Recently I needed to bake something for a morning event and I decided to try the recipe for "Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread" from The Grand Central Baking Book. I happened to have a bag of cranberries in the freezer and a quart of buttermilk in the fridge, so I had all of the ingredients on hand. Like most quick breads, this recipe comes together in a few minutes: beat sugar and oil, add in eggs, and alternately add in dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and liquid ingredients (buttermilk, orange zest, freshly-squeezed orange juice, vanilla), followed by the cranberries and pecans.
One thing about the recipe that seemed quite strange is that it involves a lot of mixing. Normally you mix quick bread batters as little as possible after adding the flour, to avoid making the bread tough or creating tunnels in the crumb. This recipe instructs you to mix in each of the three parts of dry ingredients on low speed until incorporated, and then to increase the mixer to medium speed and mix for a minute. A minute might not seem like much, but the combined three minutes of mixing on medium speed seemed like an eternity, given that normally I fold flour gently into quick bread batter and stop the moment all of it is incorporated.
My loaf pans (the recipe produces two loaves) were fairly full and the bread rose high above the rims into nice rounded domes with pretty cracked tops. I assumed that all of the cranberries and pecans would sink to the bottom of the loaves, but much to my surprise, the pecans were evenly distributed and all of the cranberries somehow ended up at the tops of the loaves. The vibrant color of the cranberries and the little flecks of orange zest made the sliced bread quite pretty.
The bread also tasted great, and despite all of the mixing, it was moist and tender. The bright flavor of orange was a wonderful complement to the tart flavor of the cranberries. My one complaint with this bread is that the cranberries are the best part and there weren't enough of them. I think the bread would have been better if: 1) it had more cranberries generally; and 2) the cranberries were evenly distributed so that there was cranberry in every bite.
It's bizarre, I've never had the problem of fruit rising to the top during baking; if I'm lucky, it stays evenly distributed, and more often it sinks to the bottom. I'm not sure what caused this problem or how to fix it, but it's a pretty minor complaint. Next time I'll just add more cranberries and we'll see what happens!
Recipe: "Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread" from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson, recipe available here at Leite's Culinaria.
Previous Post: "Grand Central Flavor: Pumpkin Bread," November 28, 2012.
One thing about the recipe that seemed quite strange is that it involves a lot of mixing. Normally you mix quick bread batters as little as possible after adding the flour, to avoid making the bread tough or creating tunnels in the crumb. This recipe instructs you to mix in each of the three parts of dry ingredients on low speed until incorporated, and then to increase the mixer to medium speed and mix for a minute. A minute might not seem like much, but the combined three minutes of mixing on medium speed seemed like an eternity, given that normally I fold flour gently into quick bread batter and stop the moment all of it is incorporated.
The bread also tasted great, and despite all of the mixing, it was moist and tender. The bright flavor of orange was a wonderful complement to the tart flavor of the cranberries. My one complaint with this bread is that the cranberries are the best part and there weren't enough of them. I think the bread would have been better if: 1) it had more cranberries generally; and 2) the cranberries were evenly distributed so that there was cranberry in every bite.
It's bizarre, I've never had the problem of fruit rising to the top during baking; if I'm lucky, it stays evenly distributed, and more often it sinks to the bottom. I'm not sure what caused this problem or how to fix it, but it's a pretty minor complaint. Next time I'll just add more cranberries and we'll see what happens!
Recipe: "Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread" from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson, recipe available here at Leite's Culinaria.
Previous Post: "Grand Central Flavor: Pumpkin Bread," November 28, 2012.
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