The holiday season is officially in fully swing and this orange glazed cranberry bread is a must bake! This cranberry bread is made with olive oil, orange zest and lots of fresh cranberries. The moist and tender crumb bread is topped with a crunchy spiced streusel and spiced orange glaze. This festive cranberry bread is super simple and quick to make. It's perfect for weekend brunches, post holiday dessert or just for snacking as you do some online shopping.
In a few words, this cranberry bread is:
- Moist, with a tender crumb
- Slightly nutty from the almond flour
- Sweet, bright and fresh
- Filled with pockets of tart cranberries
- Topped with a crunchy streusel
- Easy and quick to make
- Perfect for breakfast, brunch, snacking or as cozy dessert
What ingredients do I need to make this glazed cranberry bread?
- All purpose flour
- Almond flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Unsalted butter
- Salt
- Granulated sugar
- Oranges
- Vanilla bean paste
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- I use this one for all my baking!
- Whole milk or milk of choice
- Fresh cranberries
- Powdered sugar
From these ingredients you will make the spiced streusel topping, cranberry bread and the spiced orange glaze.
Kitchen tools to make this cranberry bread:
- 9X5 loaf pan
- other possible pans would include:
- 9 in (23 cm) cake pan
- 9x9x2 (23x23x5 cm)
- 9 in (23cm) springform pan
- 3-2 (6 in) or (8 in ) cake pans
- 12 ct. muffin pan
- other possible pans would include:
- Parchment paper to line the loaf pan
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment or electric hand mixer with beaters to make the cake batter.
- Various mixing bowls for the streusel, batter and glaze.
- Citrus zester for the zesting the orange.
- Citrus reamer for the freshly squeezed juice.
- Food thermometer is a good way to check the doneness of the cake.
Best tips and tricks for a delicious orange glazed cranberry bread:
Substitutions for the recipe:
- Orange: use any tart citrus you like or already have!
- Olive oil: this wouldn't be an olive oil cake without it!
- sub 1:1 with melted unsalted butter
- Milk: use any milk you like!
- All purpose flour: to make this cake GF, I would recommend using a good 1:1 GF flour mix
- this is a good brand I have used in the past
- Pan sizes: you can use other pans if you don’t have or don’t want to make a loaf cake
- For 9 inch pans, bake 35-45 minutes. Start checking for doneness around 30 minutes.
- For cupcakes, bake 20-30 minutes. Start checking for doneness around 18 minutes.
- Use a metal baking pan if possible.
- Baking times and overall outcome of the cake depends on the type of pan used.
- This a a great article for learning more about baking pans.
Tips for the best orange glazed cranberry bread:
- Line the bottom (and long sides) with parchment paper.
- Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature.
- Fully preheat the oven (most need about 30 minutes).
- Zest the orange right into the mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla bean paste. This allows all the flavor to go into the batter rather than the bowl
- Don’t over mix the batter.
- Use fresh baking soda and baking powder. If its older than 6 months, time to get a new batch.
- Glaze the bread while it's still warm, but not hot.
- This cranberry bread is tasty as is, but the streusel and/or the orange glaze really elevates the flavors to new heights!
other delicious loaf cakes and breads to try!
- spiced pumpkin apple bread
- maple apple loaf cake
- blackberry pound cake
- lemon olive oil loaf cake
- chocolate olive oil loaf cake
- brown butter parsnip loaf cake
- citrus glazed gingerbread loaf cake
- cardamom pear loaf cake
- chai spiced carrot cake
- blood orange loaf cake
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orange glazed cranberry bread
Equipment
- 9X5 (23x13) loaf pan
- parchment paper
- whisk, wooden spoon and/or spatula
- citrus zester
Ingredients
spiced streusel
- 1/3 c (80g) all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp (38g) sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 tbsp (57g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
orange cranberry bread
- 1 3/4 c (210g) all purpose flour
- 1/3 c (34g) almond flour sub with 1/4 c (30g) all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 c (200g) granulated sugar
- 2-3 tbsp orange zest, from about 2 medium oranges)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2/3 c (157ml) olive oil
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 c (79ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 c (150g) fresh cranberries
spiced orange glaze
- 1 c (120g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2-3 tbsp (30-45ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Line 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving 1-2 in. overhang on the sides. Preheat oven to 350F (177C).
- Whisk together the dry ingredients for the streusel topping in a small mixing bowl. Work in the cubes of butter until the mixture comes together into coarse pieces of sand, with some larger pieces mixed in. Set the bowl in the fridge to chill while preparing the loaf cake.
- Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together until well combined.
- Combine the sugar, orange zest and vanilla bean paste (or extract) in a mixing bowl. Mix together with a whisk until the oils release and the sugar resembles wet sand. This takes about one minute.
- Whisk in the olive oil, eggs, milk and vanilla. Whisk until very well combined.
- Stir in the dry ingredients to the wet until just combined.
- Fold in the cranberries into the cake batter by hand using a spoon or scilicone spatula.
- Evenly scoop 1/2 the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Evenly smooth into the corners and along the sides. Scoop the remaining 1/2 batter into the pan and repeat. Top with the streusel.
- Bake at 350F (177C) for 50 minutes. Using a toothpick and/or internal food thermometer, check the doneness of the cranberry bread. If needed, return to the oven for 10-20 minutes, checking for doneness every 5 minutes (55-65 minutes total). When a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, its done. The edges of the cake will pull slightly from the edges of the pan. The internal temperature of the center of the cake should read 200 F (94C).
- Cool in pan for 20 minutes. While the cake cools, make the spiced orange glaze.
- To make the glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar with the freshly squeezed orange juice until smooth and well combined. Add a dash of ground cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Pour 1/2 of the glaze on the cake. Wait about 5 minutes and pour the remaining half on top. Allow 45-60 minutes for the glaze to full set.
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