Orange Cranberry Loaf Recipe (2024)

"Prep Time 5 minutes"Really NYT? It takes me 5 minutes just to zest the oranges. Assuming you have all the ingredients and don't have to go out for oranges, prep time is more like 25 - 30 minutes. Still in the oven after 1hr 20min and center is still very moist. Not sure what I did wrong but seems to take a lot longer to bake than specified.

A pretty cake, very seasonal. I followed the recipe exactly and mine overflowed the pan while baking on the upper rack. I haven't had that happen before and am not sure what I did wrong.I used 1 1/2 cups of cranberries as directed but should have used the rest of the bag. Cake is good but I would have preferred more.

I am surprised by all the negative reviews. I followed the recipe, and this was absolutely delicious.I think the magic in this recipe is taking the time to really work the orange zest into the cup of sugar. As I worked the zest into the bowl of sugar, it began to take on a fragrant and beautiful orange hue.I squeezed one of the oranges and used a borer to create a half-cup of pulpy orange juice which I added to a container of fa*ge 5% plain yogurt. I also used real cranberries. Yum

I'm noting that there are numerous complaints in the comments about the melted butter, the cooking time, the batter oozing over the pan, etc. And there's also a note that the recipe was updated November 6, 2023. Can you tell us what was in the update--how the recipe was changed?

Has anyone made this or a similar bread with craisins? Don't laugh, LOL but I know it's shocking. I'm thinking reconstituting them in some liquid. I bought a gigantic bag earlier this year and want to use them up. I'm running out of ideas!

Because the butter will be creamed, I suspect that it should be at room temp, not melted. Possible?

The recommended pan size is too small. I have no idea about the finished product because this burbled over the pan within ten minutes and started to smoke up the kitchen, after which I tossed the oozing batter into the trash. What a waste!

Pan size is way too small for this recipe - overflowed and burned on the oven floor filling the kitchen with smoke. Edges got very dark - almost burnt - before center was cooked because there was way too much batter for the pan size.

This is a delightful recipe! Tart, sweet and light all at the same time. Thank you to the other commenters, because I split the batter over two loaf pans and baked (in total) for 40 minutes. This will be in my top five loaf recipes to make in future!

... and my promised follow-up: baked this exactly as directed. When the butter is melted it's not possible to mix it with the sugar until it is fluffy. Also at 55 minutes the loaf was still pretty wet inside so I cooked it 10 more. Really pretty when it came out and relatively tasty.

My mother makes this with oj concentrate. It is a holiday request every year.

This recipe is a hot mess. There is no reason a quick bread needs to dirty 3 bowls. And the ingredient list seems very disorganized-they should be listed in the order they are used not whatever this is. Also the cooking time listed in the header is 1hr20min while the cooking time in the body of the recipe is 60mins-a 30% difference. That's HUGE. And you need to decide if the butter should be melted (ingredient list) or creamed (directions). If you can get past all this, the bread tastes great!

Has anyone tried this recipe with gluten-free flour (like Measure for Measure)? If so, did you need to alter the recipe at all?

I've made a similar bread with dried fruit. It turned out well. You could rehydrate them in the orange juice for more flavor.

Recipes really should give measurement for salt in weight, not volume. A teaspoon of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is not the same amount of salt as a teaspoon of Mortons Kosher Salt. I recall reading in the New York Times that "Morton’s thin flakes are much denser and almost twice as salty by volume." And table salt is still different.

Delish. Pretty on the eyes as well. Made for an office holiday potluck. Revisiting to make & take to Easter dinner. Anyone try leftovers for French Toast??

Delicious, like so many I found I had to go to a 9 by 5 pan to prevent overflow. It could actually take slightly more that 1 1/2 cups of cranberries. I like this recipe because it doesn’t call for anything exotic as I almost always have oranges, yoghurt and frozen cranberries on hand.

Fantastic recipe. I’ve made this twice to rave reviews by the family. I’ve modified the recipe by subbing in gluten free flour (I always use GF Jules) and it works beautifully with no other changes.

This loaf is delicious but it is much better in a 9 by 5 pan the 8 by 4 1/2 pan definitely overflows. As noted it takes longer than 55 minutes especially if you use frozen cranberries.

Used ingredients as listed and followed preparation method exactly. Baked in mini loaf pans (reduced overall baking time). Are a wonderful, light, refreshing treat!

Made as instructed other than melting butter. Used room temp like my Mom taught me, absolutely delicious. Even better the next day. Now searching endlessly for commercially frozen cranberries. But you do need to use at least a 5x9 loaf pan. I wish I had added the few berries I had left, but opted out due to pan size concerns. It would have been close, but a bite without a berry is like a day without sunshine.

This is a wonderful recipe, which definitely requires more than 5 mn of prep time, but well worth the effort. I didn’t have the issue of overflowing either, but I do recommend baking this up to an hour and a half. The frozen cranberries release a ton of water, and this moisture accumulates at the bottom of the pan. After an hour, the bottom of the pan is likely to be still raw.

Delicious! I didn't have the issue of overflowing that some other users did. Added about 20 min to cook time, though, because of frozen cranberries.

So glad I skimmed the comments before making. The butter should definitely be room temp instead of "melted", as the recipe directs.Otherwise this is simply delicious! I would serve with a spoonful of whipped cream for a dessert.The yogurt makes it really moist!

I’m so glad to hear that the melted butter didn’t cream, also the bottom quarter of the loaf is quite moist, but the top 3/4 was PERFECT, so of course the toothpick came out clean. I did it for 60 mins, and must have used a larger pan because I did not have spill over. I did notice that it rose nicely, but during the cooling it fell considerably, not sure why. The flavor is AMAZING, and I’m glad I only added 1/2TBSP of the sugar on the top, or else it would have been too sweet.

I had read the reviews and was prepared for there to be too much batter, but perhaps that got fixed in an update because I had just the perfect amount of batter for the pan. It didn't rise too much. The only substitution I made was greek yogurt for the yogurt given in the recipe. I thought it turned out very good! It did take 65 minutes for it to bake all the way through, it's a very moist loaf. Followed the recipe exactly (including the melted butter) and it turned out delicious!

I'm always attracted to a recipe where I don't have to cream together butter and sugar (and get out my mixer), so this recipe caught my eye. Plus, I always have a lot of fresh cranberries during the holiday. Blending the zest with the sugar didn't turn out to be as fussy as I feared, and was actually kind of calming. I made three loaves using small aluminum loaf pans you can buy at the grocery store and it worked perfectly, resulting in three lovely loaves, one for me, two for gifts. Delicious!

I split this into 8 silicone mini loaves and gave to my neighbors as a gift. It was very well received and had requests for the recipe.

So so delicious—light and fluffy crumb, orange flavor comes through beautifully. I used ricotta instead of yogurt because I had some to use up. Worked perfectly. You can skip mixing the yogurt and orange juice in advance and save a dish. More cranberries doesn’t hurt. As others recommend, using two pans is a good idea and gives you a loaf to share. Will make this 4000x more times!

For those interested — yes, it can be converted into a gluten free recipe! I did about 1 cup of gluten free flour blend and 3/4 of a cup of almond flour (you can nix this if you don’t have it, but it really does give the cake that delicious crumb we all love). Comes out beautifully. Such a keeper!