Cranberry nut bread with toasted pecans

Cranberry nut bread slices with toasted pecans and fresh cranberries

5 from 1 vote

Cranberry nut bread with toasted pecans

A cranberry nut bread that's speckled with chopped cranberries and very finely chopped pecans. The flavor is evenly distributed throughout.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1

Total Time1 15

Servings: slices

Calories: 269kcal

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 188 grams
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

⅔ cup sugar 134 grams
¼ cup brown sugar 50 grams
1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract
3 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk room temperature
½ cup walnut oil or vegetable oil

Mix ins

¾ cup pecan halves 84 grams
1 cup whole cranberries

Instructions

Prep work

Toast the pecan halves: preheat your oven to 250℉. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake until very lightly browned, about 5-15 minutes. Be careful of burning them (sometimes they taste off if they turn darker brown, instead of light golden). Once cool enough to handle, finely chop. (Turn the oven up to 350℉ to later bake the bread).
Optional: chop cranberries. This distributes them better throughout the bread for a more uniform flavor in every bite. Or leave whole for those big bursts of tartness.
Grease an 8" loaf pan, then coat it with flour. Shake the remaining flour out.

Dry ingredients

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. (This will be poured into the wet ingredient bowl).

Wet ingredients

In a larger bowl, mix white and brown sugar. Add the almond extract. Mix in eggs one at a time, lightly beating for 30-60 seconds between each one. Whisk in the buttermilk.
Add half of the flour mixture of the bowl and gently stir until mostly combined. Mix in the remaining flour mixture and stir until mostly combined again. Then mix in the oil until the batter is smooth.
Lastly, fold in the cranberries and nuts.

Bake

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350℉ for 50-70 minutes, until the center is 200-205℉ with an instant-read thermometer. Time will vary depending on your oven.
Let cool for 10 minutes, then flip upside down to remove it and finish cooling right-side up on a rack. If you cut the cranberry bread while still warm, it might fall apart (and that's ok, who hasn't done that a million times?). Store on the counter for 4 days. Can also be frozen.

Notes

Nuts: use pecans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or pistachios. Each one has a slightly different flavor profile.

Walnut oil: I love La Tourangelle oils. Nut oils don't last super long, so when I need to use some up before it goes bad, I use it in recipes like this for an even nuttier flavor. Otherwise, any vegetable or peanut oil works well.

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Nutrition