Orange-glazed Cranberry bread has a moist and tender crumb and is loaded with juicy cranberries. It has the perfect balance of sweet and tangy and just like our famous Banana Bread, this loaf stays moist for a few days (in case you needed a homemade Christmas gift idea).
This is a copycat version of my favorite bakery’s cranberry loaf and this one turned out even better – more cranberries and the orange glaze makes it truly special. You’ll love every bite.
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We love cranberry recipes during the holidays like Sugared Cranberries, Cranberry Bundt Cake, and of course this Cranberry Bread recipe. If you love tangy and juicy cranberries, this recipe is a must-try!
Cranberry Bread Video Tutorial
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Ingredients for Cranberry Orange Bread
- Flour – use all-purpose to give the bread structure
- Baking powder – leavening to make the loaf rise
- Salt – balances the sweetness
- Milk – best at room temperature
- Orange zest and juice – be sure to zest the orange before juicing it. Reserve a teaspoon of zest for the glaze.
- Butter – Adds moisture to the loaf. Use unsalted butter softened at room temperature.
- Sugar – to balance the tanginess of the cranberries
- Eggs – give the bread a moist, tender crumb
- Cranberries – rinsed and dried then tossed in 1/2 Tbsp of flour to keep them from sinking in the batter (see substitution options in common questions section)
How to Make Cranberry Bread
- Whisk dry ingredients – whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Combine wet ingredients – in a measuring cup, stir together milk, orange juice and zest.
- Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl then beat in eggs until well combined.
- Combine batter – Add flour mixture in 2 additions, alternating with the milk mixture, mixing just until combined.
- Flour cranberries – rinse and dry cranberries then toss them with 1/2 Tbsp flour to coat. Fold in cranberries just until incorporated. Spread batter into buttered and floured 8.5×4.5 bread pan.
- Bake the bread for 45-50 minutes until golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Pro Tip: Tossing cranberries in a little flour coats them lightly and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf as it bakes. This ensures cranberries are evenly disbursed in the finished loaf.
The Best Glaze for Cranberry Bread
Orange and cranberry are complimentarily flavored just like peanut butter and jelly. Topping the cranberry bread with orange juice and the orange zest-infused glaze makes this bread irresistible. I’m not sure if it’s breakfast or dessert but I’ve served it both ways. All you need for this easy 3-ingredient glaze is:
- Powdered sugar – I spoon it into the cup and level the top for a consistent measure.
- Orange juice – Freshly squeezed is best and don’t worry about straining. A little pulp won’t hurt the bread.
- Orange zest – do not skip the zest. It adds deep orange floral notes to the glaze.
Common Questions
Yes, you can use frozen cranberries in the same quantity and add them frozen (do not thaw). You may need to bake just a few minutes longer or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
You can substitute with 2/3 cup dried cranberries and reduce the sugar in the recipe to 2/3 cup since dried cranberries aren’t as tart. The dried cranberries will be juicer if you soak them in very warm water for 10 minutes then drain and pat dry before using.
You can make this a cranberry nut bread by folding in 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans when adding the cranberries to the batter.
This sweet bread is total comfort food. All you need is a mug of tea or coffee to go with a thick, fresh slice of cranberry bread.
Make-Ahead
- Room Temperature – wrap cranberry bread loosely in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerate – you can cover and store the loaf in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Freezing – cool the loaf completely to room temperature then place in a freezer-safe zip bag, removing any excess air. Freeze up to three months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
Pro Tip: Cranberries are only available for a season in grocery stores so buy extra and store them in the freezer so you can keep enjoying this cranberry bread year-round.
More Cranberry Recipes
These are our best cranberry recipes using both fresh and dried cranberries.
- Cranberry Sauce
- Sparkling Cranberry Pineapple Punch
- Cranberry Orange Scones
- Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries
- Cranberry Apple Danish
Cranberry Bread with Orange Glaze
Ingredients
Cranberry Bread Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup milk, room temperature
- Zest of 1 large orange, divided
- 1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and patted dry
- 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
Orange Glaze Ingredients:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice, or to reach desired consistency
- 1 tsp orange zest, reserved from the orange above
Instructions
How to Make Cranberry Orange Bread:
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter a 6 cup (8 1/2 by 4 1/2 bread loaf pan)* then dust with flour, tapping out the excess flour.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together: flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, combine together milk, zest of 1 orange (Reserve 1 tsp zest for the glaze), and orange juice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and granulated sugar on medium/high speed (2-3 minutes on high speed). It won’t be smooth, just combined. Beat in 2 large eggs, mixing until well incorporated.
