Yummy Weekly Recipe-#1 Cranberry Orange Beer Bread

As I mentioned in my post  “Life Updates and Things to Come,”  I would be doing a recipe each week. Well, here it is! The first post of what I’m going to call “Yummy Weekly Recipes.”  I hope you enjoy it!

This week, I am going to give the recipe for Cranberry Orange Beer Bread, but I’m sure you’re already aware of that due to the title…haha. One thing to know about me…I LOVE CARBS….I even cross-stitched a pillow that said, “I love carbs.” If I ever had to give them up I don’t know what I’d do!

Now, back to the recipe. I’ve been making just a plain beer bread for Christmas gifts and for gatherings of my boyfriend’s family, and it has always been a huge hit. I’ve experimented with several different varieties of beer bread, the first of which was this past Christmas. I wondered what a cinnamon flavored one would taste like…I don’t have to tell you but it was AWESOME. The next time I did a banana beer bread, and after that a cocoa beer bread. None of the variations on the original are part of any recipe I’ve found so far. I started with a basic recipe that I found on…where else…Pinterest. I’ll link the original here. After that basic recipe, it’s all my experimenting. I’m guessing you’re ready for me to hush and get on with the recipe? I thought so. The way I’ve put this together may be difficult to read and make the bread at the same time, so I’ll make a condensed version at the end!

Ingredients

Preheat your oven to 350°F (176°C).

Here are the basic ingredients:

• 3 cups (384 grams) All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup (50g) Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (13.8g) Baking Powder (not baking soda)
• 1 Teaspoon (6g) Salt
• 1 bottle (12oz or 355mL) beer (Note: You can use light beer as I have, but you get more flavor with a regular, full-calorie beer.)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) (113g) unsalted butter

My ingredients from experimenting:

• 1 small-medium size navel orange (for zest and puree)
• 1/2 of a 6 oz bag (or really however many you want to add) dried cranberries  (3 oz or 85g)

Here I am measuring the dry ingredients:

Measuring Flour

Yes, I have Grumpy Cat measuring cups! (I’m such a fan!)

Flour and Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Salt and 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

 

The next portion includes my added ingredients:

Orange Zest

Zested Orange

I wanted to add a little zest to the recipe, but I thought it’d be a great idea to add the sections as a way to get more fruit into my diet (I have an issue with certain textures, and oranges fall into that category I have problems with). This would probably be good for getting kids to get more fruit, too.

Sectioned Oranges

Pureed Orange

2. Mix the orange zest and puree into the dry ingredients..just don’t over stir.

If you happen to get a larger orange, be careful with how much of the puree you put into the recipe. I noticed this when I increased the amount of puree (all of the sections of a medium orange) on my second go around with this recipe. What I noticed was that when combining the dried cranberries and more of the puree, you get a moister bread which will start to…I don’t want to say rot–I’ll use decay (not much better, eh?)…decompose at a faster rate, so you have to eat it quicker if you use more of the puree. Just thought you might want a heads up on that one! I was so upset I had to throw out part of my loaf the other day!

Dried Cranberries

3. Mix in the dried cranberries.

Now we’re back on track with the original recipe, but I’ve made some tweaks here. In the picture below, I have already add the beer (didn’t have time to snap a picture).

With the butter the original recipe says to pour half of the butter into the baking pan and the other half on top of the mixture once you get it into the pan. I personally didn’t want the entire top to be saturated in butter, so I pour half the amount into the mixture and use the leftover to grease the pan. Sometimes, I’ll brush a little on top when it’s halfway done baking. Another note I made about the extra orange puree was that a little more flour had to be added to the mixture to make it more dough-like.

Butter Time

4. Add beer and butter and mix…again don’t over stir.

The reason I keep saying not to over stir is because it can affect the texture of your bread once it’s cooked. Over-stirring causes gluten to form, but you don’t want that for this particular bread. Gluten tends to trap air, so you get large holes or sometimes tunnels throughout. It also causes a tough texture. Here we want a crumb-like look to the bread (it is a quick bread, ex: cornbread, muffins). Just combine the ingredients until mixed.

5. Add batter to the baking pan (I used a bread pan).

Prepared to Bake

6. Bake at 350°F for about 50-60 minutes. All oven temperatures vary so this time may need to be adjusted. I always check mine at 45 minutes to see how it’s coming.

7. Remove bread from oven and inhale its glorious aroma!

Fresh out of the oven

More fresh bread

You can see that I have a baking sheet underneath the bread pan…I do that in case it bakes over. I don’t like cleaning ovens, so this stops that from happening.

Between 3 people, this is what was left of the bread after two days:

Almost Gone

My boyfriend thinks this is the best variation I’ve made so far, but I’m going to continue messing with it. More of my concoctions.

Cranberry Orange Beer Bread

Prep time: 10 minutes     Bake time: 50-60 minutes     Oven temperature: 350°F/176°C

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (384 grams) All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup (50g) Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (13.8g) Baking Powder (not baking soda)
• 1 Teaspoon (6g) Salt
• 1 bottle (12oz or 355mL) beer (Note: You can use light beer as I have, but you get more flavor with a regular, full-calorie beer.)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) (113g) unsalted butter
• 1 small-medium navel orange
• 1/2  of 6 oz bag dried cranberries (3 oz or 85g)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/176°C
2. Measure and stir together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt)
3. Zest orange.
4. Puree orange sections
5. Stir in zest and puree and add dried cranberries.
6. Add entire can of beer and half of the butter; stir until just combined.
7. Add enough butter to bread pan to coat the bottom.
8. Add batter to baking pan.
9. Cook for 50-60 minutes. Temperatures are different on ovens, so watch it around the 45 minute mark.
10. Remove from oven
11. Stuff yourself!

Hopefully the condensed version helps sort it a bit better! I hope you enjoyed this new type of post theme  that I’m starting. There will be more…hopefully once a week 🙂 Now, go make bread!!

Until next time, 

M