Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

I love the taste of cranberries and orange (in my opinion, I have the BEST whole cranberry recipe in the world here on my blog, that I make every year at Thanksgiving....but I digress), and this bread has both, plus pecans! You can substitute walnuts if you like - they would taste fantastic as well.

I made this delicious loaf of quickbread last night and between Lee and I, it is already half-eaten this morning. I like to cut a slice and pop it in the toaster for a light crust. With a bit of butter......HEAVEN.

Super easy - and a wonderful go-to recipe to have in your collection. Here's how to do it:

Ingredients~
2 C four
1 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powderSchedule
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C fresh orange juice (Trader Joe's is the BEST)
zest of one orange
2 TBL shortening
1 well-beaten egg
1 1/2 C fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 C chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions~

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X5 loaf pan, set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. To the dry ingredients, add the orange juice, zest, beaten egg and shortening. You can mix by hand or use a mixer - making sure the shortening is well blended.
  *note: I like to use Spectrum organic shortening
             Click here to see Spectrum Shortening

4. By hand, stir in the cranberries and the nuts. Scoop mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  *note: to chop the cranberries you can use a processor - be sure not to process too long  - you want a coarse chop. Or you can chop by hand. A bit tricky, but if you place a couple of towels around your cutting board, the rollers won't get away!

5. Cool in pan, on a rack, for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool before slicing (if you can wait that long).

Enjoy!