- Add flour mixture in 2 parts, alternating with the milk mixture and mixing on medium/low speed just until incorporated with each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
- Toss cranberries with 1/2 Tbsp flour then fold them into the batter just until incorporated. Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 45-50 min at 350˚F until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10-15 minutes then run a cake release tool or knife around the edges and transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
To Make the Glaze:
- In a separate bowl, stir together powdered sugar, orange juice and reserved teaspoon of zest. Stir until smooth. It should have a drizzling consistency. Add more orange juice to thin it out or powdered sugar to make it thicker.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Incredible recipe! My husband and I ate the whole loaf in one day! This Spring I want to try it with blueberries instead of cranberries, and lemon juice and zest instead of orange.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Made this yesterday to have for New Years breakfast…..soooo good!!! My husband wasn’t very excited about having it, but he ended up loving it as much as I did!! I accidentally bought a huge bag of fresh cranberries, so I froze the rest of them…when I make this again, would I thaw them or not? I know you say do not thaw frozen, but wasn’t sure if that was for the ones you buy frozen or that included fresh ones I froze…? Thanks so much for the recipe!!!
Hi Kristi, Please read this section in the recipe: “Common Questions: Can I use frozen cranberries?”. Also, here’s what one of my readers wrote about using frozen cranberries: “I used frozen Cranberries and the bread is delicious!”
I doubled the recipe and baked it in eight individual foil tins. I cheated a bit — I used frozen oj without thinning it out, both for the bread and the glaze. I also cut the cranberries in half and dredged them in flour and some of the sugar. Really orange-y! Most of the loaves will go as neighbor gifts; since I missed Christmas gifts, they’ll be for New Years.
I think this is the perfect Christmas and New Years’ gift! Great idea, Dolores! Happy New Year!
Got two loaves of this wonderful cranberry bread in the oven cooking. I threw in 2 cups approx of white chocolate chips. Since i doubled the recipe. Im excited approx. 45 minutes from now yummy cranberry bread. Thanks for the inspiration yall.
Yum! I bet your home smells lovely, Denise! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Can you used this recipe for muffins? If so, what is the bake time? Thanks!
Hi Beverly, I haven’t tried that myself, but I recommend looking through my reader’s comments, one of my readers mentioned making these into cupcakes.
Hi Natasha, I am a big fan of your recipes and videos, so much so that my teenage son teases me endlesly with a cheeky comment “Is this Natacha’s?” when I bake something new!
This loaf cake is a delight and so special to us in the UK because we only get fresh cranberries in December…I made it twice in ten days! First time with dry cranberries soaked in orange juice and it was delicious. Second time today with fresh cranberries, following your recipe to the dot, including tossing the fruit with flour and – they ALL floated to the top half way through the baking and stayed there.
The cake is delicious nevertheless but, I am still wondering why this happened.
By the way, the orange juice and the zest are such a hit, I even added a few drops of pure orange oil to the icing, the house smells like Christmas for sure tonight!
I’m so happy you love our recipes! Thank you so much for the fantastic review and your thoughtful feedback. I am smiling big reading your comment.
We enjoyed this bread very much. Made it twice in one week! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome! Thank you for your good comments and feedback.
My cranberries all floated to the top too. Was wondering why that happened? I did coat them in the flour too.
Hi Angelica,
I had this happen as well. I first tried cutting the frozen cranberries, which worked but was very tedious work and such cold fingers! The next experiment I tried was to reserve 3/4 of a cup of the batter. Then add the cranberries to the remaining batter. Place the cranberry batter in the pan first and top it with the reserved plain batter. Works every single time!
I made this cranberry bread exactly as the recipe directed. I loved it but no one else did, most comments were that it was too tart and I agree it was. Is there a reason why it came out this way?
Hi Charlese, did you possibly add more cranberries or reduce the amount of sugar (or use a different kind of sugar?). Also, the cranberries can make a difference especially if they all seemed more on the white-ish color rather than that deep red color that they should be when ripe. This year, there was a big shortage in cranberries so I don’t know if some of the products suffered because of that? Also, adding the glaze definitely adds to the sweetness. Did you make sure to add the glaze at the end?
