Cranberry Orange Loaf
Let me begin by saying that I am terrible when it comes to leftovers. All those amazing people who can transform old food into new food are my heroes! Take Christmas for example: out of leftover turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc I can either make you a plate of the same dinner you ate the night before, or I can make you a sandwich. I've heard tell of stuffing waffles and all sorts of inventive dishes but I can never, never, think of any in a pinch. What I usually do for myself is make a grilled turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Completely delicious but I can only handle one so that still leaves a lot of leftovers. Thankfully my hubby is a master at eating Christmas leftovers. It's actually the only leftover meal he will go back for again and again. BUT the one thing he will never touch is cranberry sauce!
A couple of years back I started making my own cranberry sauce. It's too easy not to! (Recipe at bottom of post) And I hated to see it go to waste yet again so I got down to recipe hunting. Now I often make cranberry orange muffins so I knew those flavours would work well together (especially considering my sauce was already laced with orange) but my muffins call for actual berries and I wasn't sure how the moisture of the sauce would affect the batter etc. Long story short I made my way to Ocean Spray's recipe that calls for a can of their whole berry cranberry sauce. Perfect! I had just enough of my own sauce to equal what they called for. Added a little dash of vanilla, oodles of orange zest, and away I went!
Now, I did everything what I was supposed to do and sprayed my loaf pan, etc but despite my best efforts the loaf got stuck. When I turned it out onto a rack to cool only half of it came out of the pan! Noooooooo!! So I scraped out the bottom that was stuck and raged for a few minutes. Then I realized most of the loaf was intact and what was there was totally delicious and worth saving. So I whipped up a quick sugar glaze to pour over the broken up "top" (was the middle but is now the top) to disguise it and called it a win. And a win it was! Officially need to find more excuses to make cranberry sauce because this loaf is a winner. Though hopefully next time it'll come out of the pan.
Orange Cranberry Loaf (adapted from Ocean Spray)
For the loaf:
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest from one orange
14 oz cranberry sauce, preferably homemade with orange
1 C chopped walnuts
For the glaze:
1/4 C whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C powdered sugar, sifted to remove clumps
Heat oven to 350F and grease a standard size loaf pan.
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar until combined and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest. Beat until combined. Gradually add in the cranberry sauce.
Gradually add in the dry mixture, until just combined. Add in the walnuts.
Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake 1hr 15mins - until tester inserted into middle comes out clean.
Turn out onto rack to cool.
While the loaf cools prepare the glaze. Combine the milk and vanilla, gradually whisk in the powdered sugar until smooth. If too thick add a little milk, too thin add a bit more powdered sugar.
Pour the glaze over the loaf (on a rack set over a baking sheet to catch drips). Allow to rest until the glaze firms up.
Enjoy!
Cranberry Sauce
16oz fresh or frozen cranberries
zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 C sugar
Combine all in sauce pan, bring to boil, lower heat, and reduce until thickened to preferred consistency. Serve warm or chill and store for later.
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