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Home » Recipes » Bread » Orange Cranberry Yeast Bread – Made in the Bread Maker

Orange Cranberry Yeast Bread – Made in the Bread Maker

from 29 reader reviews

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Orange cranberry yeast bread is a delicious savory bread with sweet undertones that is tasty when served with cinnamon sugar butter, for breakfast or a snack. Make this yummy bread machine orange bread with dried cranberries in just a few hours and have a nice warm slice of savory sweet bread this holiday season – or any time!

sliced orange cranberry bread with knife in foreground and christmas greenery in background

Nothing says the holiday season has arrived like the combined flavors of orange and cranberry! This orange and cranberry bread is a little different than the typical sweet quick bread recipes you might be used to.

This tasty seasonal bread is made in the bread machine with yeast and goes through the entire rising and kneading process. Orange yeast bread is best served with butter and jam, or my yummy (vegan) whipped maple cinnamon butter, pear butter, or peach butter with pineapple and amaretto!

If you have a bread machine and are looking for something a little out of the ordinary, you should give this yummy cranberry orange bread with dried cranberries a try! You might also try olive oil and herb bread, cinnamon raisin bread, basic vegan white bread, or tasty molasses wheat bread – all made in my Cuisinart Bread Maker.

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loaf of orange cranberry bread on wooden cutting board with dried cranberries in foreground, two oranges and christmas greenery in background with pinterest text overlay

Ingredients needed to make cranberry orange bread with dried cranberries

  • water
  • orange juice and orange zest – You will be zesting and juicing a fresh orange for this recipe. Depending on the size of your oranges, you will need one very large orange or two smaller oranges to get the required two tablespoons of orange zest. You will be using one-half cup of orange juice.
  • vegan butter (or margarine)
  • bread flour – Bread flour just works better for this recipe than does all-purpose flour
  • brown sugar
  • rapid yeast – This is also called bread machine yeast or quick yeast
  • salt
  • ground cinnamon
  • dried sweetened cranberries – Don’t try to use fresh cranberries in this recipe. It’s been developed for dried and using fresh cranberries might throw off the moisture content of your yeast bread.
ingredients needed for orange cranberry bread

How to make this cranberry orange bread machine recipe

The exact ingredients with measurements can be found in the recipe card below along with more concise abbreviated instructions. Read on for more details, tips, and tricks so that you will feel confident making this recipe.

Step one: zest and juice the orange

Depending on the size of your oranges, you will need one very large orange or two smaller oranges to get the required two tablespoons of orange zest. You will be using only one-half cup of orange juice.

Zest the orange and juice it. Set aside the zest separately from the juice because you will be adding them at different times. I use this handy orange zester but you can also use a fine grater to zest the orange.

zesting the oranges with a planer

Step two: Measuring and adding (most) ingredients to the bread machine

It’s really important when you measure the bread flour to not pack it in the measuring cup. If you do then you will end up using too much flour and your orange bread will be too hard and dense. You could do it the civilized way and WEIGH your bread flour! According to Google, three cups of bread flour weigh 408 grams.

BUT, if you are like me and measure your flour, do as my granny taught me. First, stir the flour around to “lighten” it. Then carefully SPOON or scoop it into the dry measuring cup. Finally, level off the top by cutting and scraping off the excess flour with a knife.

demonstrating leveling off the flour

Add all of the ingredients EXCEPT for the dried sweetened cranberries and the orange zest to a bread machine in the order given. So, first the liquids and fat, then the bread flour, and finally the sugar, spices, and rapid yeast.

adding the sugar to the bread machine

Step three: Program the bread maker

I use the Cuisinart 2lb bread maker. This has multiple settings including a sweet bread setting. On my bread machine, I program “sweet bread”, light loaf, and medium-sized loaf. Then press start. You need to understand the directions that came with your machine and select the settings that work best for your machine.

Add the cranberries and zest

My bread machine has a handy feature that beeps right before the final mix and rise so that I can add in any other add-in ingredients. If your machine does not have this feature then read your owner’s manual to understand the timing.

When the bread machine beeps at you to add ingredients (right before that final mix/knead and rise), then add the cranberries and orange zest. Continue with the program till complete.

adding the cranberries and orange zest to the ball of dough in the bread machine
Yikes, I was a few seconds too late and it had already started mixing/kneading. It worked out anyway (whew!)

Cool and enjoy!

Allow cooling according to the manufacturer’s directions. Remove the loaf pan from your bread machine and carefully remove the loaf. Do you know what is super yummy with this orange and cranberry bread? My whipped maple cinnamon butter! So yum!!

sliced orange cranberry bread in background with sliced bread in foreground slathered in maple cinnamon butter

For some other tasty holiday treats from Veggie Fun Kitchen, try:

This tasty yeast cranberry orange bread is perfect to enjoy for the holidays. I invite you to try some of the other yummy plant-based holiday treats on Veggie Fun Kitchen.

The printable recipe card yeast cranberry orange bread

loaf of orange cranberry bread on wooden cutting board with dried cranberries in foreground, two oranges and christmas greenery in background

Did you love this recipe?

