Gluten Free Cranberry Bread

This gluten free cranberry bread is tremendous moist, flippantly candy and pleasantly tart. It is the right fast bread to your vacation desk, and one my household has come to ask for by identify over time I have been making it. Seize your recent cranberries as quickly as they hit the grocery retailer cabinets!

This traditional vacation fast bread needs to be on each desk this season. I find it irresistible when cranberries begin to seem within the grocery retailer, however they are often so tart that you really want so as to add one thing candy or they will actually make you pucker.

This bread is completely browned on the surface, then smooth and flippantly candy on the within. It takes about an hour to bake, since there is a full cup of buttermilk within the batter and the berries launch their moisture as they bake. The reward is a brilliant moist and tender bread, and one that does not burn throughout baking even when you find yourself baking it slightly too lengthy.

You too can make this right into a cranberry orange bread by juicing a navel orange and utilizing that juice instead of an equal quantity of the buttermilk within the batter. Add the zest of that orange as properly for extra orange taste.

Recipe components

• Gluten free flour mix: I used Nicole’s Greatest and added 2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum. Be certain you are utilizing considered one of my advisable rice flour-based, properly balanced gluten free flour blends, and solely add xanthan gum in case your mix would not already comprise it.
• Baking powder: Helps the bread to rise within the oven.
• Baking soda: Aids rise, neutralizes acid, and helps the loaf brown within the oven.
• Salt: Balances and brightens the opposite components.
• Granulated sugar: Makes the bread tender, and provides sufficient sweetness to stability the tartness of the cranberries. There’s an extra tablespoon of sugar that we sprinkle on prime of the uncooked loaf as a result of cranberries are so tart, however you possibly can both skip that or add it proper to the bread in case you favor.
• Buttermilk: Provides moisture, taste, and tenderness. In case you’re out of buttermilk, it is easy to exchange 1 cup of it with 1/2 cup bitter cream and 1/2 cup milk, and even 1 cup plain complete milk yogurt.
• Butter: Provides moisture and taste. Beating the butter with the sugar after which the eggs additionally lightens the bread by whipping air into it.
• Eggs: Give the bread construction and assist it rise.
• Cranberries: The star of the present, recent tart cranberries present a lot of taste and texture. Most luggage of cranberries have 12 ounces of berries, however this recipe solely requires 10. This lets you choose solely the most effective berries. You should definitely reduce them in half earlier than including them to the batter.

The way to make gluten free cranberry bread

Put together dry components; mix moist and dry

• Whisk collectively the dry components (gluten free flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt) in a small bowl
• Toss the halved cranberries with a little bit of the dry components
• Utilizing a handheld or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar
• Beat within the eggs till clean
• Add the dry components in 2 components, alternating with the buttermilk in between, and beating simply to mix after every addition
• The batter will likely be clean and fairly thick

Add the cranberries, switch to the pan and bake

• Add the halved cranberries tossed with dry components to the ready uncooked batter
• Combine till the cranberries are evenly distributed all through
• Switch the batter to a greased and lined loaf pan, and unfold it into an excellent layer; it is going to largely or utterly fill the loaf pan
• Rating the batter down the middle about 1/4-inch deep with a knife or offset spatula
• Sprinkle the ultimate tablespoon of granulated sugar evenly excessive
• Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour; let cool, then slice and serve

Recipe suggestions and tips

Slice the cranberries in half

Simply remember to use a pointy knife to slice every of the cranberries in half earlier than folding them into the batter. It helps to maintain them from clumping throughout baking.

Toss the cranberries in a number of the dry components

Toss about 1 tablespoon of the whisked dry components with the halved cranberries. It will assist hold them from clumping within the batter and can assist keep away from moist pockets of fast bread.

Use solely the firmest cranberries

Cranberries often are available in 12 ounce luggage, and this recipe requires 10 ounces. In each bag of recent cranberries, some usually are not very recent. The recent cranberries aren’t wrinkled or bruised, and so they’re very agency. Discard the bruised and fewer recent berries.

Do not defrost frozen cranberries totally

As quickly as cranberries grow to be out there, I often purchase 6 or 8 luggage of them as a result of I bake with all of them season and make tons of cranberry sauce for the vacations. I retailer 2 luggage within the fridge, and put the remainder within the freezer. In case your cranberries are frozen first, you may must allow them to defrost partially so you possibly can slice them in half, however do not allow them to defrost all the way in which.

If they have been frozen and totally defrosted, they have an inclination to get too smooth and do not maintain their form lengthy sufficient throughout baking. They’re additionally extra prone to bleed colour within the uncooked loaf batter.

Taste variations

To make it right into a cranberry-orange fast bread, add the zest of 1 small orange to the batter. You would not have to vary anything.

For much more orange taste, squeeze the juice out of that orange, too, and use it to exchange an equal quantity of the buttermilk within the recipe. One navel orange often has about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup juice. Scale back the quantity of buttermilk by the identical quantity because the juice. The batter could look a bit curdled, however it is going to bake superbly.

For a brilliant lemon taste, exchange 1 tablespoon of buttermilk with 1 tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice. You too can add as much as 1 tablespoon of lemon zest.

Attempt including as much as 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the bread for some texture. Do not cut back the quantity of cranberries.

Storage directions

Though the batter for this cranberry bread is thick, the bread is admittedly moist and tender. It would not dry out shortly in any respect. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and it’ll keep recent on the counter at room temperature for as much as 2 days. It is going to keep more energizing if it isn’t sliced, however slices may be wrapped individually and saved that approach, too.

Freezing

For longer storage, both as an entire loaf or particular person slices, wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze for as much as 2 months. Defrost at room temperature. Particular person slices can be microwaved for 20 seconds at decreased energy to hurry up the method.

Standard ingredient substitution ideas

Dairy free

To make this recipe with out dairy, you may want to exchange the butter and the buttermilk. For the butter, attempt vegan butter in block type, like Soften or Miyoko’s Creamy model. Do not forget that you want one thing that may be crushed till creamy with the sugar, so do not use something that is available in a bathtub, which is usually oil and will not whip. For buttermilk, attempt half nondairy plain yogurt and half unsweetened almond milk each by quantity.

Egg free

There are two eggs on this recipe. If it’s essential make the recipe with out eggs, attempt changing every of them with one “flax egg” or one “chia egg.” I’ve made a chia egg by mixing 1 tablespoon floor white chia seeds with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water and permitting it to gel.

Cranberries

If you would like to exchange the cranberries on this bread, you possibly can attempt blueberries, however they’re much less agency and it might not work. You are in all probability higher off making an attempt our recipe for gluten free blueberry bread as a substitute, which has similarities however not precisely the identical.

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