Recipe: Cranberry Orange Bread

I don't drink much orange juice these days:  too many calories, too much sugar.  When my parents visit, I buy juice for them, but they don't drink much either, for the same reasons.

So when they leave, I have juice left over.  Lots of juice.  Once I would freeze it, only to throw it out years later when I realized I hadn't used it.  Now I don't have the freezer space, and I try to use things quickly or toss them, instead of waiting years to toss them.

This past week, I've been making cranberry orange bread to use up the orange juice.  My friends have asked for the recipe, and so I give it to you here too.  It's from the wonderful The Great Holiday Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas.

2 C. all purpose flour (you can use part whole wheat or take out half a cup of flour and use oats)
1 C. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 C. melted butter
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp grated orange zest (tastes fine without)
3/4 C. orange juice
1 C. halved fresh cranberries or 1/2 C. dried cranberries
1 C. chopped walnuts (I use pecans instead)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter and flour a loaf pan.  The loaf will want to stick to the pan, so don't try this recipe without flour in the pan.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large bowl.  Stir in the butter, egg, juice and zest all at once, stirring just until the mixture is evenly moist.  Fold in the cranberries and nuts.  Spoon the batter into the pan.

Bake for 50 minutes* until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

*The recipe calls for 70 minutes of baking, which I've never needed.