Amazing Cranberry Bread is a soft, moist quick bread with an amazing cheesecake swirl! This easy bread is packed full of cranberries and has a tangy orange glaze!
Cranberry Bread:
This festive quick bread has become a family favorite! We love making this during the holiday season, it’s becoming a staple much like our Poppy Seed Bread every year. This bread has a few bowls and steps needed, but it’s really easy! You can use fresh, dried, or even frozen cranberries to make this fave year round. You’ll need a couple of bowls for the bread batter, one for the filling, and another for the optional glaze. The orange glaze is totally optional, but I love the tangy/sweet flavor so don’t skip it if you don’t have to!
Making Cranberry Bread:
- First things first, beat together your wet ingredients! We use eggs, granulated sugar, vegetable oil and a bit of sour cream to keep it extra moist!
- Now, grab a second bowl and simply whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then, stir the cranberries in.
- Now, we combine the wet and dry ingredients to make a nice thick batter.
- Be sure not to over mix here, only stir gently with a spatula until combined.
Cranberry Bread Cheesecake Filling:
- Grab a separate bowl and beat your softened cream cheese first. You want it to be nice and light a fluffy. Usually 1-2 minutes will be perfect for this step!
- Once it is fluffy you can add your sugar, egg white, and vanilla. Beat on low speed for just a couple of minutes until nice and fluffy. Make sure the egg is nice and incorporated.
- Now, we add 2 Tablespoons of all purpose flour and beat it in last. This is important so that your cheesecake mixture will hold up well!
- At this point, you can add half of your bread batter to your loaf pan, top with the cream cheese mixture, then the remaining bread batter! Make sure to smooth each layer out nicely with a spatula, but don’t press down and mix them together.
A Few Recipe Notes and Tips:
You can use fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries in this recipe but we like using fresh when we can! If using frozen, you do not need to thaw them out first. If using dried cranberries only use 1 cup total. This bread is best eaten within 2 days after baking if stored at room temperature. You can also keep it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you’d like to freeze it, allow it to cool before wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and foil then freeze for up to 3 months. Just thaw the bread overnight in the refrigerator before slicing and serving. If you don’t like vanilla extract, you can swap it out! We love to use almond extract, coconut, or even orange extract if you have it on hand!
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Amazing Cranberry Bread
Ingredients
FOR THE BREAD:
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ Cups Fresh Cranberries** See note
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
- ¼ Cup Sour Cream
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
FOR THE FILLING:
- 4 Ounces of Cream Cheese Softened to room temp
- ½ Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg White
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
FOR THE OPTIONAL ICING:
- 1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons Orange Juice
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
FOR THE BREAD:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a large loaf pan (9x5x3) with non-stick spray.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl then stir in the cranberries.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then add the sugar, oil, sour cream and vanilla extract and whisk again until combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING:
- Beat the cream cheese in a separate bowl until smooth then add the sugar, egg white and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Sprinkle in the flour and stir just until combined.
- Add 1/3 of the bread batter to the prepared loaf pan. Spread it out evenly, then pour in the cheesecake swirl batter and spread it out, then add the remaining bread batter to the top. The batter will be thick, so you will need to add a bit and gently spread it then add more.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the top and sides turn a light golden color and a toothpick comes out fairly clean when inserted into the center of the bread. (The toothpick should still have a few crumbs on it so that the bread will still be moist.)
- Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 30 minutes before turning it out of the pan and letting it cool completely on a cooling rack.
FOR THE OPTIONAL ICING:
- Mix the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of the orange juice and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. If it’s too thick for your liking, add a dash more of orange juice until it reaches your desired consistency. Drizzle it over the cooled bread and let it stand for 10 minutes.
- Slice and serve as desired. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love the cranberry bread recipe, the middle did fall after it came out of the oven, but who cares! I did bake 60 minutes. Will be on table Christmas!
My family and I enjoyed this recipe! I can’t wait to make this recipe again soon! So delicious and yummy!
I adore cranberries and this bread is perfect!
This was so good, my entire family loved it! Thank you!
Cranberry is one of my favorite flavors, and this bread looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
I love the combo of raspberries and orange. It is so good!
I made this recipe today and it’s amazing. I Will continue to make as
now it’s one of my favorite bread recipes.
This bread disappeared in record time at my house. Even my daughter who swears she hates cranberries loved it. Making loaf #2 as we speak. Thanks for the amazing recipe!