Cranberry orange bread with walnuts has a sweet, citrus flavor balanced by bursts of juicy, tart cranberries with a just hint of cinnamon.This festive quick bread tastes exactly like the holiday season feels- rich, indulgent, merry, and bright! Perfect with coffee or a hot cup of tea.

Cranberry orange bread with walnuts on a serving plate with a glaze with orange slices and cranberries. — Serving cranberry orange bread with a glaze.

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If there was ever a quick bread that tastes like Christmas, it is this cranberry orange bread with walnuts.

It’s seriously Christmas morning baked into one cozy quick bread that is a perfect bite with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

Tart cranberries, bright citrus, a little crunch from walnuts and a background of cinnamon and vanilla.

Sure the bread sounds like it has a lot going on but it prefers to think of itself as decorated for the holidays and maybe just a little extra.

And don’t be fooled!

Just because this bread is dressed to impress, doesn’t mean it’s hard to make.

It’s pretty quick and easy- even for a beginner baker, which makes it even better for the holidays.

Because the best kind of holiday food is the kind that seems fancy but is really very easy to put together.

Ingredients and Kitchen Supplies

Ingredients for cranberry orange bread with walnuts: baking powder, flour, salt, eggs, sugar, orange juice, milk, orange zest, vanilla extract, cranberries, walnuts, butter, and cinnamon.

To make cranberry orange nut bread, you’ll need:

All Purpose Flour – Though it is quick bread, don’t use bread flour. Bread flour is for making actual loaves of bread that need more gluten from the higher protein in bread flour. Using bread flour in quick bread will leave you with a heavy, tougher bread, and that’d be super sad, friends.
Baking Powder – Do not substitute baking soda in this.
Salt – Regular table salt or sea salt.
Milk – You could use any variety you like, but we use whole milk. If you want, you could use buttermilk for a little extra tang and moisture, though this bread is very moist as is.
Flavoring – Cinnamon and vanilla extract add some flavor to the cranberry orange bread.
Zest of Orange – You will need to get the zest of one orange using a fine grater. You’ll need to divide this, adding some to the batter and some to the glaze topping.
Orange Juice – You can use your favorite variety or whatever you have on hand.
Butter – Use unsalted butter for this bread. Also, you will need to soften the butter before using by letting it sit on the counter for about an hour prior to making. Forgot to pull the butter out of the fridge? Yeah, me too. I often pop a stick in the microwave for 30 seconds, stopping the microwave every 5 to 10 seconds to flip the stick over. It’s ready when it’s soft but not melted.
Granulated Sugar – This adds some sweetness to the quick cranberry bread.
Eggs – You can use large white or brown eggs. Allow them to come up to room temperature for best results.
Fresh Cranberries – You can typically find these in the produce section from around October to December for all your holiday baking needs.
Walnuts – You can use whole, but you will want to rough chop them into smaller chunks.

For the glaze topping, you’ll need:

Ingredients for cranberry orange bread with walnuts glaze: orange zest, orange juice, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.

Powdered Sugar – You don’t want to use other sugars for a glaze, they will cause your glaze to be gritty.
Vanilla Extract – Adds a bit more flavor to the glaze.
Orange Juice – This gives a light, citrusy flavor to the glaze for the cranberry orange bread.

You don’t need any fancy equipment, but you will want to get out the following:

How to Make Cranberry Orange Bread with Walnuts

1. Mix the batter.

Allow your eggs to come up to room temperature and your butter to soften.

As they warm, preheat your oven to 350 F.

Once the butter has softened, cream it using a hand or stand mixer.

Creaming butter and eggs together for cranberry orange bread with walnuts. — Cream together the eggs and butter.

Orange zest on top of a butter mixture. — Cream together the eggs and butter.

Add in the sugar, half the orange zest, and vanilla and cream together.

Next, add in the eggs and mix to combine.

