Cranberry Apricot Loaf (A Keks Recipe)
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This sweet Cranberry Apricot Loaf made our house smell like Christmas morning. It is soft, moist, crumbly and loaded with the sweet tang of cranberries and apricots. This Cranberry Apricot Loaf is infused with clementine zest. And it’s amazing! I’m craving a slice just writing about it. Good thing we made it today and still have some left. Phew!
We’ve been experimenting with different Keks recipes and this is our favorite. Keks is a traditional Russian Christmas dessert bread. It’s a cross between a coffee cake and a fruit cake; definitely a comfort food. This recipe was inspired by one of our readers, Tanya, who shared her family’s keks recipe with us. Tanya, I love that you use kefir. It balances the whole loaf and makes it so so good!
Ingredients for Keks
1 1/2 cups plain kefir (this is not the same as buttermilk; found it at Fred Meyer)
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs (cold is ok)
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted (but not hot)
4 Tbsp extra light olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour *measured correctly
1 tsp clementine or orange zest
1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/2 cup dried apricots
How to Make a Cranberry Apricot Loaf:
Preheat the Oven to 350 ˚ F. Butter and flour a bread loaf pan.
1. Whisk together 1 1/2 cups kefir and 1 tsp baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside for 20 minutes.
It will look fluffier when it’s ready:
2. Chop dried apricots into pieces about the size of your dried cranberries. In a medium bowl, cover craisins and dried apricots with boiling hot water and let sit two (2) minutes, then drain well and set aside to dry in a colander.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until pale in color (3 min on high speed). Mix in 1 stick melted butter, 4 Tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
4. Whisk in the prepared kefir and baking soda until well blended.
5. Mix in the 2 cups flour until everything is well blended.
6. Finally fold in the craisins, chopped apricots and clementine or orange zest.
7. Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan and give it a little shake to even out the top.
Bake in the center of the oven at 350˚F for 60 to 70 minutes. (make sure your bread isn’t too close to the top of the oven or the top will get too dark). Check the center with a wooden toothpick. It’s done when the toothpick comes out clean.
Let the loaf cool inside the pan until cool enough to handle, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You don’t want to add powdered sugar if it’s warm or it will melt onto the bread. Finally, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.
Merry Christmas! Do you have any special holiday baking traditions?
Cranberry Apricot Loaf (A Keks Recipe)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plain kefir, this is not the same as buttermilk; found it at Fred Meyer
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs, cold is ok
- 1 stick, 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (but not hot)
- 4 Tbsp extra light olive oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 tsp clementine or orange zest
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, craisins
- 1/2 cup dried apricots
Instructions
-
Preheat the Oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a bread loaf pan.
-
Whisk together 1 1/2 cups kefir and 1 tsp baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside for 20 minutes. It will look fluffier when it's ready:
-
Chop dried apricots into pieces about the size of your dried cranberries. In a medium bowl, cover craisins and dried apricots with boiling hot water and let sit two (2) minutes, then drain well and set aside to dry in a colander.
-
In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until pale in color (3 min on high speed). Mix in 1 stick melted butter (not hot butter, just warm), 4 Tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
-
Whisk in the prepared kefir and baking soda until well blended.
-
Mix in the 2 cups flour until everything is well blended.
-
Finally fold in the craisins, chopped apricots and clementine zest.
-
Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan and give it a little shake to even out the top.
-
Bake in the center of the oven at 350 for 60 to 70 minutes. Check the center with a wooden toothpick. It's done when the toothpick comes out clean. Let the loaf cool inside the pan until cool enough to handle, then transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Once it's cooled, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.
Recipe Notes
PS. Make sure your bread isn't too close to the top of the oven while baking or the top will get too dark.
PPS. You don't want to add powdered sugar to a warm loaf or it will melt onto the bread. Let it cool completely to room temp.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Just made this and it was exceptional. Definitely a keeper. Thank you
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Jill!
If I remember correctly, traditional Russian keks is made with raisins. Which is what I used instead of apricots and cranberries . Came out GREAT!! My husband, who doesn’t usually eat a lot of sweets, had three slices. Love your blog!!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Inna! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my blog & recipes!
Hi Natasha, just curious, can I make this with fresh cranberries instead of dried cranberries? And What is the reason for putting the dried apricots and dried cranberries in boiling water?
Thanks and God bless you this Christmas!
Hi Justine, I have always made this with dried cranberries, but it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
made 3 smaller loafs today instead of one big one and it was perfect! Beautiful bake. Everything about it I loved. Swapped out the 1 1/2 cup of sugar for Truvia and it tasted great. This loaf will be one of 3 different flavors I will be sending out to the family and friends to go with my jams, cookies, and applesauce. Instead of the powdered sugar I made a nice glaze of powder sugar, milk and orange extract. YUMMO!!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Diane!
