Yummy Experiment #1: Cranberry Nut Bread

Yummy Experiment #1: Cranberry Nut Bread

It started with two bowls of cranberries. They caught my attention this morning when I opened our refrigerator this morning and saw them.

The cranberries that started this whole experiment
The cranberries that started this whole experiment

I don’t eat cranberries, neither does my husband. We bought them to fulfill the whole “thirteen-fruits-for-New-Year” thing. Trust me, looking for round fruits is quite challenging. Now I’m figuring out what to do with the cherries, blueberries, pomegranate, Asian pear and honeydew that we have. The cherries ended up with vodka – cherry-infused vodka – ready for drinking a month from now. As for the cranberries, I searched for so many recipes and finally decided on cranberry nut bread.

I started off my experiment with 2 cups flour…

Cranberry Nut Bread

and one cup sugar.

Cranberry Nut Bread

After the sugar was added to the flour, it was followed by 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Cranberry Nut Bread

Then here’s one egg that should be beaten well. Sounds abusive though.

The Innocent Egg
The Innocent Egg
The innocent egg taking a beating.
The innocent egg taking a beating.

1 tablespoon grated orange peel follows next.

Cranberry Nut Bread

You know what? Here are the ingredients. Some of ’em already appeared above, but it’s a nice shot so I’m sharing it. : )

Cranberry Nut Bread - The Ingredients
From top clockwise: 1 1/2 cups Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries, coarsely chopped, 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder substitute, 1 tablespoon grated orange peel, 1 well-beaten egg. Middle: 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Since the recipe only said “chopped nuts”, I threw in some walnuts in our food processor. Should I have used peanuts, cashews, almonds? Who knows? Let’s just rely on good ol’ bravery.

There was slight problem though. The recipe called for baking powder that we don’t have. No way was I heading out to buy it today, not with the snow out there. Thank goodness for ingredient substitutions! Two parts cream of tartar + one part baking soda. Oh yes!

What else? I used freshly squeezed orange juice because we don’t have the store-bought kind. We don’t really buy OJ from the store. I use our fruit juicer everyday for our OJ fix, believe it or not! Today though, we had two oranges left, so I wasn’t sure if we’d end up with 3/4 cup. After getting juiced, we had 1 cup! *happy dance*

Continuing on, see the mix below? I need to spread it in the loaf pan, and make sure it’s nice and even. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of that.

Cranberry Nut Bread
The mix before going into the loaf pan

After baking for exactly 55 minutes, I poked the bread with a toothpick to make sure it was ready. The toothpick came out clean! Woohoo! I took it out of the oven for cooling.

Cooling for 15 minutes
Cooling for 15 minutes
Cranberry Nut Bread sliced and ready to eat
Cranberry Nut Bread sliced and ready to eat

I was going to slice it thin, but somehow found it difficult.

One slice for me. One slice for hubby.
One slice for me. One slice for hubby.

So that’s my baking experiment for today. My first ever bread baked from scratch with my own two hands! I hope you enjoyed reading about my little experiment. ; )

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