Welcome and Mini-Loaves

Here we go...I've been obsessed with cranberries since attending the Warrens Cranberry Festival in Warren Wisconsin this fall and learning how they are grown, harvested and processed.

My wonderful husband carried a five pound bag of fresh cranberries for almost 5 hours that day (my friends husband was also a sherpa that day and carried the same along with a jar of cranberry honey and a bottle of cranberry wine for their cranberry adventures) and then took the time to package them in one cup servings when we were home while I fretted and wondered if we could possibly use them up before the next cranberry festival.

We ended up freezing the cranberries whole and they have become incredibly convenient for baking. Cranberry muffins, cranberry cake and cranberry cookies have all been tried and the winning cranberry recipe to date is the following cranberry bread from my beautiful cousin-in-law Megan.

This bread ages really well so resist temptation and do not eat it until at least three days after you have made it (the orange flavor will continue to develop and strengthen as it sits up to a week)! Your reward for waiting will be wonderful complex flavors and you will want to eat it with everything - possibly even as a side dish with tacos as my father did this week (although I am not personally recommending that flavor combination, on the other hand if you think it would taste good then by all means go for it).


Cranberry Bread

2 cups flour*
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 stick margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup orange juice
2 cups fresh (or frozen) cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 3x5 loaf pan or mini-loaf pan.
2. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In large bowl cream margarine and sugar. Beat in egg.
4. Stir in flour mixture in 3 additions alternating with 1/4 cup of orange juice. Mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Fold in cranberries and walnuts.
6. Pour batter into pan and back for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

*You can substitute one cup whole wheat pastry flour for one cup white flour. This substitution will make the bread more dense and the extra bran and germ in whole wheat flour will add nutrients so you can have an extra slice guilt free!

PS - Baking in a mini-loaf pan is a great way to control portions and you can gift friends and family with home cooked goodies which are always appreciated but possibly more so during a cold winter like we are having now in Wisconsin.