So this is the first fail for me from any of your recipes. I’m an experienced baker and have now triple-checked the ingredient quantities, but still, my loaf came out of the oven dark brown on top after an hour of baking at 350, but quickly collapsed in the middle like a deflated souffle which is when I realized it was still raw in the middle. I put it back in the oven for additional 15 minute intervals (with the top covered in foil now) four — four! — more times before the middle was done. (At some point there, I put an oven thermometer in, but it registered 350.) Two hours of total bake time before I called it quits, let it cool in the pan, then despite the pan having been buttered with 2 Tbs of butter, the bottom layer still tore off the loaf coming out of the pan. The keks itself was tasty, but maybe too oily and still overly dense/moist on the bottom half. The only substitutions I made were Canola for the olive oil and a cup of raisins instead of the craisins and apricots, otherwise we did have Kefir, and all the rest of the ingredients and methods are as written. A huge shrug as to what happened here, but if you or anyone can offer some insight, I’d be grateful. This is the first of your recipes that didn’t turn out as expected, but it sounds like maybe a fluke given others in the comments didn’t have an issue.
Hi Anya, make sure not to skip that first step of activating the baking soda with the kefir – you should see it increase in volume which is a good indication that the baking soda is not expired. Also, make sure to bake on regular conventional oven settings (not convection). I hope that helps to troubleshoot
A great recipe, like all the recipes that I already tried from your blog. Thank you!
So great to hear that! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipes that you’ve tried.
This looks sooo good!! I will make tomorrow, but I am confused with the flour, what is unbleached flour? I never know the difference!
Thank you Natasha for your answer about the flour!
Hi Cristina, the flour packaging will show bleached or unbleached. It is refined flour that has not had any whitening agents added to it. I hope that helps.
Your recipes are fabulous, thank you! I cannot wait to make the Cranberry Apricot Loaf! I will not be able to get Kefir here, would I be able to use Buttermilk successfully please?
Hi Thea, yes buttermilk is the next best thing. I hope you love the recipe!
You sure have some lovely rescipes Natasha I’m making my blueberry cake to-tomorrow,,@ bringing it to my familys house,,for Easter,,thanks for sharing,,,,Happy Easter..
My pleasure Rose! Please let me know what everyone thinks of the recipe!
Lovely Apricot Cranberry cake recipe.
I tested out tdy and use yogurt mixed with some milk (I don’t have any kefir) , only used less than 1 cup of sugar , add some golden raisins And it turned out moist and light and yummy!
I just don’t seem to get the nice dark colour like your cake, mine looks pale! Any advice?
Thank you for sharing your lovely recipes.
Chew
Malaysia
Hi Chew, I’m not sure if it may have something to do with the recipe substitutions such as using less sugar. Did you use the same dried fruits or did you omit them and use golden raisins instead? I haven’t tested it without kefir because it works so well with it and I’m just not sure if that would cause a color difference either??
Natasha,
I finally got around to making this bread and it is super delicious!!!!!! I reduced sugar to only 1 cup and it was plenty sweet. I first thought that the bread won’t be sweet enough, but I worried all for nothing. I used buttermilk 3.25% and from this batter, I made 1 normal size loaf and 2 loafs 5×3-in. We ate it hot (b/c it smelled so heavenly, that we could not continue to wait) and it was bed-time😉. So, little one ate it with cold milk and when I asked how was it? She had two thumbs up and said that it is delicious!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes that work and taste delicious!!!!!
I’m all smiles reading your comment and imagining the sweet scene of your little one giving two thumbs up 🙂 Thank you for sharing that with me 🙂
I made this yesterday and it is SOOOO delicious! I love to find new sweet breads to make into mini loaves and give away. This is one of my favorites. Thank you for this recipe!
Awesome!! I’m so happy you loved the recipe :). I love your idea of turning it into mini loaves! If you tried them as mini loaves already, did you have to adjust the baking time and how long did you bake?
Hi Natasha!
This recipe looks and sounds amazing! I’m planing to try this recipe for my husband, he loves breads like this one. I’m not familiar with Kefir though. What is it and where can I find it? If I can’t find it at my local grocery store is there a substitute I can use instead?
Thank you!
The closest substitute is buttermilk. One of my readers tried it and reported great results 🙂
This bread looks amazing! I am planning to make this for my daughter’s teacher this week. Unfortunately, I only have mini loaf pans. Would you be able to let me know the baking time for the mini loaves? Thank you so much!
Hi Suzanne, that is so sweet of you to make it for your daughters teacher. Unfortunately, without testing it in mini loaf pans myself, I really couldn’t tell you exactly. I would definitely recommend baking until a toothpick comes out clean. I’d start checking after 30 minutes depending on how small your loaf pans are – if they are very tiny, you might check sooner.
hello Natalia!
Used your recipe and absolutely loved it!!!
