Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Happy (belated) New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays! It's been far too long since I've posted anything here, but I've been away having family time and eating way too much - I hope that sounds familiar to some of you...

Since it's freezing almost everywhere (apparently) and I'm sure you've all been just sitting at home pondering over what to do with your leftover pumpkin and cranberries, may I suggest using this bread recipe? It's extra tasty warm.

What you'll need:

• 140g plain flour (I used a GF blend here)
• 90g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 40 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 200g pumpkin puree
• 300g cranberries
• 200ml orange juice

What to do for the cranberry sauce:

Rinse off the cranberries and then dump them into a saucepan with the orange juice. Bring just to a boil, then simmer until the cranberries pop. Set aside to cool while you prep the rest of the batter.

What to do for the bread:

Preheat your oven to 170C/325F.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a large mix bowl and stir together.

Next blend in the milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla with a handheld mixer on low/medium.

Once the batter is well blended, gently fold in the cranberry sauce.

Lightly butter a bundt tin and pour the batter in. Level off the top with a spatula or spoon.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until an inserted fork comes out clean. 

Loosen the edges of the loaf away from the tin using a spoon, and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove from the bundt tin. 

Pumpkin cranberry bread morning snack, anyone?

Carrot Cranberry Bread

This is my first new recipe for the start of autumn this year - it's basically carrot cake's seasonally festive, slightly healthier cousin. I kept the added sugar fairly low here, letting the cranberries and carrots add the sweetness. I also used Greek yogurt instead of butter, which made for bread with a really nice and cakey consistency. Great with a morning coffee!

What you'll need:

• 250g grated carrots (3-4 medium sized carrots)
• 300g low fat plain Greek yogurt
• 340g flour
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 170C/340F.

Spend an inordinate amount of time (not really...probably about 5 minutes, depending on your level of coordination) grating 3-4 carrots. Or rope someone into helping you. Unfortunately, no one else was there for me to Tom Sawyer into grating carrots. Seriously though people, is there a faster way of doing this? 

Hold a minor celebration when you are finished grating the carrots. Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, Greek yogurt, light brown sugar, and vanilla extract. I used a hand powered mixer for this step. Once everything is thoroughly mixed, fold in the grated carrots.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients - the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and just a pinch of salt. Once blended, gradually fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Make sure to smooth out any flour and/or sugar lumps.

Next, lightly grease a cake tin (I used a bundt tin, which baked nice and evenly) and pour the batter into it. Smooth down the top of the batter with a spatula, then pop into the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until an inserted fork comes out clean.

Let cool for about 5 minutes before slicing. Enjoy the first slice while it's still warm!

If you find that you still have some bread left over after 2 days or so, it's also really nice toasted with a bit of cream cheese or honey spread on top.