The makin’s for Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread
Remember the Cranberry Jiggle?
I’m not making the cranberry dish this year for Thanksgiving. Wait, don’t get me wrong; we’re having cranberries all right. It wouldn’t be a proper celebration without them. True, I passed them up during my youth. Back then a red, gel cylinder was released from a can and plopped onto a serving dish just before the turkey arrived on the table. The best part was watching it do a Jello jiggle before it was calmed down by being cut into edible slices. Once on your plate it did a slow melt and ended up leaving a puddle around your mashed potatoes.
This year we’ll have a cranberry relish made from fresh berries, oranges and nuts and another called citron-cranberry marmalade. I’m looking forward to both. But there are other things you can make with the tart, round marbles, such as meatballs, cranberry white chocolate cake, cranberry-oatmeal-chocolate cookies, cranberry scones, and cranberry chutney.
This bread has to cool for an hour, which is a long time to wait for a slice of bread, especially when the aroma’s drifting about the kitchen and you’re standing there with a knife in your hand, watching the clock.
Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread
This year I couldn’t pass up buying a sack of cranberries even before I figured out what I’d do with them. I settled on Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread, that I’ve made before at this time of the year. It works as a breakfast bread, snack, or even dessert served with fruit or ice cream. The recipe looks simple—and really is. But it’s one of those that causes you to use every bowl, measuring spoon and cup in the kitchen. Or maybe it was just poor planning on my part. The kitchen and I both survived.
I did two things differently than usual. One of them didn’t help make things any easier. Instead of chopping the berries in the food processor, I followed the advice of some online food guru and chopped them in half by hand. A whole cup and a half! I was glad I did afterwards. It really made for a prettier bread when cut, because you see the circular halves rather than just specks and flecks.
Secondly, I cut back on the sugar. The recipe calls for one cup and I went with more like ¾ cup, because I prefer my sweet bread being less sweet. I thought it was perfect. The loaf is languishing in the freezer now with only one slice missing off the end. How else could I tell if the bigger cranberry slices and reduced sugar made a difference? 😊
