Cranberry Orange Bread with Orange Glaze
Not rated yet. Be the first.
Rub the orange zest into the sugar and the whole kitchen smells like the holidays have started. Tart cranberries, a tender buttermilk crumb, and a thin glaze that waits until the loaf is cool.
The short version
Rub orange zest into sugar, whisk in the dry ingredients, stir in buttermilk, melted butter and eggs, fold in chopped cranberries, and bake at 350°F for 60 to 70 minutes. Glaze once it's cool.
What makes ours better
the tricks Nonna pretends she never taught me
-
Rub the orange zest into the sugar. The sugar crystals scrape the zest and pull out its oils, so the orange flavor runs through the whole loaf instead of hiding in a few specks.
-
Use buttermilk and melted butter. Buttermilk keeps the crumb tender and balances the tart berries. Melted butter means no mixer and a moister loaf.
-
Chop the cranberries and toss them in flour. Chopped berries spread tartness evenly instead of bursting into sour pockets, and the flour coating helps keep them from sinking.
-
Finish with a thin orange glaze. A little juice and powdered sugar adds a sweet-tart shine and one more hit of orange.
What you need
the cast, in order of appearance
- Granulated sugar1 cup
- Orange1 large
- All-purpose flour1½ cups
- Buttermilk¾ cup
- Unsalted butter½ cup
- Eggs2 large
- Vanilla extract½ teaspoon
- Fresh or frozen cranberries1 cup
Bread
Glaze
tap each one as it goes in. no double-salting.
Steps
nobody opens the oven door. looking at you, Dad.
-
Heat the oven, line the pan
Set a rack in the center of the oven and heat it to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment that hangs over the long sides.
-
Rub zest into sugar
In a large bowl, combine the sugar and the zest of the orange (save 1 teaspoon of zest for the glaze). Pinch and rub them together with your fingertips for about a minute, until the sugar looks pale orange and smells strongly of orange. Whisk in 1½ cups of the flour, the baking powder and the salt.
-
Mix the wet ingredients
In a measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, orange juice and vanilla.
-
Make the batter
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold with a spatula just until no dry flour shows. Toss the chopped cranberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour, then fold them in with a few strokes.
Frozen cranberries go in frozen. Chop them first while they're still firm, and don't thaw them or they'll bleed pink.
-
Pan it
Scrape the batter into the pan and spread it level.
-
Bake
Bake until the top is deep golden and a skewer in the center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. If the top darkens before the 45-minute mark, tent it loosely with foil.
A skewer that hits a cranberry looks wet. Poke again in a different spot.
About 60 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
-
Cool
Let the loaf rest in the pan for 20 minutes, then lift it out by the parchment onto a rack. Cool completely before glazing.
About 20 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
-
Glaze and slice
Whisk the powdered sugar, orange juice and the reserved teaspoon of zest until smooth and thick enough to ribbon off the whisk. Drizzle over the cooled loaf, let it set for 10 minutes, and slice.
Good to know
things I learned the hard way, so you can skip that part
- Use a large orange. A small one will not give you enough zest, so use two if yours is small.
- For 12 muffins, bake at 350°F for 18 to 22 minutes. Mini loaves take 30 to 35 minutes.
- Add ½ cup of toasted chopped pecans or walnuts for crunch.
- It slices more cleanly on day two.
- Storage. Wrapped, at room temperature 3 days. Frozen unglazed, 3 months; glaze after thawing.
Questions, answered
the questions my cousins text me
Can I use frozen cranberries?
Yes. Chop them while still frozen and fold them in without thawing. Thawed berries go soft, bleed into the batter and make the bread streaky.
Can I use dried cranberries?
Use ¾ cup of dried cranberries in place of the fresh ones. The loaf will be sweeter and less tart, so you may want to skip the glaze.
Why did my cranberries sink?
The batter is thin, so heavy berries can drift. Tossing the chopped berries in a spoonful of flour and chopping them small keeps them suspended.
Can I use milk instead of buttermilk?
Yes. Stir 2 teaspoons of lemon juice into ¾ cup of milk, wait 5 minutes, and use it as written.
Why is the middle of my loaf sunken or wet?
It probably needed more time. The center is the last to set, so give it 5 more minutes and test again, and check your oven with a thermometer, as many run cool.
From the table
Made it? Tell me everything. Especially if somebody said it was better than their mother’s. I’ll keep your secret.
Made it?
be honest. I can take it. probably.
Tap a star
- No reviews yet. Yours would be the first, and I’d read it twice.
Find it in
Published October 29, 2026.