No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread is an easy, homemade bread with no stand mixer needed. Made with delicious mix-ins perfect for the holidays.
Enjoy this delicious, crusty, homemade bread by itself, with your favorite spread or topping, use to make a sandwich, or an appetizer. You can’t go wrong with this crowd-pleaser, especially for a holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.
Table of Contents
- Sabrina’s No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread Recipe
- Ingredients
- Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- How to Make No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread
- Nutritional Facts
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- What to Pair With Cranberry Walnut Bread
- How to Store
- Ideas to Serve Cranberry Walnut Bread
- Frequent Questions
- Recipe Card
- Variations
- Related Recipes
Sabrina’s No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread Recipe
No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread is super easy to make and comes out with a beautiful crust, fluffy center, and amazing flavor from the mix-ins. The cranberries add some tart and sweet flavors, while the walnuts give the fresh bread a nice crunch.
While similar to this Cranberry Bread recipe, this no-knead bread recipe has some important differences. Regular Cranberry Bread is a quick bread with sweet ingredients and a soft texture. No-knead Cranberry Bread is a traditional bread recipe with a rise time and crispy crust. Either option is an excellent choice for your dinner table. Fortunately they’re both pretty easy so you can give both recipes a try and see which one you like best!
Ingredients
- Yeast Mixture: You don’t have to proof the yeast. However, it’s still important to mix 1 teaspoon active dry yeast with 1 ½ cups warm water to start the rising process properly. Make sure the water is between 110 and 115 degrees. It will kill the yeast if it’s much hotter than lukewarm water, and the bread will never rise.
- Pantry Ingredients: For the most part, No-Knead Cranberry Bread uses the same ingredients that most bread recipes do. Use 2 ¾ cups of bread flour for the base with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 ½ teaspoons salt for a bit of flavor. Then 2 tablespoons olive oil serves as the light oil for the no-knead recipe.
- Mix-ins: Add 1 cup each of dried cranberries and chopped walnuts into the dough along with all the other bread ingredients. The mix-ins are the perfect way to add flavor, color, and texture to the Crusty Cranberry Walnut Bread.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl: This bowl will be used to mix all of your ingredients so it has to be big enough to hold and stir everything together.
- Whisk and Spoon: Use a whisk to combine the yeast and warm water. A mixing spoon, or wooden spoon, or rubber spatula will help you stir the rest of the ingredients while scraping the bowl along the way.
- Baking Sheets: A 9×13-inch baking sheet will be used to allow your dough to rise, and to bake the bread. You could also use a dutch oven to hold and bake your dough. It just needs to be wide enough to allow the dough to rise. You’ll use a second baking sheet or pan to fill with water and add to the bottom rack of your oven. The water will help your bread form a nice crust.
- Measuring Cup and Spoons: Grab your favorite set of measuring tools to measure out all your ingredients. Accuracy is important when baking so measure carefully in each step.
- Sharp Knife: Use a sharp knife to cut through your bread in clean, even slices. A serrated bread knife would work very well, but a kitchen knife is fine if that’s what you have available.
How to Make No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread
Time needed: 2 hours and 50 minutes.
- Prep Time
Add the active yeast and warm water to a large mixing bowl. Then whisk the yeast mixture together before adding the other dough ingredients.
- Mix Time
Add the flour, two tablespoons sugar, cranberries, walnuts, olive oil, and kosher salt to the mixing bowl.
- Bread Dough
Then stir until the flour mixture blend with the wet ingredients into a shaggy dough.
- Rise Time
Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, then transfer dough to the dish. Cover with a kitchen towel, and leave in a warm place for an hour rise time. Then punch down the dough, reform it into a ball-like shape and cover for another hour. You can use floured hands while you’re forming it to ensure the wet dough doesn’t stick to you.
- Bake Time
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Then place a pan of water on the bottom rack. Dust the top of the bread dough with flour, then put it in the oven in the middle rack above the water. Bake bread for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue the baking time for 20 more minutes. Take the hot loaf of bread out of the oven once it has a crisp golden brown crust.
