With Thanksgiving just one week away, holiday hosts are frantically putting together their turkey day menus. Classics like stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and other festive favorites will take the stage and delight appetites during this day. One of my favorite sides, however, is cranberry sauce. And I don’t mean that weird Jell-O-type goo that slides out of the can, I mean a preserve loaded with cranberries, bright in color and bursting with flavor. Although, I seem to be the only one in my family who shares this view…
To accommodate my cranberry craving and delight the taste buds of all in attendance at my family’s Thanksgiving gathering, I decided to re-invent the Thanksgiving cranberry, pairing it alongside the complementary flavor of orange and packing it in a sweet, buttery bread. You can easily kick-up this recipe by simmering the cranberries in a flavored liqueur like Portland’s Clear Creek Distillery Cranberry liqueur or your favorite orange liqueur. Using a fruit liqueur like Clear Creek’s add sweetness and robustness to this dense, flavorful, buttery bread.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Makes: Two loaves
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, cold
2 oranges, zested
½ cup orange juice
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups dried cranberries
½ cup Clear Creek Distillery Cranberry liqueur or your favorite orange liqueur
Directions
Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit. In a medium saucepan, simmer cranberries in liqueur for 5-10 minutes, or until cranberries are plump and no liquid remains. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut cold butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter, until butter is pea sized.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all wet ingredients (orange zest, orange juice, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract). Mix on low speed for 2 minutes.
Slowly add dry ingredients to wet mixture, adding ¼ of dry ingredients at a time. Once dry and wet ingredients are well combined, slowly add cranberries, mixing on low speed. Batter should resemble that of muffin batter.
Pour batter evenly into two pre-greased and floured 8”x3 ⅞” inch baking pans.
Place loaves onto center rack in pre-heated oven and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into center of each loaf comes out clean and tops of loaves are golden brown. Let loaves cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool completely before slicing.
You can make a sweet glaze to drizzle over the top of each loaf, or serve with a spread of butter.
