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Cranberry Soda Bread is pretty and festive. It is sweet and moist and perfect for gift giving, breakfast or brunch!

Cranberry Soda Bread

Course: Bread, Breakfast, christmas bread
Cuisine: American, Irish,
Keyword: Christmas Soda Bread,, Cranberry Soda Bread
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 10 servings
Calories: 490kcal
Cranberry Soda Bread is perfect recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas breakfast, brunch or visiting. A twist on the classic Irish Soda Bread. Similar to cranberry scones in taste and texture.
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Ingredients

  • 2 cups of fresh or frozen cranberries
  • 4 ½ cups of flour
  • 1 ½ cups sugar divided
  • 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • Dash of salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup butter softened
  • 2 TBS lime zest (optional for a festive look)
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1 large egg
  • Coarse sugar for dusting

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • To make 1 large loaf, use a 10-12 inch cast iron pan or ovenproof skillet with 2-inch or better sides or to make 2 loaves use 2 smaller cast iron skillets, ovenproof pans or 2 cake pans.
  • Cut a big enough circle of parchment paper out to line both the bottom and the sides of your pan(s).
  • Toss cranberries with ¼ cup of the sugar and set aside.
  • Whisk the flour, 1 ¼ cups of the sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl until blended.
  • Add in the butter lime zest, buttermilk, heavy cream, egg and the cranberries that were tossed with the sugar to the dry ingredients and stir gently until incorporated – do not over mix.
  • Scrape mixture into pan(s) then "let the faeries out" by making a shallow "x" with a sharp knife in the center of the dough. Sprinkle coarse decorator sugar or regular sugar overtop your loaf/loaves (it makes for a nice crust) and bake for one hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick or skewer inserted comes out dry. For smaller loaves, check after 45 minutes, however, most likely it will take an hour to bake.
  • Once a wooden skewer inserted comes out not “wet” it is done. It can be moist crumbs...just not batter. Cool a bit then flip out of the pan(s), peel off the parchment paper and allow the bread to cool on a cooling rack, that is if you don’t just dig right in like my family and I do!

Notes

Tip: For sweeter berries, slice the cranberries in half and toss them with a little sugar before adding to the batter.
For a sweeter loaf overall add in an additional 2-4 TBS sugar to the dough.
Since this recipe yields a large loaf, often when I am making this for someone, I set aside 25-30% of the batter to make my family a small one….which we eat almost instantly! Depending on it’s size I start checking the smaller loaf after 35 minutes or so – the large one usually still takes an hour.
This is wonderful for days after you make it as long as you have had it wrapped up tight. just pop a slice in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to warm it through and smear it with butter.
If you intend to travel with a hot loaf, wrap in foil however, leave the top open to prevent the crust from getting moist from the heat being trapped.

Nutrition

Serving: 10g | Calories: 490kcal | Carbohydrates: 79g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 375mg | Potassium: 157mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 574IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 146mg | Iron: 3mg