- Serve
After baking bread, let it cool for a few minutes. Then slice or transfer it to a wire rack to let the bread cool completely before serving.
Nutritional Facts
Recipe Tips & Tricks
This amazing bread will go off without a hitch if you follow these extra tips.
- Check the temperature of your oven
- Did you know that your oven might not always get to the temperature you set it at? It may run a little hot or cool. Get an oven thermometer and place it inside the oven the next time you turn it on. It will give you a proper reading and you can make small temperature adjustments accordingly. The temperature is very important to make sure your bread comes out right!
- Be generous with the rising time
- You will need at least the full 2 hours of rise time as stated in the instructions. If your kitchen is cold, it may take longer. You can let the dough rest for longer if you don’t notice much change from when you mixed it. Also consider moving it to a spot that is warmer, like near a sunlit window to rise.
What to Pair With Cranberry Walnut Bread
You can use this Cranberry Walnut Bread recipe as a tasty base for any sandwich you like. Cut fairly thick slices and toast them to make them nice and sturdy, then add in meat and any of your favorite sandwich fillings. The cranberries make it a wonderful choice to use up Thanksgiving leftovers. For the ultimate Leftover Turkey Sandwich you can load in turkey, stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, and veggies.
How to Store
- Serve: Make sure to let the baked bread cool for a few minutes before you slice and serve it.
- Store: To keep the No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread fresh, you can put it in a ziplock bag, in plastic wrap, or another airtight container. Then store at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Freeze: When you carefully seal and freeze the bread, it can stay good for up to 3 months. If you’ve already cut the bread into slices, cut a piece of parchment paper to lay between the slices. Again use plastic wrap, or ziplock bags for an airtight seal.
Ideas to Serve Cranberry Walnut Bread
Once you’ve prepared this homemade artisan bread, you can enjoy it as a snack, use it as an unexpected dinner side dish, or toast up a slice of leftover bread for breakfast. You’ll especially love a warm slice of bread with a pat of butter and cranberry preserves spread on top for a fantastic breakfast. For an even more decadent breakfast, use this bread to make French Toast. This bread would also make a lovely housewarming gift, host or hostess gift, an addition to a muffin basket, or just something nice to gift to neighbors and loved ones.
Frequent Questions
Nope! Because you’ll use active yeast for this recipe, you don’t need to worry about proof time. Instead, mix the yeast and water, then add the other basic ingredients to finish the delicious bread dough in a few minutes.
This no-knead bread recipe uses a slightly wetter dough with water and olive oil. Instead of kneading the recipe, you just whisk the basic bread ingredients together. Then leave it to rise. The active dry yeast reacts with the other elements to create air bubbles and double the bread dough in size. It’s essential to use two rising times to give the yeast enough time to work. For this recipe, you’ll also place a water container in the oven with the bread, which helps it rise.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water , 110-115 degrees
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries , chopped
- 1 cup walnuts , chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl add the yeast and warm water, stirring well.
- Add in the flour, sugar, cranberries, walnuts, olive oil, and salt, stirring well until shaggy and combined.
- Grease an 9×13-inch baking pan and add in the dough.
- Cover, let rise in warm place for 1 hour.
- Punch down the dough, then reshape and cover again.
- Let rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Add a pan of water to the bottom rack.
- Sprinkle the top with flour, bake for 20 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
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Variations
- Wheat Bread: To make No-Knead Cranberry Bread more nutritious, you can replace white flour with wheat flour. You could also use half white and half wheat flour for a blend.
- Nuts: You can exchange the walnuts in the Cranberry Nut Bread with pecans, almonds, or cashews.
- Cranberries: This recipe uses dried cranberries. However, you can use frozen cranberries or fresh cranberries. Just keep in mind that they’ll add more liquid, and the juice will likely leak into the bread dough as it bakes.
- Orange Pecan Bread: You can use the same basic recipe to make bread with a variety of flavors. Try using pecans, and add grated orange zest to make Orange Pecan Bread. You can use the orange flavor to replace the cranberries or add the citrus flavor along with the cranberries.
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