This easy, one-bowl cranberry orange loaf uses just one large orange and can use fresh or frozen cranberries. No mixer needed!
Why you'll love this cranberry orange loaf!
Cranberry and orange is always a winning flavour combination. This easy and delicious cranberry loaf is great to have on the counter or it makes a great, "from the kitchen" gift that will always be appreciated.
The texture of this loaf is moist, buttery, lightly sweet and just a bit crumbly, in all the right ways. And it's chock full of cranberries, which is always a good thing in my books. On top of the lovely loaf is a sweet glaze, to balance the tart cranberries.
And all this with just one bowl and no mixer needed!
Key Ingredients
Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter here. It's a fairly small quantity, but if you are using salted butter, you could reduce the amount of added salt just slightly.
Orange: The recipe is intended to start with one large, fresh orange, from which you will take the zest and then juice. Measure out the juice from that one orange, and then top up the measuring cup with water to reach the 3/4 cup.
You can use any kind of orange, but a large, Navel orange would be the most usual kind to use here. Other oranges are likely to be smaller in size, in which case you may wish to use two smaller oranges here. The amount of juice that you get from oranges should be somewhere around 1/2 cup.
Cranberries: You can use fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries here. If using frozen, no need to thaw them. I like to toss frozen cranberries in a bit of flour, then just add to the batter frozen. I also find loaves made with frozen cranberries take a little bit longer to bake, as the cold berries slow it just slightly.
You can use anywhere from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups, depending on how much you like cranberries :) I used 1 1/2 cups of whole cranberries here.
While dried cranberries will work here, as they are generally sweetened, the over-all sweetness of this loaf would be quite increased.
Video: How to Make Cranberry Orange Loaf
Baker's Tips
Note that you will want your butter to be cold from the fridge. To incorporate the cold butter with the flour mixture, I like to just use my fingertips, rubbing/breaking up the cold butter into the flour until I have an even, crumbly mixture with no large chunks of butter. Aim for a finished mixture resembling coarse corn meal.
Be sure you are measuring your flour using the "Stir, Spoon and Level" method, for most accuracy and best results. That basically means ...
1. Stir the flour in the container.
2. Use a large spoon to spoon the flour into a 1 cup dry measuring cup (generally metal or plastic cups), overfilling/allowing the flour to form a mound on top of the measuring cup then
3. Run the back, flat edge of a knife evenly across the top of the measuring cup, allowing the excess to fall back into your flour container.
You never want to scoop flour directly out of the flour bag, as it is quite compacted and you will end up adding more flour to your recipe that actually called for.
Top Tip!
Note that the recipe specifies that the egg be "well beaten" before adding to the other liquid ingredients. This is because we want to stir the batter as little as possible after combining the wet and dry ingredients. If the egg isn't beaten beforehand, you would have to do a lot more stirring to mix it in. Pre-beating it prevents over-mixing. Beating an egg like this is just really mixing it well with a fork in a small bowl.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
This cranberry loaf stores well, loosely wrapped and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days (and maybe a bit more!).
It will also freeze well for up to 2 months.
Recipe
Easy One-Bowl Cranberry Orange Loaf
Ingredients
Batter:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter, cold, salted or unsalted
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, from 1 large orange, plus water, as needed *See Note 1 below
- 1 large egg, well beaten before adding *See Note 2 below
- 1 - 1 1/2 cup raw cranberries, whole or chopped, fresh or frozen
Orange Glaze:
- 1 cup icing/confectioners' sugar
- 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice, or water, if you don't have any more oranges
- 1/4 teaspoon orange zest, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (regular bake setting/not fan assisted), with rack in the centre of the oven. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into 4 pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Using your fingertips, rub the cold butter into the flour mixture, breaking it up as you go, until you have an evenly crumbly mixture resembling corn meal.
- Remove the zest from the orange and set aside for now. In a 2-cup measuring cup, add the juice from the orange. Add enough water to the measuring cup to fill up to the 3/4 cup mark. add the orange zest and the well beaten egg to the measuring cup and stir to combine. Pour the orange juice mixture all at once into the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, mix together just enough to dampen all the flour. Gently stir in the cranberries. (I like to dust frozen cranberries with a tiny bit of flour before adding to the dough).
- Spoon the batter into a greased 9x5-inch loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. (Starting with frozen cranberries may need a few extra minutes of baking. Also note that darker pans will bake more quickly. So watch closely near the end of baking, but don't be afraid to bake a little longer, if needed).
- Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the side of the pan and turn out/remove from pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled completely, prepare glaze by stirring together the glaze ingredients until smooth. Place a piece of waxed paper or paper towel under the cooling rack to catch drips, then spoon the glaze over the cooled loaf, spooning it onto the top and letting it run down the side. Allow to stand until the glaze sets (about 30 minutes) before slicing.
