It is early evening. Did the Sun rise today? Or has it sunk
into the horizon? …wonders my five year old. Everything outside is swathed in
darkness. An eerie silence envelops the street that is largely deserted except
for a lonesome vehicle that emerges out of gray fog and disappears into it not
to be visible again. The sky looks red covered by sheets of fog that seems to
be indicating another foggy day ahead. We feel the icy winds on our face as we
brave the cold and bolt our gate. Little ones are astonished and thrilled at their
breadth leaving a vaporous trail and they go on blowing “smoke” till we
literally push them indoors after no amount of cajoling works.
It is a long night. We decide to get down to some collective
cooking and baking and thus involve everyone. Having decided the chores, we start
with Cranberry Orange Bread. The junior gets the task of breaking walnuts into
small pieces. The daughter measures the flour and sugar. She loves this work
and she tosses some sugar into her mouth by stealth. Walnuts keep disappearing till
the little one is caught chomping. Laughter, blame game, some gleeful shouting
….and the bread is assembled and placed into the oven.
I have adapted the recipe from www.joyofbaking.com . I replaced egg with flax egg*
and used candied cranberries. Chopped dried figs will
also taste good and can be used in place of cranberries. I used walnuts in lieu
of pecan nuts. The bread turned out moist and flavourful. It is orangy and
Christmassy and compliments the festive spirit
Cranberry Orange Bread (Egg less)
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
½ stick (¼ cup) cold butter cut into small pieces
1 cup dried sweetened cranberries or chopped figs
½ cup walnuts
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup fresh orange juice
Finely grated zest of two oranges
1 flax egg *
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
*to make one flax egg take 3 tablespoons water in a bowl. Add
1 tablespoon of raw flax meal. Whisk with a fork. Refrigerate. This step is important. Refrigerate
for about an hour. This gives it the consistency of an egg white. Add it to the
recipe. It acts as a binder and makes the bread soft.
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line the bottom
and sides of one 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch bread pan.
Place walnuts in the tray, set oven temperature to 100
degrees. Bake for 10minutes or till the walnuts are toasted and a sweet aroma
emanates.
In a bowl, combine flax egg with orange juice and vanilla
essence.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt,
sugar and orange zest. Add pieces of cold butter. Blend it into the flour
mixture with a pastry blender, two knives or with your hands till the mixture
resembles coarse crumbs.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well
till well combined. Fold in walnuts and cranberries. Pour the batter into the
prepared pan, level with a spoon. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from oven
and cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and
cool. Slice next day.
Hi Namita! I came across your blog while I was surfing for some cake recipes for Christmas. I couldn't resist myself from commenting here after reading your blog. Your blog is simply one of the most inspiring ones I found. I have seen so many blogs but yours is truly inspirational. I love to cook and would love to visit here often. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThank You Swati, so nice to hear from you. Thank You for the lovely words.
DeleteThis would be lovely served for breakfast on Boxing Day Namita :). It looks moist, delicious and full of fruit and nuts. Just how I like my bread (cake) :) Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe with us all and for your excellent posts all year. We all appreciate them to the max :)
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