This velvety soft cranberry bread recipe with orange glaze is packed with flavor and strikes the perfect balance between tart cranberries and sweet orange goodness! Best part is, it’s super easy to make.
Why You’ll Love This Cranberry Bread Recipe
This cranberry bread is the best I’ve ever had, and here is why!
The cranberry bread recipe itself is packed with cranberry and orange flavour, utilizing both fresh orange juice and orange zest for the batter. It also has just the right amount of cranberries scattered throughout the bread, so that it’s not too sour from too many cranberries.
It’s also super moist and buttery in flavor, which comes from the butter, oil, eggs and milk used in this recipe. Trust me when I say it has the most gorgeous, velvety smooth texture!
Lastly, I love finishing off a cranberry bread with an orange glaze. I would highly recommend NOT skipping the orange glaze. It adds great additional flavor and sweetness to the bread (similar to the lemon glaze in my lemon loaf recipe), which helps to cut through some of the sourness of the cranberries. It’s also really easy and only requires two ingredients – powdered sugar and fresh orange juice!
How to Make Cranberry Orange Bread
Cranberry Bread
Start off by making the quick bread. Begin by preheating your oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (convection mode) and line an 8.5×4.5inch loaf tin (I like to lightly grease the tin before lining it so that the parchment paper sticks better). If your oven doesn’t have a fan option, then you will need to increase the baking temperature to 175°C/350°F.
In a bowl sift together all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside for now.
In a large bowl add in unsalted butter, vegetable oil, sugar and orange zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on a medium high speed, cream that together for 2 minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
Next add in eggs one at a time, mixing well in between each addition.
Next add in milk, fresh orange juice and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Once combined, take any remaining batter off of your mixer attachment/s and set aside as the rest of the mixing will be done by hand.
Add the premixed dry ingredients (flour mixture) into the wet ingredients, and using a spatula gently fold until just combined. Do not overmix.
Lastly, coat the cranberries with 1 tablespoon of flour and stir well,and then add them to the batter, discarding any excess flour. Fold them in with a spatula until just combined – do not overmix.
Distribute the batter into the lined loaf tin and level out the top. Drop the cake tin lightly on the counter twice to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 60-65 mins (about 1 hr in total), or until a toothpick, skewer or knife inserted into the centre comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs). If using fresh cranberries, reduce the cook time slighty and check the bread at 50 minutes, baking further if needed.
Once baked, allow the bread to cool in the loaf tin for atleast 20 minutes, before transferring it onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Orange Glaze
Once the cranberry bread is completely cool, prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and fresh orange juice and mix with a spoon. You should end up with a thick glaze. If your glaze is too watery, you can add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick and won’t spread you can add more orange juice. You can also adjust the quantities of each ingredient if you want a thicker/thinner or sweeter/less sweet glaze.
Spread the orange glaze over the top and finish off by grating some orange zest over the glaze (optional – the orange zest is for decorating purposes). Slice with a serrated knife and enjoy!
Commonly Asked Questions
How do you store cranberry bread?
Cranberry bread can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, after which it’s best to refrigerate (upto a week) to maintain it’s freshness.
To freeze the cranberry bread, wrap it well in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, before placing it into an airtight container and into the freezer for upto 3 months.
Should you chop cranberries before baking?
Some recipes suggest halving the cranberries before folding them into the batter. If you are very sensitive to the sourness of cranberries, then you can do this to reduce the amount of sourness in every bite. However, for this recipe I don’t feel it’s necessary. With the addition of the orange glaze, there is plenty of sweetness to cut through a whole cranberry 🙂
Why is my cranberry bread crumbly?
If your cranberry bread is crumbly, it could be because there isn’t enough fat or eggs in the batter, or the bread was overbaked. If the recipe you’re using provides gram measurements (like mine), then I would highly recommend using them for the most accurate results.
Is it better to bake with fresh or frozen cranberries?
