Cranberry Pecan Bread Recipe

Written by on in Recipes, Baking

We are big fans of cranberry orange walnut bread here – and while perusing Pinterest during a recent outpatient procedure recover, I came across this Cranberry Bread recipe that features pecans – another fave – and had to try it.  This was a pretty simple quick bread, and tasty.  I kind of missed the orange though – maybe next time I’ll try the cranberry orange walnut bread with pecans instead of walnuts?  Let me know what you think of this one!

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Cranberry Pecan Bread Recipe

Author Carrie Hill

Ingredients

  • 3 lg eggs room temp
  • 2 C sugar
  • 3/4 C butter cubed and softened at room temperature for 1 hour
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. almond extract optional
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 1/2 C cranberries 12-ounce bag - fresh or frozen

Optional pecan topping

  • 1/4 C butter
  • 1/4 C dark brown sugar
  • 1 C pecan halves

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 2-3 large loaf pans. I used 2 but they were really full and it took awhile to bake, 3 is probably a better choice.
  2. Using your hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until very smooth and fluffy, turning pale yellow and leaving ribbons on top of the batter when you lift the beaters up.
  3. Add in the softened butter, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat for 2 minutes or until the butter is smoothly incorporated.
  4. Fold in the flour, salt, and cranberries. DO NOT BEAT, it will overmix and create tough bread with the "tunnel" effect you see in muffins sometimes. The batter will be quite thick. Spread gently into the prepared pans
  5. For the optional topping, heat the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat, add sugar and stir. Add the pecans and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, until the butter and sugar mixture is shiny and smooth and the nuts are well-coated with the butter and sugar. Spread over the cake batter.
  6. Bake 30-45 minutes for loaves. If the top starts to look really brown, tent with foil and continue to bake, checking every 5 minutes until done. Loaf is done when the toothpick comes out of the center completely clean.
  7. Cool for 20 minutes then run a knife around the inside edge of the pan and remove the cake.
  8. Keep wrapped tight in the fridge or freeze this - it does well!