Cranberry Almond Bread

I've had a bit of a bad attitude lately. I'm not sure if it's due to crazy hormones, the lack of wine in my life or the fact some days spent in the company of a two year old can be rough. Maybe it's a combination of all three. I try to be the sunshiney, "puppies and rainbows" variety of person, and I don't like being a grump (which by the way, is a much nicer word for how I've felt some days). To snap myself out of it, I decided to bake something wonderful that was a little indulgent and undeniably fall.

Inspired by the first fresh cranberries I've come across this year, I found just the recipe I was looking for at Good Things Catered- a cranberry nut bread flavored with orange and cinnamon. I tend to healthify my baked goods, cutting the sugar way back, using mostly wheat flour, subbing applesauce for oil, etc. but this time I stuck to the recipe. I didn't want to risk it being too dense or not sweet enough. The only real changes I made were slightly increasing the orange zest and using almonds instead of walnuts, because that was what I had.

Very easy to put together, this recipe results in a bread that is lightly sweet yet gloriously tart, perfect for breakfast, dessert or with your afternoon tea. (Tea that might not be quite as satisfying as a post kid-bedtime glass of red wine, but still nonetheless, very good.) Was this bread attitude adjusting? Definitely.

Cranberry Almond Bread, yields one loaf

adapted slightly from Good Things Catered's Simply Delicious Cranberry Nut Bread

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)

2 1/2 tbsp orange zest (from a medium sized navel orange)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups plus 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup sliced almond pieces (or chopped walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease loaf pan

In a large bowl, add sugars and oil, and mix until well combined. Mixing while incorporating, add milk, eggs, zest and vanilla. Mix to combine well.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Fold dry ingredients into wet, until halfway combined. Fold in cranberries and nuts, until batter is just combined. Spoon into loaf pan, and tap to release air pockets.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes. (Mine took much longer, an hour and five minutes.) Remove from oven, and let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Turn loaf onto wire rack, and let cool completely before slicing. (Truthfully, I found this impossible, and cut and sampled mine while it was still slightly warm.)