day 3 - cranberry orange bread

christmas baking season in my house growing up, consisted of 3 staples, ginger sugar cookies, cranberry orange bread and dried fruit bread. Here is staple number 2.

so before I get started, I have to tell you why I decided to make this bread today. Once a month at church, we do a special program for the kids, and during the program, we provide snack. Every month it is some fresh fruit, so I thought this month I'd do something fun, and make some muffins for the kids, I knew they'd love it. This afternoon I put together a batch, and put it into my mini muffin pan, and tossed it in the oven. One batch of bread only filled 20 muffins, doing some quick math, I realized I needed to make at least 5 more batches of batter to feed the 115-120 kids we have each month. I only had enough fresh cranberries for 3 batches, so while the first was in the oven I quickly but together a triple batch, ready for me when I got home this evening. The muffins came out of the oven... I let them cool for a while and then tried to get them out... no luck. My lack of patience came through in spades, and the muffins were falling apart. Quick assessment led me to the conclusion that the kids would be getting fruit tomorrow and not muffins (grapes were the final result). Now what to do with the triple batch I had ready? Guess I'll make a couple loaves for home.

Fast forward to this evening. The loaves were baking when I left the house, gave my husband instructions to take the loaves out when the timer went off. Unfortunately I did not ask him to check to see if they were done first. So tonight, I have several mini-muffins left, and 2 loaves with the top sunk in like the Grand Canyon. Oh well, they still taste good! Enjoy the pictures.

Cranberry Orange Bread

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda. Cut in 1/4 cup shortening. Combine 1 tsp orange peel, 3/4 cup orange juice & 1 egg. Add orange juice mixture to dry ingredients. Mix until moistened. Fold in 1 cup chopped cranberries & 1/2 cup walnuts (optional). Turn into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 60 minutes.