I did everything as directed but I had a hard time finding cranberries so maybe that might have been the problem because everything else tasted perfect.
There was a big shortage of cranberries this year which made holiday cooking a challenge with any cranberry recipe. Even canned cranberries seemed to be in short supply in our area.
I baked this today and liked it a lot but the cranberries were sooo tart. I didn’t know to look for the dark red ones when picking out which ones to use. This I will know for next time. My question is, how do I store this with the glaze on it? How do you give it away as gifts without the glaze coming off ?
This is going to become a Christmas morning staple. It was so delicious!!! My only comment is that the glaze recipe made way more than necessary for my taste.
Hi Marcia, great to hear that you found your new go-to recipe! Thank you so much for the review.
Question- for the cranberries; do you mean measure 1.5 cups or use a 12 oz bag? The 12 oz bag holds more than 1.5 cups but is equivalent in weight. Thanks!
Hi Sharon, I used 1 1/2 cups of fresh cranberries.
This bread is very delicious! My oranges were not very juicy so when I made a second batch to use up the cranberries, I used Tang drink mix. This was also a big hit!
I used mini loaf pans and a regular size loaf. Next week I will be making muffins with this recipe, and sharing what I can get my hubby to give up. 😉
I’ve tried minis also and they turn out so cute.
Oh that’s interesting! Great to know it works as a substitution for orange juice.
I made this yesterday and it is SO GOOD!!! Don’t skimp on the fresh orange zest, it definitely makes a big difference. Use large oranges to get the most juice. I ended up adding just a bit more orange juice to the glaze, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly as written. I’ve had it in the fridge overnight and the flavors came together even better the second day. Thank you, Natasha. This one is a keeper!
I’m so happy this is a keeper, Laura! That’s so great!
Fantastic recipe! One question though. The first time I made it, it came out perfect. The second time, all the cranberries floated to the top. Both times I used frozen cranberries dredged with flour.
Any ideas as to why this happened?
Hi Leslie, Hmmm… I haven’t had that happen – did you change anything else? Was the oven fully preheated both times?
My oven was fully preheated, and I use an oven thermometer. Apparently, due to how light and “airy” cranberries are, they will often float to the top. Now I cut them in half and then dredge with flour. Much more successful this way.
Thanks for the great recipe, Natasha. 🙂
Nice to know that Leslie. Thank you for sharing and I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I, now, have an even better and easier way to ensure the cranberries don’t float to the top. Reserve 3/4 of a cup of the batter before adding the cranberries to the remaining batter. Spoon the cranberry batter into the prepared pan and top with the reserved plain batter. Works perfectly!
Hi Leslie, thank you for sharing that with us! That is so helpful, we appreciate it.
I like using your site better than watching your YouTube channel.
I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog, Leila!
I have a question about baking. Should I use bake or convection bake?
Hi Ausrine, we used the normal bake mode. Not convection.
Has anyone tried making this in bakeable paper loaf pans? I’m planning to use 7x3x2″ pans. Any advice on bake-time adjustments?
Thanks!
Hi Dana, I looked through the comments and haven’t found anyone using those liners. I bet they can work though, one of my readers mentioned they successfully made this bread as cupcakes using cupcake liners.
Excellent! I made this a week ago and my husband is already asking me to make it again…e
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Can I make the loaf in a 9×5 loaf pan? Don’t have medium loaf pan.
Hi Angela, I used an 8.5×4.5 but that should work fine. it just won’t rise quite as well and may bake slightly faster since it won’t be as tall.
Hi Natasha,
First of all, thank you for all your awesome recipes. Whenever I cook/bake something I always use one of your recipes!
Your recipe suggests to use zest from one orange. Could you please tell me how much zest that is as I will be using navel oranges. I just want to make sure I use enough orange zest since navel oranges tend to be smaller. 🙂
Hi Ruya, we used Zest from one large orange divided. I reserve a teaspoon of zest for the glaze and the rest goes into the bread.
Tried it out and loved it! Great taste and easy to make. Perfect for Christmas! 🙂
Thank you
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Claudia!
Made this bread for our 1st Christmas gathering with the family. Everyone loved it! The grandkids said I need to make this every time. It was the best cranberry bread I ever made and I’ve made alot.
Yay that is fantastic feedback, Debbie. Thanks a lot for sharing that with us.