The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Sigh! This is what I do instead of dusting.  This caught my eye because I had plenty of cranberries from the sweet potato recipe, plenty of walnuts, and a half-gallon of orange juice. The only thing I didn’t have was fresh orange zest so I used dried orange zest. I wish I had gone to the store to get oranges because in my opinion, fresh orange zest would have brought out the orange flavor more.

This recipe made 4 loaves. I made 3 in the aluminum loaf pans with lids, ready for gift-giving, and one for us to try. It’s a great quick bread; colorful, and not too sweet.

For the first time ever, I have a food processor. The recipe page suggested using it for chopping the walnuts and cranberries. I prefer to chop the walnuts myself, but when I tried chopping the cranberries, I could see that was going to be a pain. I thought, “In for a penny, in for a pound!” I’d give the new processor a chance. Holy moly. In less than 10 seconds, it had chopped them, but not ground them into mush. Perfect and ready to go.

(Side note) I started a post in Facebook about old sayings and we are up to about 550 responses!!!

INGREDIENTS:

¾ c. butter (room temp.)

3 c. white sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

3 Tbsp orange zest

6 c. all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp salt

4 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

2 ¼ c. orange juice

3 c. whole cranberries

1 ½ c. chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease three 8 x 4 inch loaf pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper if desired.

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Stir in the orange zest.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add to the egg mixture, alternating with orange juice.

Coarsely chop the cranberries.

Pour the flour mixture into the mixing bowl, alternately with the orange juice, mixing until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped cranberries and walnuts, mixing just enough to evenly combine. Divide the batter evenly among prepared pans.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Check for browning: cover the tops with aluminum foil to prevent them from becoming too dark. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean, about 30 minutes more. Cool on wire racks.

MY NOTES:

I put my timer on for 45 minutes and started checking. For me they didn’t turn too dark on top, and I went for another 10 minutes, so closer to 55 minutes. Each pan and oven are different.

The recipe is a little loose about alternating the flour with the juice. I start with the juice, about a third of it, a third flour, and so on.

It is a lot of batter so heads up. Start with a large bowl.

I used to do a lot of cookies and candy to make plates for gifting. It takes time but I would start in October and freeze a lot. It’s been awhile since I have done that.

ENJOY! 