Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread
This Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread is packed with seasonal flavors that can be enjoyed year-round. It doesn’t require any special equipment to prepare and stays true to the nature of quick breads, there’s no yeast involved. A yogurt infused homemade batter is filled with citrus zest and fresh cranberries. Serve a slice or two, any time of day you need a tasty sweet fix.
Easy Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread Recipe
Sweet breads are a year-round favorite at our house. I love to host tea parties and brunches, and I would be sorely remiss if some sort of sweet bread wasn’t included on the menu. I particularly love making for the tang and texture yogurt lends to the batter. How to make homemade Cranberry Orange Bread:
- Flour – All-purpose flour sifted with granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
- Cranberries – Fresh cranberries rinsed, dried and picked over.
- Fat – Salted or unsalted butter melted.
- Milk – 2% or whole milk Greek yogurt. You could also use sour cream.
- Eggs – 3 large eggs.
- Orange – Oranges zest.
- Flavorings – Orange extract and vanilla extract. Orange extract gives a more concentrated flavor than orange juice alone.
- Glaze – Powdered sugar, fresh orange juice and orange zest.
How to Make the Best Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread Recipe
If you’ve never baked with fresh cranberries before this quick bread is a great place to start.I worked on this recipe until I felt it had just the right balance of sweet versus tart. The sweet orange infused glaze drizzled on top is a must.
- Ingredients you’ll need to make homemade Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread: All purpose flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, granulated sugar, butter, fresh cranberries, orange juice and orange zest, plain Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, eggs, orange extract plus powdered sugar and heavy cream to make the glaze.
- Kitchen gadgets you’ll need: A 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, a whisk, mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, a large rubber spatula or spoon to mix the batter. You can use a hand mixer to make the batter but it’s not necessary and mixes together well by hand.
- You can substitute sour cream for yogurt in this recipe.
- This bread was specifically designed to use fresh cranberries. Frozen cranberries could work but will need to be thawed and well drained before adding to the batter.
- Rinse, pick over and dry the cranberries prior to adding them to the batter.
- Store baked Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread chilled for up to one week or freeze for up to 2 months. When freezing, thaw and glaze just before serving.
More Cranberry Desserts and Sweets to Make
This cranberry sweet bread is so delicious you may find yourself going back over and over again to sneak another slice. More desserts and sweets using cranberries that you may also like to try:
- This single layer Christmas Cranberry Cake will take you from brunch to dessert.
- Serve this Cranberry Apple Fruit Chutney as a condiment or side for Thanksgiving.
- Cranberry Pretzel Salad is a seasonal riff on strawberry Jell-O salad.
- Cranberry Orange Sweet Rolls are a made from scratch delicacy.
- Cranberry Orange Butter Cake never lasts long.
- The family will flip for this creamy Cranberry Fluff.
- Enjoy a freshly baked batch of Cranberry Muffins with your morning cup of coffee.
- You may also like this recipe for Nantucket Cranberry Pie from Barefeet in the Kitchen.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup [1 stick] butter melted
- 1 cup 2% or whole milk plain Greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 large oranges zested (around 3 Tbsp)
- 2 tsp pure orange extract
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Glaze: mix together until smooth
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1 tsp orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a standard 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan or spritz with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Sift together the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, yogurt, eggs, orange zest, orange extract and and vanilla extract.
- By hand mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until moistened. The batter will be thick. Gently fold the whole cranberries into the batter until they’re evenly distributed.
- Spoon into the prepared loaf pan spreading the batter evenly.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and a tester inserted into the center comes back clean. Cool completely. (Tip: Check the bread at 50 minutes and lay a piece of aluminum foil on top if needed to prevent over browning)
- Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then remove from the pan and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- To glaze, mix together the powdered sugar, orange juice and zest until the sugar is completely dissolved. Drizzle on top of the cranberry-orange bread.
Nutrition
I have a question that’s been bugging me for awhile. Why are orange and lemon peels added for flavour in quick bread and muffin recipes? Why can’t you just use the juices? When I think of using peels in a recipe it make me think that pesticides
are on the peels and going into the recipes. Hope you can answer this question because I want to leave the peels out and substitute juice and add extracts every time I think of making breads and muffins. Thank-you.
