Cranberry Bread

Well, after over a year since I last posted, I figure it's high time for some new recipes... especially since I've been referring several people to this blog in the past couple months. Maybe over the winter I'll be able to catch up on my recipe sharing a little bit!

Today's recipe is brought to you by the classic children's book Cranberry Thanksgiving. My girls and I have been reading this book for school (using the homeschool Five in a Row curriculum), and today's project was to bake "Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread." Of course, with our dietary restrictions (including our recent re-elimination of dairy from our diets), we couldn't just follow the recipe exactly as it reads in the book. So here is my adaptation.

"GRANDMOTHER'S FAMOUS CRANBERRY BREAD"

Ingredients:
Sifted all-purpose flour, gluten-free mixture as follows:
-- 1/2 c. brown rice flour
-- 1/2 c. sorghum flour
-- 1/2 c. tapioca starch
-- 1/4 c. millet flour
-- 1/4 c. corn starch
-- 1 tsp. xanthan gum
(2 cups total flour mixture)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. butter or margarine (I used Earth Balance soy-free buttery spread)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. grated orange peel
3/4 c. orange juice
1 1/2 c. golden raisins
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

Directions:
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries.

Spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. [Note: Mine was finished cooking 5-10 minutes sooner than the recipe suggested, so I would check it at close to an hour.] Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

If you choose, you may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have an all cranberry bread.

I did not change anything about this recipe except substituting the gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients, and slightly shortening the cooking time. Oh, and I also had to substitute white grape juice for about half the orange juice, since I didn't have enough. It turned out great! My only critique is that it was a little sweet for my taste... but then, golden raisins have never really been my thing, and there are quite a lot of them in this bread. I might try regular raisins or the all-cranberry version as suggested next time I make this... though perhaps not having to substitute for the orange juice would also help. :-)