mixed. Gently fold in the cranberries. Pour the batter into your loaf pan.
Bake for 45 min to an hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out cleanly.
Cool in pan set onto wire cooling rack, to room temperature then slice and serve.
NOTE: My loaf pans are bigger than this so I used a disposable aluminum loaf pan, filled about half way. The excess batter was baked in the wells of a medium sized muffin tin. Both the loaf pan and 3-4 of the muffin tin wells were oiled lightly. The loaf pan took about 55 min to bake while the muffins took 20-25 min.
Cranberry-Orange Muffins
There were dried cranberries in a jar in the pantry so I used them to make cranberry-orange short-bread cookies.
I was going to be fancy and dip part of the short-breads in chocolate but after tasting the short-breads plain, I decided they didn’t need any embellishment.
Cranberry-Orange Short-breads
Cranberry-Orange Short-breads – makes 28 1 inch wide x 2 1/4 inch long x 1/2 inch thick bars.
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 cup/ 227 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup icing or powdered sugar
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
castor sugar, optional
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch and salt. Add the chopped cranberries and toss through to coat. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla and almond (if using) extract, and orange zest, with a hand mixer.
Add the flour/cranberry mixture to the butter mixture and beat at a low speed with the hand mixer until well incorporated, 3-5 min, and then give it another minute or two at a higher speed until it holds together into a ball.
Divide the dough into two even parts. Pat each portion into a 7 inch by 4 1/2 inch rectangle. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut each section into 14 x 1 inch wide x 2 1/4 inch long x 1/2 inch thick bars. Alternatively, roll each section of dough into a one inch diameter log, about 7 inch long, wrap with plastic food wrap and refrigerate until firm. Cut into half inch coins.
Bake at 325 deg F/160 deg C for approximately 30 minutes, or until dry and firm but still pale.
Transfer to a wire cooling rack until cool. Serve.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 