Recipe: Orange cranberry bread full of bright flavor
Oranges and cranberries complement each
other in this sunny tea bread. (Photos: Debbie
Arrington)
|
Oranges and cranberries naturally complement each other – and not just in Thanksgiving relish.
This simple tea bread makes the most of those bright and sunny flavors, and it’s good for you, too. Both oranges and cranberries are packed with vitamin C.
This recipe was inspired by Nicole Routhier’s excellent “Fruit Cookbook” (Workman Publishing, 1996). This version has been tweaked to play up the oranges and fresh citrus flavors. It takes about two to three fresh oranges to yield the necessary juice.
So close to the holidays, fresh cranberries are still available. (You may have some in the refrigerator right now.) By mixing the fruit with the flour, it stays suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom of the baking pan. Avoid over-mixing; that brings out the gluten in the flour and toughens the tea bread.
Without too much sugar or butter, this tea bread comes out with a lovely golden crust – and lots of fruit flavor. It’s just what you need on a chilly winter morning.
Orange cranberry bread
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole cranberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
½ cup raisins
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs
½ cup sugar
¾ cup fresh orange juice (2 to 3 oranges)
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated
¼ cup (½ stick) butter or margarine, melted and cooled
Both dried and fresh cranberries add color and
sweet-tart flavor to this bread. |
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease loaf pan, preferably 8-1/2-by-4-1/2-by-2-1/2-inches; set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add cranberries, raisins, dried cranberries and walnuts to flour mixture. Stir until well combined and fruit is covered with flour.
In another bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add sugar, then orange juice and zest. Stir in melted butter.
In the big bowl, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the juice mixture. With a wooden spoon, stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Don’t over-mix. Batter will be very thick.
Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until top is golden brown and a skewer or toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Let cool for 15 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve warm.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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