Do you love to share sweet quick breads with friends or neighbors during the holidays? It only takes 10 minutes to whip up a full-size loaf or 3 mini loaves of this poppy seed bread speckled with tart cranberries and topped with a sweet crumbly topping!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy, quick bread recipe! How easy? As easy as Banana Bread!
- This recipe can be made into one regular-size loaf or into 3 mini loaves.
- A moist cranberry bread without oranges!
- A perfect combination of sweet and tart flavors.
- The bright color of the cranberries, in contrast with the light-colored bread, is eye-catching and perfect for holiday treats!
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Butter- either unsalted butter or salted butter works.
- Cranberries - You must use fresh cranberries (I prefer Ocean Spray brand), never canned cranberries or dried cranberries for this recipe. If you bought some fresh cranberries and tossed the bag in the freezer to use later, that's fine. Let the frozen cranberries thaw out on the countertop before using.
- Sour Cream - full-fat sour cream works best, but low-fat sour cream may be used. You can also substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream.
- Flour - Always all-purpose flour, not cake flour, bread flour, and never self-rising flour.
- No Orange? - Nope, no orange juice, orange extract, or orange peel in this recipe. This quick bread has an almond sugar cookie-type flavor instead of an orange flavor. If you're looking for cranberry orange bread, see my Cranberry Orange Muffin recipe.
How to Make Step-by-Step Recipe Instructions
- For best results, adjust your oven rack to be a little lower than the center of the oven. The top of your bread loaf should be at the center of the oven. This helps it bake evenly all the way through the center of the bread.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. I like to line mine with parchment paper before spraying so I can lift the entire loaf out easily. I also use office clips to hold the parchment paper in place.
- Cut the whole cranberries into halves and set them aside.
- NOTE - I prefer to use hand beaters and a large mixing bowl for this recipe instead of a stand mixer just because the last part of the recipe needs to be mixed in by hand.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
- Add the almond extract and eggs.
- Beat in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whisk together the sour cream and milk in a measuring cup.
- Add ⅓ of the flour to the batter.
- Add ½ the sour cream/milk mixture.
- Add another ⅓ of the flour.
- Add the last of the sour cream/milk mixture.
- Scrape down the side of the bowl well.
- Sprinkle the remaining flour on the top of the batter.
- Dump the cranberries and poppy seeds onto top of the flour.
- Fold the cranberries into the batter with the last bit of flour and the poppy seeds. This absorbs any cranberry juice without turning your batter pink. Mix just until combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Use a rubber spatula to spread it out evenly.
- Prepare the crumb topping by stirring the flour and sugar together with a fork and then cutting in the butter until it is crumbly with the fork or pastry blender. OR put the flour, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulse until it is crumbly.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping on the bread batter.
- Bake at 350 for 60 minutes, tenting with foil for the last 15 minutes.
- A toothpick should come out clean.
- Cool for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack before removing the bread from the pan to finish cooling.
- Do not slice until completely cool.
Recipe FAQs and Expert Tips
It comes down to the butter. Creamed sugar and butter can't absorb much liquid. If all the wet ingredients were mixed together at the same time, the butter would become saturated, the batter would separate, the liquid would stay on top, and the end result would be a heavy, dense loaf. Alternating the milk and flour keeps the proper rate of absorption to get moist quick breads that also have a lighter crumb.
Be sure to fold the cranberries in with the last bit of flour and the poppy seeds. The flour will absorb any extra juice and stop it from coloring the batter. If you're using berries that have previously been frozen, you're more likely to have the batter discolor from extra juice. This technique also works for other berry quick breads like Blueberry Muffins or Raspberry Muffins.
If you opt to make 3 mini loaves of bread instead of one big loaf, then you will bake them for 18-20 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Cook for an additional 5 minutes if they are not quite done.
You can, but it's not necessary. Keeping it in the fridge will keep it fresh longer, but you won't become ill from it being kept at room temperature on the countertop. You can read this guide on How to Store Muffins and Quick Breads for more info.
This delicious cranberry bread also freezes well! Wrap tightly with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil, and pop in the freezer for 2-3 months. Thaw out in the fridge or at room temperature. For a great cheat sheet on freezing baked goods, see this article on How To Freeze Baked Goods.
Related Cranberry Recipes
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Best Cranberry Poppy Seed Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 Tbs. Butter Softened
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Almond Extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Cups Halved Raw Cranberries
- 1 Tbs. Poppy Seeds
- ½ Cup Sour Cream
- ½ Cup Milk
- 2 Cups Flour
Crumb Topping
- ¼ Cup Flour + 1 Tbs
- 3 Tbs. Sugar
- 2 Tbs Butter softened
Instructions
- For best results, adjust your oven rack to be a little lower than the center of the oven. The top of your bread loaf should be at the center of the oven. This helps it bake evenly all the way through the center of the bread.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. I like to line mine with parchment paper before spraying so I can lift the entire loaf out easily. I also use office clips to hold the parchment paper in place.
- Cut the whole cranberries into halves and set them aside.
- NOTE - I prefer to use hand beaters and a large mixing bowl for this recipe instead of a stand mixer just because the last part of the recipe needs to be mixed in by hand.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
- Add the almond extract and eggs.
- Beat in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whisk together the sour cream and milk in a measuring cup.
- Add ⅓ of the flour to the batter.
- Add ½ the sour cream/milk mixture.
- Add another ⅓ of the flour.
- Add the last of the sour cream/milk mixture.
- Scrape down the side of the bowl well.
- Sprinkle the remaining flour on the top of the batter.
- Dump the cranberries and poppy seeds onto top of the flour.
- Fold the cranberries into the batter with the last bit of flour and the poppy seeds. This absorbs any cranberry juice without turning your batter pink. Mix just until combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Use a rubber spatula to spread it out evenly.
- Prepare the crumb topping by stirring the flour and sugar together with a fork, and then cut in the butter until it is crumbly. OR put the flour, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulse until it is crumbly.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping on the bread batter.
- Bake at 350 for 60 minutes, tenting with foil for the last 15 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean.
- Cool for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack before removing the bread from the pan to finish cooling.
- Do not slice until completely cool.
Notes
- To be able to lift the loaf out of the bread pans easily, you can line it with parchment paper before spraying the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- To get the parchment paper to stay in place, clip the parchment paper to the edges of the bread pan with office clips.
- Butter- either unsalted butter or salted butter works.
- Cranberries - You must use fresh cranberries (I prefer Ocean Spray brand), never canned cranberries or dried cranberries for this recipe. If you bought some fresh cranberries and tossed the bag in the freezer to use later, that's fine. Let the frozen cranberries thaw out on the countertop before using.
- Sour Cream - full-fat sour cream works best, but low-fat sour cream may be used. You can also substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream.
- Flour - Always all-purpose flour, not cake flour, bread flour, and never self-rising flour.
Nutrition
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