Notes
- If starting with 1 large, fresh orange, first remove the zest from the orange, then squeeze all the juice from the orange into a measuring cup. Add enough additional water until it measures 3/4 cup. One large orange will typically yield about 1/2 cup of fresh orange juice.
- The recipe specified that the egg be "well beaten" before adding to the other liquid ingredients. This is because we want to stir the batter as little as possible after combining the wet and dry ingredients. If the egg isn't beaten beforehand, you would have to do a lot more stirring to mix it in. Pre-beating it prevents over-mixing.
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided for general guidance only and should not be relied upon to make personal health decisions.
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Hi! I'm Jennifer, a home-cook of many years and a lifelong seeker of delicious food! I'm an equal opportunity eater. I enjoy eating all the foods!
Pauline Hampson says
I want to try this tonight & only have margarine. Can the butter be substituted with Margarine?
Thanks Pauline
Jennifer says
Hi Pauline, I honestly don't know. I've never baked with margarine myself, so I have no experience to offer. That said, as a fan of vintage recipes, I see a lot of older baking recipes that call for margarine where we use butter these days, so I assume it "works" similarly. I expect the texture and/or flavour of the finished loaf might be somewhat different. Sorry, I wish I could offer more advice. If you try it, let me know how it works out.
Louise Lamarche says
Hi Jennifer
I would like to make this wonderful recipe for Christmas gifting ❤️
How long should I make four mini loaf 🍞 pans.
Lola
Jennifer says
Hi Louise, it's really hard to say, as I haven't tried it myself. You'll need to watch closely and start testing when the top is domed and lightly golden. If I had to guess, I'd say 25-35 minutes, but it depends a lot on the size of your pans, too. Enjoy!
Mary says
This recipe is so good, I had to stop by & tell you.
My friend asked me to bring cranberry bread to her Christmas party tonight. I didn't have my own recipe, so I Googled it & found yours. So many people complimented it! It was incredible. I used gluten-free flour & it was still great. Thank you!
Jennifer says
So glad to hear, Mary :) Thanks so much!
Lyn Bigley says
This was great. I added some pecans in it and it was delicious. The recipe was easy to follow and quick.
Thanks for sharing.
Jennifer says
Sounds lovely Lyn. So glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks!
Sarah says
So good! Ive made this a couple of times and family and friends always enjoy. I add a little bit of chopped walnuts in at the same time as the cranberries to give a little texture and acidity.
Jennifer says
Sounds lovely Sarah and so glad you are enjoying it :) Thanks so much!
Marion Croft says
Love this recipe and it comes together so quickly. I have one suggestion about order of ingredients. I put the cup of sugar in the bowl first then add the zest of the orange. I mix it throughly and then continue on adding the other dry ingredients. I find it is a better way of getting the orange zest blended into the batter. I make two loaves back to back, keeping one and giving the other away.
Jennifer says
So glad you are enjoying it Marion and great idea with the orange zest! I will try that next time I make it :) Thanks so much.
Diana Chong says
Hi Jennifer, looks amazing! Going to try this... Can I use dried cranberries instead?
Jennifer says
Hi Diana and sure you can :) I might dial back the added white sugar in the loaf a bit to compensate for the sweeter dried cranberries, but other than that, should be fine. Enjoy!
Shawna Nickel says
THIS IS SO GOOD! I never leave recipe reviews, but this one warrants it. Don’t skip the part about crumbling in cold butter by hand - I really think that’s what takes this up a notch. I just glazed it with confectioners sugar and water and it was great. Otherwise no modifications. This recipe is a keeper!
Jennifer says
So glad you enjoyed it, Shawna and yes, the crumbling the butter is what makes this loaf special, I think :) Thanks so much!
Lesley-Anne Haddow says
One word - delicious! Thanks for a great recipe. I used fresh cranberries, I didn’t add the frosting as I usually find it too sweet.
Jennifer says
So glad you enjoyed it, Lesley-Anne :) Thanks!
Debi says
This is such an easy recipe to make and so delicious! Shared it with family and they all love it also. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe
Jennifer says
So glad you are all enjoying it, Debi :) Thanks so much!
Wendy Wine says
Question: do you freeze the loaf with glaze on, or wait and glaze it after it thaws?
Jennifer says
Hi Wendy, I generally glaze after it thaws, as the glaze tends to get moist through the freeze/thaw process.
Wendy Wine says
Thank you!
Magali says
Hi!
I made this today and it's absolutely delicious! I put only half the sugar. If your orange is sweet, I believe it's more than enough! And I added a tiny bit of vanilla extract.