Flour mixture in a bowl for cranberry orange bread. — Whisk the dry ingredients together.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Mixing flour into the batter for cranberry orange bread with walnuts. — Mix in the first part of the flour.

Add half the dry ingredient to the butter mixture and mix to combine.

Mixing in the orange juice for cranberry orange bread batter. — Mix in the orange juice.

Batter for cranberry orange nut bread after adding in first half of wet ingredients. — Mix in the orange juice.

Add in half of the orange juice and milk and mix until just combined.

Flour added to cranberry orange bread batter. — Add in half the flour.

Batter aftering adding in flour mixture. — Add in half the flour.

Add the remaining half of flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Mixing in the milk and orange juice to make the cranberry orange bread batter. — Mix in the milk and orange juice.

Fully mixed cranberry orange bread batter. — Mix in the milk and orange juice.

Add in the last of the orange juice and milk and mix to combine.

2. Prep and fold in the cranberries.

In a medium bowl, toss the cranberries with about a half tablespoon of all purpose flour.

This helps to prevent the cranberries from sinking to the bottom.

Folding in cranberries and walnuts to cranberry orange bread batter. — Just fold in the cranberries and walnuts.

Add the coated cranberries and walnuts to the batter and just fold it in.

3. Bake, cool, serve.

Coat your bread pan with a generous coating of non-stick spray or grease it using your preferred method.

Batter for cranberry orange bread with walnuts in a greased bread pan. — Ready to bake.

Pour the batter into the bread pan.

We use a 9 inch pan, so you may have a bit extra if you use a smaller pan or not quite enough for a larger pan.

For any pan, just make sure not to fill much past the roughly 2/3s mark.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Freshly baked cranberry orange bread with walnuts. — Fully baked.

Allow to cool before adding the glaze.

For the glaze:

Mixing an orange glaze for cranberry orange nut bread. — Mix the glaze together.

In a small bowl, combine the orange juice, orange zest, vanilla, and powdered sugar.

Whisk or mix with a fork until well incorporated and it reaches a thick, syrup like consistency.

Adding glaze to cranberry orange bread with walnuts. — Adding the glaze to the bread.

Spoon or pour the glaze over top of the cooled bread.

Allow the glaze to rest for a few minutes so it can set.

Slice and serve with your favorite fresh fruit and other holiday desserts.

Serving

Orange cranberry bread with walnuts can be a breakfast, snack, or dessert.

You could also serve it at dinner for a lighter, sweet bread option for all your holiday gatherings and celebrations.

We often eat the bread by itself, but you can spread on butter, jams, or your other favorite toppings for added flavor.

Storing

Fully baked cranberry orange bread with walnuts on a plate. — Ready to glaze.

To store cranberry orange nut bread, allow it to cool completely before covering tightly with cling wrap or aluminum foil.

You could also add to an air tight container.

It should stay fresh on the counter for about 4 days and in the fridge will last up to a week.

You could freeze the bread itself.

To do this, do not add the glaze and allow the bread to cool completely.

Wrap tightly in cling wrap and place in a freezer bag or container.

It should keep fresh for about 6 months.

To serve, allow the bread to thaw over night.

You can toast the bread or warm slightly in the microwave.

Tips and Tricks

Cranberry orange bread with walnuts on a serving tray. — Close up of the bread.

Strictly speaking, you could just dump all the ingredients but the walnuts and cranberries in the bowl at the same time and mix to combine. However, doing this can create weird lumps and can also cause you to over mix the flour. We highly recommend breaking it down into creaming the wet ingredients and then slowly adding in the dry ingredients and only mixing to combine.
Don’t overmix the batter. You want the
You want to toss the cranberries in a little bit of flour to help them float in the bread. The little bit of flour helps it to stick and not just sink, allow more of the bread to have cranberries through out.
You can skip the nuts if you want or need. You could also sub in different nuts to suit your needs or your tastes.

Other Quick Breads

If you like quick breads, you should check out our other flavors:

Did you make this? Let me know!

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