Cranberry Bread made with a buttery cake and fresh cranberries is an easy, festive quick bread dessert perfect for Christmas and Thanksgiving!
This sweet Bread Recipe is perfect to serve around the holidays or give as a gift. For more festive quick breads, try my Pumpkin Cranberry, Cranberry Chocolate Chip, and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin recipes.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Cranberry Bread Recipe
Cranberry Bread is a traditional American quick bread recipe like banana bread or Pumpkin Chocolate Bread. It is a perfect baked treat for Christmas and Thanksgiving, but you don’t have to save it only for the holidays. With frozen berries, you can make this bread even when it isn’t cranberry season.
To keep this recipe simple, I used milk as the main liquid ingredient. The milk adds flavor and the fat from the milk keeps the bread moist and tender. You could use orange juice, as cranberry and orange are a traditional flavor pairing, especially around the holidays. But, it doesn’t result in the same tender texture and many people don’t keep orange juice on hand like they do milk. If this is your first time trying my recipe, I suggest making it the way it is written in the recipe card – it is truly the best cranberry loaf ever.
Video Instructions
How to Make
Time needed: 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Prep Time
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease an 8×4 inch loaf pan with butter and flour
- Mix Wet Ingredients
Cream butter and granulated sugar in a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes. Once the mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla and eggs. Mix until well combined.
- Add Dry Ingredients
Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Then, alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk to the wet ingredients while mixing at low speed until just combined.
- Add Cranberries
Stir the cranberries into the batter by hand.
- Baking Time
Pour the sweet bread mixture into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cups whole milk
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries , (frozen okay too)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour an 8×4 inch loaf pan.
- In a stand mixer cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes then add in the vanilla and eggs until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking powder before adding it into the stand mixer on low speed, alternating with the milk until just combined.
- Stir the cranberries in by hand until just combined and pour into the pan and bake for 60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Video
Nutrition
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How to keep bread from falling
- To ensure the quick bread doesn’t fall after baking, make sure you’re measuring your dry ingredients exactly, especially the all-purpose flour. If you’re using a measuring scoop, try using a butter knife to level the flour before mixing it in.
- Be careful not to over-mix the batter. Stop when the flour mixture is just mixed in with no streaks.
- Make sure your baking powder is fresh and not expired.
- Use an oven-safe thermometer to make sure your oven is baking true to temperature.
- It may not have been fully baked, if the middle is still raw it will sink as it cools.
Chef Tips
- Check your fresh cranberries for any that are not ripe and for those that are overripe and mushy. Remove these from the batch before baking.
- You can bake this in one large 8×4 inch loaf pan or 2 mini loaf pans. If using mini loaf pans, I recommend reducing your cook time to 30-35 minutes.
How to Store
- Serve: You can keep Cranberry Bread at room temperature for 2-3 days, covered in plastic wrap in a cool, dry place.
- Store: For longer storage, seal the leftovers in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature to serve.
- Freeze: Wrap individual slices or full loaf tightly first in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months and thaw at room temperature to eat.
Frequent Questions
Use orange juice in place of the milk and the zest of one orange when adding in the vanilla extract. If you want even more orange flavor, add chopped candied orange peel to the top of the bread with a glaze.
Bake in muffin liners for 18-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.
Mix powdered sugar with just a tablespoon of water until barely able to mix, then dip the bread upside down into it. Or make an orange glaze as directed above, except instead of using water, use orange juice in its place for a punch of extra orange flavor along with the zest from one orange.
Variations
- White chocolate: Most people make this recipe during the holiday season, so if you’re looking to make your cranberry loaf a bit more festive you can top it with white chocolate chips, drizzle white chocolate on top or make a glaze with white chocolate. White Chocolate Chips are a great addition to the flavors of the cranberry.
- Brown sugar: For a deeper, more caramelized flavor you can use half brown sugar and half white sugar.
More Delicious Cranberry Breads
Photos used in a previous version of this post.
If I wanted to use. 13×5 pan would I double or triple the recipe?
To scale up from a 8×8 pan to a 9×13 pan you double the recipe
(8×8 ? 13×9: multiply by 1.82 (2))so for a 8 x 4 pan to 13 x 5 (are you sure it’s not 9?) you could double the recipe and use the remaining batter in a mini loaf pan to give away as a gift! Let us know what you decided to do!
Can I use a 5×13 bread pan?
5 x 13 bread pan will require you to 1 1/2 times the recipe would be my guess. I have not tested this recipe using a 5x 13 bread pan.
Love this cranberry bread. Stock my freezer with cranberries when they are in season so I can bake numerous loaves!
Michele
Great Cranberry Bread. Not too sweet. Only had 5oz of cranberries so I added fresh strawberries to make 12 oz of fruit. Worked great.
If you enjoy strawberries in your bread you may want to try our Strawberry Bread recipes! https://dinnerthendessert.com/?s=strawberry+bread
Thanks so much for the 5 star review!
Try chopping up the cranberries that way they are evenly distributed throughout the loaf.
And another hint it to lightly dust your cranberries with flour to keep them from rising to the top! Did you try the recipe and if so, how did it turn out?
Are you supposed to leave cranberries whole in this recipe?
Yes! How did your Cranberry bread turn out?
what do i need to do if anything if using dried cranberries … or will it mess reciepe up?
It won’t “mess the recipe up” but it will have a dryer different flavor. Let us know if you tried the recipe and what you thought!
How can I sweeten it without using sugar?
There are many sugar substitutes. Use your favorite and let me know how the recipe turns out!
Very flavorful and moist cranberry bread recipe. My original recipe called for buttermilk, but was lost in a move recently. I added chopped walnuts and a little extra vanilla and it turned out great. ONE TIP: Slice before freezing!
This cranberry bread turned out great for me. I did make some changes. I used about 7 ounces of fresh cranberries because it’s all I had and cut them in half before tossing them with a tablespoon of sugar from the one cup called for in the recipe. I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and half a cup of white all purpose. I used unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk. I added a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg. I used a 9 x 5 loaf pan. I baked the loaf for 65 minutes. The cranberries are evenly distributed throughout. Will definitely make again!