My only issue was that the middle of the cake sank a little bit mid-baking...
But the texture was still great. Moist and crumbly at the same time.
Highly recommend it.
Jennifer says
So glad you enjoyed it! The sinking issue was most likely a result of the reduced sugar in the batter, but if you don't mind that part, it's all good :) Thanks!
Kate McDermott says
This recipe is really delicious - the flavour addictive.
Do you think it could be made into muffins? Easier to store and freeze. What are your thoughts?
Thanks.
Jennifer says
Hi Kate and yes, I think this would adapt well to muffins! If you try it, let me know how it worked out :)
Elizabeth says
Refreshing flavour combination.
Jennifer says
It is :) Thanks Elizabeth!
Jessica Rivers says
Delicious! Another great recipe!
I made no changes or substitutions and highly recommend the full 1 1/2 cups of cranberries. I personally used frozen ones. I did use convection bake for an hour and it couldn’t have turned out better.
Jennifer says
So glad you enjoyed it, Jessica! It's one of my favourite cranberry loaves. Thanks so much :)
Maria J says
Hi Jennifer. I am looking forward to making this today. One comment though, point #3 on the directions seems to be a little muddled. Is it just asking to remove the zest before juicing or is that implied because you ask for zest in the ingredients? Thanks.
Jennifer says
Hi Maria, It's just my way of reminding people to take the zest off BEFORE juicing the orange, as it is something I forget to do more often than I care to admit. And trying to get zest off an already juiced orange is not a fun process :)
Gayle says
This bread is delicious! The flavor combination is one of our favorites, and the bread baked up beautifully...so moist! I was wondering about using honey instead of white sugar, or a combination of the two, but I know it could throw off measurements a bit. Any suggestions?
Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes <3
Jennifer says
So glad to hear, Gayle :) Thanks! As for the honey, I have no experience swapping out honey for white sugar in baking recipes. I'm not always fond of the additional flavour that honey adds, even if it's mild honey. Are you looking for that flavour specifically or just using a less processed type of sugar? My inclination would be to look at reducing the white sugar first. I feel like you could go down to 3/4 cup without issue. From there, maybe try 1/2 cup white sugar with 2-3 Tbsp honey? Any more honey than that and you probably need to adjust the added liquids somehow. Again, no experience here. It would definitely be a trial and error thing :)
randi says
Hi Jennifer, Just letting you know that I made it yesterday with the leftover cranberry sauce and it worked beautifully. I spooned in a layer of batter then spooned in some blobs of sauce and repeated then finished with the batter. This is now my husband favourite 'cake' which completely threw me. Sorry to change your recipe but I will be making this again with the whole cranberries. Blueberry Lemon muffins are up next! My favourite combination.
Jennifer says
So glad it worked out, Randi! And now worries about changing the recipe. Sometimes we just have stuff we need to use up :) Thanks!
Leanne says
Cranberry and orange is one of my favourite flavour combos! The texture of this loaf looks wonderful, and I bet it would be great if I snuck some chocolate chips in there too! ;)
Jennifer says
Thanks Leanne! It's a favourite of mine, too :)
janet wappel says
Would you consider this a quick bread loaf or a cake recipe? Thank you!
Jennifer says
I'm not sure I know exactly what makes it one or the other, but it's a loaf to the extent that it's cooked up in a loaf pan vs. a cake pan :)
Tricia B says
This is one of my favorite flavor combinations and one of my favorite treats! Your cake looks fantastic. Pinned ;)
Jennifer says
Thanks so much, Tricia :)
Dawn - Girl Heart Food says
Cranberry and orange is such a delicious combo! I'd love a huge slice of this right now with my morning coffee :)
Jennifer says
Thanks so much, Dawn :)
Lucy says
Loved this recipe!!. It is wonderful for breakfast with eggs, sausage...etc.
Hope some day that you make a book for us all of your wonderful recipes.
Jennifer says
So glad you enjoyed it, Lucy! Thanks so much :)
Mary Ann | The Beach House Kitchen says
One of my favorite flavor combinations Jennifer. So refreshing. I'm thinking this is perfect for my Saturday morning baking plans!
Jennifer says
Thanks Mary Ann! Enjoy :)
randi says
Hello,
Do you think it would work if I used some leftover cranberry sauce I made a week ago instead of the whole berries or would it make the batter too heavy/wet? Maybe spooning it into the pan alternating with the batter? I have more berries in the freezer otherwise. I have been craving cranberries lately.
Thanks!
Jennifer says
Hi Randi and I think I'd give it a go if you have some sauce you need to use. I would dollop it in with the batter as you mention. Let me know how it works out!