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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Cranberry Orange Sour Cream Loaf


On Easter morning, I was asked to bring something to serve after church and I wanted to use up some ingredients I had in my fridge. Namely, the orange juice I knew we wouldn't drink and some leftover sour cream. I found a quick bread recipe for cranberry orange bread that included both sour cream and orange juice, but a glance through the recipe made me cringe. I'm all for indulging in baked goods, but I try to healthify them when possible and this bread recipe was pretty chock full of butter and sugar. So, I used the recipe as my base and made quite a few changes. In the end, the changes were without consequence. This bread was moist and the extra fat & sugar weren't missed. My only regret was not adding more chopped cranberries--next time I'd up it to 2 cups!

*note: this recipe makes 2 loaves of bread but could easily be halved

Cranberry Orange Bread
recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:
-1 cup butter (I used 1 stick butter & 1 stick margarine because it was all I had on hand)
-3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling cranberries
-1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
-1 cup sour cream
-2 cups orange juice
-4 eggs
-2 cups whole wheat flour
-3 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp salt
-1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped (I suggest increasing if you really like cranberries!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Sprinkle chopped cranberries with sugar and set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
5. Mix in eggs, one at a time.
6. Mix in sour cream and orange juice until well combined.
7. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing slowly until just combined.
8. Stir in cranberries.
9. Pour batter evenly into two loaf pans and bake for 60 minutes. Remove from oven, cool on wire rack, and slice.