Holiday baking

[Murfreesboro]

Well, I think I actually prefer my cranberry orange bread that I make for Christmas, but if you all like I could post both recipes. The Magi bread is sweeter, doesn't have the tang of the cranberries, which I like.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Go ahead and post them both. As post Christmas Winter drags on, I just may try baking them both.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Here you go, Mike:

Cranberry-orange bread

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Stir in orange juice, oil, orange peel and egg. Mix until well blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread evenly in loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. cool on rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Makes one loaf.

This bread is delicious and doesn't last long at all at my house. The kids think it is Christmas when they eat this bread. I buy lots of bags of cranberries and freeze them so I can use them whenever I like (the recipe is straight from the Ocean Spray cranberry bag and uses all of a 12-ounce bag).

I often omit the nuts because my daughter dislikes them. The bread is good spread with cream cheese or just by itself. Also, I usually substitute dried orange peel for fresh, and use maybe a teaspoon or two of that.

[Murfreesboro]

Gift of the Magi bread (from Taste of Home recipes on line)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cups almonds, divided
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries
1/2 cup chopped dates

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with bananas. Sir in the oranges, coconut, chocolate chips, 1/2 cup of almonds, cherries, and dates.

Pour into two greased 8 x 4 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle with remaining almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the enter comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 2 loaves.

Since my daughter doesn't like nuts or coconut, I omitted those. However, my husband and I thought it would have been better at least with the coconut. This is a sweeter bread than the cranberry-orange, even though it does have mandarin oranges. But we missed the tang of the cranberries from the other one. It was a little too sweet for our taste, without the contrast.

[witchy]

Thanks Murf, those sound wonderful!!

[Murfreesboro]

Enjoy!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Thanks, Murf. I might try my hands at the Gift of the Magi bread some time before January is out. I just copied and pasted both recipes to word documents for future reference, too.

Mike