With Halloween almost over, it's time to start getting the Thanksgiving and Christmas goody list together. I love to bake at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I tend to concentrate on desserts for Thanksgiving and then the next week it's time to start baking all those ooey gooey goodies for Christmas.
Cranberry Orange Bread...A Holiday Favorite...
This year I'm starting my baking with Cranberry Orange Yogurt bread. I went to a Cranberry Festival in Wisconsin in October and purchased a huge bag of fresh cranberries. One of Ocean Spray's cranberry bogs is located in Stone Lake Wisconsin. I love those little gems. You can make so many bakery items with cranberries. Don't forget with Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, It's time to also make the cranberry relish. At the end of this post is a recipe for cranberry fruit relish. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll be making it for Thanksgiving this year!
The recipes for the above are located at the bottom of this post. Lots of berry flavored jams, Cranberry Orange Yogurt Bread and homemade yogurt...which is delicious and above all easy!
A New Recipe...
I tried a new recipe for cranberry bread. It called for yogurt instead of oil or butter. Because I will be making so many loaves, it would cost a fortune for the yogurt. So, a friend of mine at work gave me a recipe for home-made yogurt. I had tried this recipe before and absolutely loved it. I like plain vanilla yogurt and this recipe makes a lot of yogurt. I'm including this recipe along with the cranberry bread recipe.
I do hope you have a chance to try both of them....the bread turned out great with not a whole lot of money spent! Now there's money left over to buy those little grandchildren a little something extra...
Homemade French Vanilla Yogurt...
This holiday bread is so good and so moist. I'm sure It's because of the yogurt. I added this recipe because I've made homemade yogurt before. It's really good and when making a lot of loaves of bread this yogurt comes in very handy. You can use this yogurt in everything. It's wonderful with fruit and cereal, or just plain. This recipe was a great find... Thank you Rachel!!!
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon whole milk (I purchased a gallon for $1.38 in a plastic bag)
- 3 T. yogurt (I purchased Yoplait single serving French Vanilla)
- 2 T. vanilla
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
Directions:
- Boil milk on high (watch it so it doesn't boil over). Take off heat and mix in vanilla and sugar...leave it alone until it's room temperature (90 minutes).
- Whisk 1 cup mix with 3 T. yogurt starter (Yoplait single serve French Vanilla); then mix with remaining boiled milk. Fill four + glass quart sized jars (sterilized) and put on (sterilized) lids. Place into a cooler. Dump 16 cups (1 gallon) warm water into a cooler. Close the lid and walk away for 4-6 hours. Finished product will be thicker after refrigerating.
- Refrigerate for up to 6 weeks.
Cranberry Orange Bread Recipe...
Ingredients:
- 3/4 c. vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped (opt)
- 2 c. all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 c. orange juice
- 1 T. orange zest
- 1 1/2 c. fresh cranberries
Directions:
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- Whisk together yogurt, sugar, egg, and orange juice in a large bowl. Sit in the flour mixture and then stir in the orange zest, cranberries, and walnuts.
- Scrape into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
- Cool 10 minutes, then invert on a wire rack. Flip over and cool. Slice and Serve.
Here are a few more cranberry recipes that I found on the internet. I haven't tried this version of Cranberry Fruit Relish, but I'm going to try it for Thanksgiving. I love scones, and this recipe looks wonderful. Another one that I haven't tried yet, but I'm sure I will during the Holiday season. And finally Grand Marnier Cranberry Pound Cake...you can't go wrong with that combination.
One Final Thought...
The Holidays are so much fun. I love canning, so naturally everyone gets many food items that I have canned in the fall. Along with the canned goods, comes the different quick breads. I throw in a bunch of baked Christmas cookies and homemade caramels and English toffee. A great Christmas basket of yummies for everyone! This is such a great time of year to share all those wonderful homemade goodies.
I do hope you enjoyed this post. A lot of red items for the Holiday season. Happy Holidays to everyone!