Want to share the love? It would be great if you could leave five ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ stars and even a comment. Did you know that this will help Google to find this recipe when others are looking for something similar? Thanks, Cindy

loaf of orange cranberry bread on wooden cutting board with dried cranberries in foreground, two oranges and christmas greenery in background

Orange Cranberry bread – Made in the Bread Maker

from 29 reader reviews
Print Pin Rate
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: bread machine bread
Prep Time: 13 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 28 minutes
Servings: 10
Calories: 220kcal
Author: Cindy Rainey

Equipment

  • bread machine

Ingredients

  • ½ cup water
  • ½ cup orange juice
  • 2 Tablespoons Vegan Butter or margarine
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
  • teaspoon rapid yeast
  • teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
  • 2 Tablespoons orange zest

Instructions

  • Zest the orange and juice it. Set aside the zest separately from the juice as you will be adding them at different times.
  • Add the ingredients EXCEPT for the dried sweetened cranberries and the orange zest to a bread machine in the order given.
  • Program your bread machine to "sweet bread", light loaf, and medium-sized loaf. Start.
  • When the bread machine beeps at you to add ingredients then add the cranberries and orange zest. Continue with the program till complete.
  • Cool and remove from pan according to directions.

Notes

Rapid rise yeast is also known as bread machine yeast and might be sold with either label. 
I use Craisins for the dried sweetened cranberries.
Typically one large orange yields one-half cup juice and two Tablespoons of zest. Just in case your “large” is different than mine, buy two oranges – just to be safe. You can always eat the second orange:) 
If your bread machine does not allow for add-ins, add the cranberries and orange zest after the first rise and before the final knead and rise. This will be at about the 2:50 point. 
This orange cranberry bread goes deliciously with my Cinnamon Maple Butter!

Nutrition

Calories: 220kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 371mg | Potassium: 105mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 138IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

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By on November 19th, 2022

About Cindy Rainey

Veggie Fun Kitchen by Cindy Rainey
Welcome to Veggie Fun Kitchen where you will learn to recreate family favorites the plant-based/vegan way! Let me know if I can help. I'm here for you.

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14 thoughts on “Orange Cranberry Yeast Bread – Made in the Bread Maker”

  1. 5 stars
    Don’t normally leave reviews, but this is really good. I substituted real butter for the oil and added a tablespoon of brown sugar — and I threw the cranberries and orange zest in at the beginning. Great result!

    Reply
  2. Hi! Can this be made using gluten free flour? I see so many conflicting views… some people say you can only use gluten free recipes with gluten free flour, other people say you can substitute gluten free flour in any recipe. So, I’m always a little unsure.

    Reply
    • Hello, so gluten-free recipes are not my wheelhouse. I did consult with my sister who bakes gluten-free and she told me to look for flour that specifically says 1:1 substitution. Even then, bread making can be a little tricky. I’d love to hear if you tried it and how it turned out.

      Reply
    • First of all…I’m so sorry that happened to you. There is nothing worse than going to the trouble of making a recipe you are excited about – only to have a less than successful outcome. (And I do call “raw in the middle” less than successful.) I made this recipe several times this last weekend to make sure there was nothing inherently wrong with the recipe – perhaps a typo or something. It did come out pretty perfect for me every time. I am going to recommend changing the crust setting to medium instead of light – just because I like how the crust came out better on that setting in my experimentations. Can I ask which bread maker you are using? Also, is this a bread maker you’ve had previous success with? And on the sweet bread setting? (Just trying to problem solve.) I would also suggest that if that ever happens again with any bread machine recipe, wrap it in foil and pop it in a 350° oven for 20-30 minutes. That should do the trick. Again, I’m so sorry that happened to you. It must have been very disappointing.

      Reply
  3. I’m skeptical of this recipe because it doesn’t contain eggs, however, I made it tonight I will see the results tomorrow. Wish me luck!

    Reply
    • Hello, this is a great question and one that I’ve been wondering about as well. I happened to have a bag of leftover fresh cranberries and so thought I would test it out for myself. I was a little wary though because the water content of fresh cranberries is very different than that of dried cranberries and I was worried that it would throw off the ratios. I used one and one-third cups fresh cranberries (because when you substitute fresh for dried in other recipes you need to use a little more of the fresh). Everything else I measured the same. Unfortunately the results were as I feared. The loaf rose and then fell before completion. I might have accepted that but when I cut it open, I found that it was still doughy on the inside. In fact, if you look down a couple of comments you’ll see that somebody had a doughy experience which I now suspect might be from using fresh cranberries rather that dried. But the WORSE part of the experiment was that the flavor wasn’t the same. This recipe calls for dried sweetened cranberries which lend a sweeter taste than tart fresh cranberries. SOooooo, bottom lime is that no, fresh cranberries will not work in this recipe. You’ll need to find another use for those yummy fresh cranberries:/ For this recipe, it’s best to stick with the way it’s written and use dried sweetened cranberries. Thanks again for the great question. Cindy

      Reply

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