Either fresh or frozen cranberries will work great in this recipe. The only thing to keep in mind is fresh cranberries will result in a bread that bakes up a little faster, so I would recommend checking the bread 10 minutes earlier than the stated cooking time in my recipe as I use frozen cranberries 🙂
Moist Cranberry Bread Recipe
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Cranberry Bread
- 1½ cups (180 g) flour - plain, all purpose
- ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt - omit if using salted butter
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ¼ cup (55 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- ¾ cup (150 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 tsps orange zest
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 g) milk - full fat, room temperature
- ⅓ cup (75 g) fresh orange juice - freshly squeezed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
- 1¼ cups (135 g) fresh or frozen cranberries - if using frozen do not thaw
- 1 tbsp flour - for coating cranberries
Orange Glaze
- 1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners sugar
- 1½ tbsp (21 g) fresh orange juice - freshly squeezed
- 1 tbsp orange zest - optional, for decorating
Instructions
Cranberry Bread
- Preheat oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (see note 1 if you don't have a fan function) and line an 8.5x4.5inch loaf tin (I like to lightly grease the tin before lining it so that the parchment paper sticks better).
- In a bowl sift together your flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside for now.
- In a large bowl add in the butter, vegetable oil, sugar and orange zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on a medium high speed, cream that together for 2 minutes until it's light and fluffy.
- Next add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well in between each addition.
- Next add in the milk, fresh orange juice and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Once combined, take any remaining batter off of your mixer attachment/s and set aside as the rest of the mixing will be done by hand.
- Add the premixed dry ingredients into the wet, and using a spatula gently fold until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 2).
- Lastly, coat the cranberries with 1 tbsp of flour (see note 3), and then add them to the batter, discarding any excess flour. Fold them in with a spatula until just combined - do not overmix.
- Distribute the batter into the lined loaf tin and level out the top. Drop the cake tin lightly on the counter twice to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 65-60 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted into the centre comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs). If using fresh cranberries, check the bread at 50 minutes and bake further if needed.
- Once baked, allow the bread to cool in the loaf tin for atleast 20 minutes, before transferring it onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Orange Glaze
- Once the cranberry bread is completely cool, prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and fresh orange juice and mix with a spoon. You should end up with a thick glaze (see note 4 if too thick or thin).
- Spread the orange glaze over the top and finish off by grating some orange zest over the glaze (optional - the orange zest is for decorating purposes). Slice with a serrated knife and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
30 Comments
First, let me tell you that I have made two of your cakes, they are a homemaker’s dream, they are very well explained and having the ingredients by weight it makes it very easy.
My question, I do not have access to fresh cranberries, I live in Colombia., do you think I can use dry cranberries, and how much?
Thank you for sharing your gift and knowledge.
Hi Oliva! Aww thank you so much, that means a lot! 😀
I haven’t tried it myself, but you should be able to use dried cranberries instead of fresh. I would use about the same weight, but since dried cranberries are sweeter and more concentrated, you might want to soak them in warm water for 10 minutes first to plump them up. Also, frozen cranberries work really well too, and they are what I usually use. Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe! 😊
Hi MK,
Good afternoon. I’ve been following your recipes and I really enjoy them. However, I’m writing to ask for your recommendation on a good kitchen scale. I’ve tried using a few scales that I bought at the store, but they were all inaccurate. I also ordered a scale from Amazon, but it was even worse than the ones I had returned from the store. Do you have any recommendations for a good kitchen scale? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Paulet Smith
Hi Paulet! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes 😀
As for kitchen scales, it’s definitely frustrating when they’re inconsistent – accuracy makes such a big difference in baking. I personally recommend looking for a digital scale that measures in 1-gram increments, with a tare function and a clear, easy-to-read display. Here in NZ I just got mine from a home store and it works well so I can’t give any recommendations on the top of my head sorry! I would recommend looking at the reviews when purchasing off Amazon and this will hopefully help in identifying a good option 🙂
So sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
I love this recipe, I have made it 3 times and each time as delicous. Can I substitute a stone Bundt pan instead of a loaf pan?
So so happy to hear you’re loving the recipe Liz 😀
I haven’t tried the recipe in a bundt pan myself, but because it does develop a good crust it may be okay! Would love to hear how it goes if you decide to try it out 🙂
Can this recipe be baked in a glass loaf pan? If not maybe a disposable foil pan?
Thank you
Hi Odessa! 🙂
A glass loaf pan should be okay, just adjust the bake time as needed. A foil pan may be okay too, but depending on the shape (if it’s more like a cake pan) then it will likely cook a lot faster so just check on it as it bakes 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!