When I was a kid, growing up in New Jersey, my family would spend every Thanksgiving with some family friends from Long Island. I guess that both families were rather far from blood relatives.
And even though "Aunt Irma" had six young boys, she could still cook! In fact, if I remember correctly, she was a terrific cook! Thankfully, at some point she shared her recipe for this most-awesome cranberry nut bread with my mom, who shared it with me.
As an adult, I make this bread every year. I bring it to our family Thanksgiving celebrations and will be sharing it with my coworkers for our pot luck tomorrow. I just know it will be loved and I will be admired, just as I admired Irma every time she cooked for us!
This recipe makes one large loaf, but just to make sure I have enough for myself, I set a smidgen aside and made this sweet little mini loaf just for me!
Eat what you want people! I still have my own personal stash.
I have a note on the recipe that Irma used to quadruple it and bake it in three larger loaf pans. After all, she had a big family to feed!
Irma's Cranberry Nut Bread
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
juice & grated peel of 1 orange
2 tablespoons butter
boiling water
1 cup chopped, fresh cranberries
1 cup chopped nuts (pecan or walnut)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Blend in the egg.
Combine the orange juice, peel, butter, and enough boiling water to measure 3/4 cup. Mix it into the flour mixture.
Add the nuts and cranberries and mix by hand until well-blended.
Turn the batter into a well-buttered 8 1/2 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. The top of the loaf will crack while baking.
Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil and refrigerate overnight before slicing.
FYI: This bread is delicious toasted!
FYI(2): you can quadruple the recipe and bake it in 3 larger loaf pans.
13 comments:
Isn't it great to have 'passed on' recipes, the memories are so special. I love cranberries and the bread sounds terrific, so easy to make too!
This looks great. Since I've gotten pregnant and not great about cooking my husband's friends are always looking out for him and bringing him some food. It's time to give the containers back, and this looks like the perfect thing to fill them with!
Hi Meryl. How's school going? Did you ever make the pinatas with your class? I sure hope so. They are alot of fun to make with kids. I really like this loaf bread. It's perfect to make into mini loaves and hand out as party favors or small Christmas gifts. Great recipe. Thank you.
Looks absolutely fantastic! I'm so going to try this soon. Bookmarked. Will let you know how it turns out.
Oh and could you please tell me the quantity of liquid your cup holds? Just want to be absolutely sure before I make some. :) I'm just used to measuring stuff on the metric scale.
This looks wonderful, Meryl! I love that there's juice and zest from an orange on it, too. Bookmarking this one!
Shaheen - a cup is usually 8 ounces. I think that is right!
The cranberries make it look so pretty! Wonderful pictures, and the recipe sounds just delicious.
Your bread looks fantastic! Really scrumptious and flavorful!
Cheers,
Rosa
My family also makes this at Thanksgiving--so delicious! I just made your recipe and discovered a fabulous new thing--try spreading cream cheese on your toasted slice! So delicious!
I also made a slight modification to your recipe--I melted the butter in the microwave, and used orange juice to fill out the liquid instead of boiling water.
This is a fabulous recipe, made two medium loaves a few days before Thanksgiving. I will be making this again for gifts during the holidays.
I'm so glad you liked it, Karen.
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