Orange Cranberry Quick Bread with Brown Sugar Streusel
Orange Cranberry Quick Bread Recipe with a Brown Sugar Cranberry Streusel is spiced up with nutmeg, cardamom, and pumpkin pie spice (a.k.a. Baking Spice). Moist with a tender crumb and a crunchy sweet topping, this bread has the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and tangy.
If you only use fresh cranberries for your Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, we challenge you to try them in this quick cranberry bread recipe perfect for the holiday season when cranberries are available as fresh berries.
Enjoy this bread for breakfast or as a snack with a cup of tea!
How Many Days Does Cranberry Bread Last?
This bread stays fresh and delicious out on the counter for a few days, making it a great potluck or holiday recipe. We’ve also wrapped this bread in foil and kept it in the fridge for up to five days.
This make ahead nature also means this cranberry bread is an easy homemade Christmas gift idea for neighbors or teachers!
And last, but certainly not least, “Can you freeze cranberry bread?” Or, “Does cranberry bread freeze well?”
Yes! When you have a few hours for baking on a quieter, slower day, whip up a batch or two of this bread and store it in the freezer for up to two months. Just make sure to wrap it well. We wrap it in foil and then place it inside a freezer ziplock bag. When it’s time to defrost, let it sit out on the counter for about an hour.
Ingredients
Spices.
It’s amazing the flavor that just a bit of nutmeg adds to a recipe. Sweet and highly aromatic, nutmeg is especially good in combination with other sweet spices like the cinnamon, cloves, and ginger found in baking spice.
Cardamom is one of our favorite baking spices. It adds a distinctive flavor with notes of citrus, a slightly sweet flavor, as well as warming notes.
Baking Spice. Also, known as Pumpkin Pie Spice.
SpiceTopia’s Organic Pumpkin Pie Spice mixes the perfect combination of nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and ground cinnamon that adds a savory-sweet flavor to this cranberry bread.
Find these spices and over 100 more at SpiceTopia!
Looking for a collection of baking spices to enhance all your holiday baking recipes?
Cranberries. This recipe calls for fresh cranberries, which are in season throughout fall and the holiday season. Frozen cranberries also work in this quick cranberry loaf as well. No need to thaw them first.
Roughly chop your cranberries, or we find it really enjoyable to use a mortar and pestle to pop the cranberries! Of course, you can also leave the cranberries whole. Some of them will pop when baking and some will remain whole.
Pro Tip. When cranberries are in season, buy a few extra bags. Those bags can go right into the freezer to use throughout the year!
Do not use dried cranberries for this recipe. They are too sweet, and the texture will make the bread dry.
Sugar. The quick bread portion of this recipe calls for granulated sugar, while the streusel topping calls for brown sugar.
Feel free to substitute brown sugar or even coconut sugar in the bread recipe. The color of your bread will be darker, but still beautiful and delicious.
For the topping, you’ll want to stick with the brown sugar. We’ve found that white sugar tends to melt into the bread and not stay part of the delicious crumbly goodness that is streusel topping.
Oranges. The sweetness of orange helps to balance out the sourness of the cranberries in this recipe – and gives the bread a beautiful golden color. Both the juice and zest of the orange is used. It is always easier to zest the orange before cutting it open and juicing it. And the zest process breaks down the orange pulp a bit, making the orange easier to juice.
Flour. This recipe calls for all-purpose flour. If you would like to add a bit more fiber, you can use half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour. The resulting bread will be a bit more dense and darker, but is still delicious.
If you need to make a gluten-free cranberry bread, a straight substitute of an all-in-one gluten-free flour blend works beautifully in both the bread and streusel topping.
Leavening.
Baking Soda. As with most baked goods, this recipe calls for baking soda. Our big tip for baking soda: Make sure it is fresh! Baking soda has a shelf life of 6 – 12 months. If your baking soda has been hanging around since this time last year, it’s time to pick up a fresh box.
Eggs. This recipe calls for 1 egg that provides a bit of leavening as well as a bit of richness.
Butter. You’ll need softened, unsalted butter for this recipe. Always use unsalted butter when baking, so you can exactly control the amount of butter in the recipe.
How Do You Make Cranberry Bread?
This cranberry bread is easy and quick to make without any special equipment; fifteen minutes of prep to mix up the batter and streusel. Then pop it in the oven and in just about 45 minutes this bread is baked!
No creaming the sugar and eggs or sifting dry ingredients needed. Instead, start by zesting and juicing the oranges. Add half the zest to the granulated sugar. Using your hands, mix the two together. Set aside.
Roughly chop your cranberries, or we find it really enjoyable to use a mortar and pestle to pop the cranberries! Of course, you can also leave the cranberries whole. Some of them will pop when baking and some will remain whole.
Next, combine all of the streusel ingredients. Set aside.
Now it’s time to whisk or stir together the dry ingredients (spices, flour, baking soda, and salt).
Then, stir together the wet ingredients (melted butter, orange juice, egg, and sugar).
Combine the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients. Stir in the cranberries. Place in loaf pans and top with streusel.
Slide into the oven and bake for 35 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick poked into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 5 - 10 minutes before removing it to cool completely. Or enjoy warm with a cup of tea!
Looking for more quick bread recipes:
Orange Saffron Quick Bread
Traditional Soda Bread Recipe
If you are only enjoying cranberries in cranberry sauce, then you are missing out! If you love tangy and juicy cranberries, this recipe is a must-try!
Let’s Get Baking!
- 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar (or Coconut Sugar as substitute)
- 4-6 Oranges
- 2 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (Ground)
- 1 tsp Cardamom Seeds (Ground)
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Spice (a.k.a. Pumpkin Pie Spice)
- 1 Egg (Large)
- 2 tbsp Butter (Melted)
- 1 cup Orange Juice
- 1 cup Cranberries (Chopped/Crushed, Fresh/Frozen)
- 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/3 cup Brown Sugar (Packed)
- 3/4 tsp Baking Spice
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter (Melted)
- 1/2 cup Cranberries (Chopped)
- Zest of One Orange
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom of four mini loaf pans or one regular size loaf pan.
Zest two oranges. Set half of the zest aside for the streusel topping and the other half aside for the bread. Then juice the oranges until you have 1 cup of orange juice. This juice will go into the bread batter.
Put the granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and add the zest of one orange. With your fingers, combine the sugar and the zest to mix. Set aside while you make the streusel topping.
Prepare the streusel topping by stirring together all of the streusel ingredients. Set aside as you continue making the bread.
Add all the other dry ingredients to the bowl with the orange/sugar mixture and mix to combine with a spoon or spatula.
Mix the egg, butter, and orange juice together in a small bowl, then add to the dry ingredients. Stir just until combined.
Gently fold 1 cup of cranberries into the batter until incorporated. Do not over mix the cranberries or your batter will become pink.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pans/pan. Divide the streusel topping among the loaf pans. Pat the streusel gently into the batter in each loaf pan. You need to pat it just into the top of the batter, so it sticks, but you don’t want to push it into the bread loaf.
Slide your pans into the oven and bake for about 35 - 45 minutes, or until the streusel topping is golden and crunchy and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bead comes out clean.
Remove the bread from the oven and let cool for 10 - 15 minutes before removing from the pan.
Finish cooling on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