Thank you 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you Susanna 🙂
OOOHHHH MY GOOODNESS!!! This sweet bread is to die for!!! i know Christmas past but had to make it and oh my gosh, it is the best KEKS i ever tried, i tried soo many other kinds and none of them were sooo moist as this one, i made one last night and i think i’ll be making two more loafs tonight for my work and my husbands work!! I dont know where u got this recipe but definatly a keeper and keep them coming:) i just love you, your wonderful family and your lovely site:) thank you
Thank you so much for a great review! I’m so glad you loved it! It was actually inspired by one of my readers, Tanya. 🙂
Oh thats right u wrote that:) lol well thank you to Tanya and to you for sharing it with us 🙂
🙂
I made this today and it’s absolutely delicious! Thank you, Natasha, for another awesome recipe!
Awesome!!! That’s so cool that it was part of your Christmas!! 🙂
In Central TX. where can one find the product kefir at what grocery store ?
OK
I found it at Fred Meyer.
I just made some mini loaves & cupcakes, the taste is very good; but it seems too wet. I’ve already cut out the oil. Maybe there’s too much fruit? Or maybe my kefir is not thick enough like the store bought one? (I cultivate my own). Definitely need to try again!
It might have something to do with the kefir. Hmmm… I’m surprised that they were “wet” in the mini loaves and cupcakes. Maybe they just needed to be baked a little longer?
Made this loaf this morning. SO GOOD!!!!
Thank you for this amazing recipe! 🙂
I’m glad you like it, thank you for the good report Lidiya :).
I made this with buttermilk and it turned out amazing!!!!!!! Thank you! My family enjoyed it.
Thanks so much for sharing that! It’s great to know that buttermilk works well 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This is the best recipe for keks!!! I made is with coconut oil instead of olive oil. It tasted amazing! Love it!!!
Thank you for a delicious recipe Natasha 🙂
What a great idea and thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
I have a question…followed the recipe/pics, no problem with prepping. In my aluminum colored pan it didn’t come out as dark, in my dark colored pan, like yours, it came out darker, hmmmm. But anyway, when taking it out of the pans, the bottoms seemed a bit oily/moist….has good flavor, but can the olive oil be cut back to 3 tablespoons instead of 4 tablespoons??? My Wegman’s store was out of regular Kefir…all they had was organic, bought it anyway.
Thanks and have a Merry Christmas…..
I think it would still work well with 3 Tbsp. I’m not sure why the difference in the pans… I haven’t tried baking it in an aluminum pan. That’s interesting. I wonder if it is the difference in the pans that is making it moist on the bottom since mine was pretty dry on the bottom. Hmm… I wish I knew the answer to this mystery!
This was one good keks, my family enjoyed it. Thank you Natasha!!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad your family liked it 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Just made this today. Yumm!!!!! It will go well with the Polish/Russian dishes I am making for Christmas.
Awesome!!!! I’m so glad you liked it! What other polish dishes are you making? I’d love to do more polish cooking. It’s fairly similar to Russian/Ukrainian.
Perfect for Christmas! Thank you! Will def be making this
Thank you and I hope you love it!! 🙂
I have great cookie recipe with kefir. It’s delicious and easy. Like it better than with sour cream
Oh, please share!! 🙂
Beautiful loaf! I love dried apricots in dessert breads, and I also love baking with kefir or Greek yogurt – both are wonderful for cakes. I can’t even imagine NOT baking with them any more!
I don’t think I’ve tried baking with Greek yogurt! Thanks for the tip! I imagine it can be subbed for recipes that call for sour cream…
Your pictures are gorgeous! I’ve never heard of keks but seeing your pics makes me want a piece of it. It looks so pretty and delicious. 🙂
Tina thank you so much for the compliments 🙂
If using buttermilk will it turn out different? I just dont have kefir.
I haven’t tried this recipe with buttermilk but I imagine it would work. I would still recommend getting kefir for best results.
Looks and sounds delicious. Thank you, Natasha. Happy Holidays to you and your family.
You’re welcome Liz. I hope you have a wonderful and beautiful Christmas! 🙂
Looks delicious! I love baking with kefir, it’s truly a magic ingredient. I haven’t had a real Russian keks for ages. So excited to try this recipe. My kids go crazy for quick breads!
Julia, I’m so curious about what other recipes you use kefir for? I’ve been reading up on it and it seems way healthier than regular buttermilk. I would really like to incorporate it more in my food.
My mom only used kefir for blini, never milk and I am so used to a slightly tangy taste of her recipe that it’s the only taste I recognize as real Russian blini. 🙂 I know it’s not the case but it is for me. I have the recipe posted on my blog. I put kefir in smoothies. Super yum! I substitute it for milk and buttermilk in any recipe. You can marinate chicken in it, just add any spices you like. I drink it plain because I really love the taste. Some people find it too tart but I grew up drinking it and love it. The health benefits are incredible.
Oh my goodness you’re making me hungry! I can only imagine how much better my buttermilk pancakes would be as kefir pancakes. Yum! I’ll definitely have to give that a whirl next time I make them. I have always loved drinking buttermilk with cookies. Kefir tastes even better! Thanks Julia for sharing 🙂