If fruits are cleaned properly, there shouldn’t be concern about pesticides. Zest and juice isn’t interchangeable in any cake or bread recipe. Zest doesn’t add liquid but a punch of flavor whereas juice would factor into the liquid amounts overall. It’s your choice if you choose to omit the zest.
Baked this to take to friends for the first time. I ate 4 pieces right there and then. I only had craisins to use so I soaked them for an hour in coconut rum liquor and drained well . Cannot go wrong with this recipe! :->
Love that, Marion!
This recipe is delicious! I’ve tried several orange cranberry bread recipes and they are never that great. This was so moist and delicious. Tastes like the ones I get from the local bakery. Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe! By the way, I used orange oil instead of extract and I chopped the cranberries lightly in the food processor so the flavor was awesome and cranberry was in every bite!
I’m happy you enjoyed it, thanks!
This sounds and looks so good but i was wondering if i double the recipe would it be enough to make a 9×13 cake?
I Haven’t tested it. If you try it let us know how goes! (I do have this Cranberry Orange Butter Cake)
Hi, I made this bread for my mother & she loves it! I am wondering if you can give me the nutritional value, specifically for protein, carbs, & sugar. She is a diabetic & I want to make sure this is ok for her to have unsupervised…haha. Thank you.
Hi Belinda, I certainly can, they’ve been added to the bottom of the recipe card. I’m so happy you’re enjoying this bread, thanks!
I plan on making mini loaves will the cranberries cook or should I cut them in half
Leave the cranberries whole.
I plan on including this in gift baskets I’m making. Will they keep at room temp or do they need to be refrigerated?
Best kept chilled but, will keep at room temperature.
Thank you, this was a hit! Does it freeze well?
Yes, it freezes well!
Thank you
Hi Melissa….I want to make mini loafs to use as gifts..any idea how many I might get out of one batch?
Hi Donna, I think you’ll get at least three, possibly four, out of one batch depending on how you divide the batter. Great idea!
This looks delicious. I live at 6581′. Am I going to need to adjust for my altitude for this recipe?
Thank you. If you typically change baking times at your elevation, I would think you’d have to apply the same rule to this bread.
Can sour cream be used instead of yogurt?
Yes, in the same amount.
Do you think I could make this with almond flour or gluten free flour?
While I haven’t tested it, I’m guessing you could if you’ve had success swapping out all purpose for those flours in the past. If you try it, let us know how it goes.
This is really good. The bread texture is very tender. I added even more cranberries which I coated in flour so they don’t sink, 1/4 cup orange juice to batter and used the European yogurt I had on hand. I made as 8 mini loaves. I’ve eaten 2 by myself!
Wonderful, thanks so much!
I have everything except the yogurt, no sour cream on hand either. How could I adjust the recipe to fix that-?
One or the other is crucial to this recipe. I would suggest waiting until you have what you need.
Wondering if you could use dried cranberries? I have bags and bags of dried?
I think you could, it would change the outcome but, you could.
Thanks! I just made this in muffin form. It is so delicious!!! I will definitely make again. (I used frozen cranberries and regular fat-free plain yogurt and had no issues)
Oh great thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Melissa, could I use frozen cranberries seeing as the fresh are out of season now that the holidays are over?
Laura, I usually make this bread with fresh but frozen should do fine. The baking time may take a bit longer, so just be aware of that and adjust as needed.
Hi Linda, I love using yogurt in quick breads, it lends such a bright flavor to the batter. Of course, it’s interchangeable with sour cream.
This sounds yummy Melissa. I’m not sure I’ve ever made a bread with yogurt. Will def give this a try. Thanks!
Hi Georgette, I don’t know honestly. However, I do have this maybe it will suit your taste more. https://www.melissassouthernstylekitchen.com/2014/07/hawaiian-pineapple-coconut-loaf.html
Hey Thanks for your time..Do you think I could use fresh pineapple in the Cranberry-Orange Yogurt Bread instead of cranberries?Georgette Helton