Orange Cranberry Bread
Updated November 04, 2025
Quick Summary
This Orange Cranberry Bread is bursting with bright citrus flavor and tart cranberries! The loaf is ultra-moist, perfectly sweet, and finished with a fresh orange glaze. A delicious holiday quick bread that’s easy to make and perfect for gifting, brunch, or enjoying with a cozy cup of coffee.
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Pin ItWhy This Cranberry Orange Bread Is My Go-To Holiday Quick Bread
There’s something so cozy about baking with cranberries and oranges this time of year. The aroma alone makes the whole house smell like the holidays! This Orange Cranberry Bread is one of those classic recipes I come back to every single season, it’s simple, beautiful, and always a hit.
I first started making this quick bread years ago when I wanted a festive loaf to serve at brunch. The combination of tart cranberries and sweet, citrusy orange is absolute perfection. Every bite is bright, fresh, and just the right amount of sweet. The orange glaze on top takes it to the next level, it’s the kind of treat that feels special but is so easy to make.
Serve it for breakfast, brunch, or as a sweet afternoon snack. It’s also the perfect addition to a holiday spread or gift to friends and neighbors. One loaf never lasts long at our house, everyone loves it!
If you’re craving something cozy and seasonal, you have to try this cranberry orange bread. And if you have extra cranberries, try my fresh cranberry sauce too!
Ingredients with Helpful Notes
- All-Purpose Flour: Spoon and level the flour so you don’t pack in too much.
- Baking Powder: Helps the bread rise beautifully, make sure it’s fresh!
- Salt: A little salt balances the sweetness and brightens the citrus flavor.
- Sugar & Orange Zest: Rubbing the zest into the sugar releases all those fragrant oils, don’t skip this step!
- Buttermilk: Keeps the loaf super tender and moist. If you don’t have any, make a quick substitute with milk and lemon juice or vinegar.
- Oil: Neutral oil (like avocado, canola, or vegetable) gives the bread a soft, light texture.
- Eggs: Add structure and richness.
- Orange Juice & Vanilla: Fresh orange juice enhances the citrus flavor, and vanilla adds warmth.
- Cranberries: Use fresh cranberries, not dried cranberries. Roughly chop them so they’re evenly distributed in the batter.
- Orange Glaze: A simple mix of powdered sugar, orange juice, and zest adds a sweet finish and a beautiful shine.
Tips for Making the Bread
- Use room temperature ingredients. Eggs and buttermilk should be at room temperature to help the bread rise better and mix more evenly.
- Rub the sugar and orange zest together. Mixing it into the sugar releases maximum orange flavor.
- Toss cranberries in a little flour before folding them into the batter, this helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf.
- Mix gently! Over mixing can make the bread dense, stir until just combined.
- Cover if browning too quickly. Tent the loaf with foil near the end of baking to prevent over-browning.
- Check for doneness. Insert a toothpick into the center, if it comes out clean or with just a few crumbs, it’s done.
- Cool completely before glazing. The glaze will set beautifully on a cooled loaf.
- Add-ins: A handful of chopped nuts (like pecans or walnuts) adds a nice crunch if you want extra texture.
Orange Cranberry Bread
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup canola, vegetable, or avocado oil
- 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
For the orange glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 8 ½ x 4 ½ loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
- In a small bowl, combine sugar and orange zest. Rub together with your fingers until fragrant. Whisk into the flour mixture. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 70-75 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. If your loaf starts to get too brown drape a piece of foil over the top to finish baking. I did this during the last 10 minutes of the baking time
- Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes. Loosen the sides of the bread with a knife. Carefully remove loaf from pan. Let cool completely on wire rack.
- While the bread is cooling, make the orange glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle the glaze over the bread. Cut and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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This is my all-time favorite holiday recipe. Been making it 3 years in a row now. This year I used mini loaf pans (3 minis per one regular-size loaf recipe). Made two batches; one with gluten-free flour and it is still amazing. Friends and family love it and I gave out the mini loaves as gifts. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
How long did you bake mini loaf pans?
Fabulous! I live at a high altitude and so I added 2 T of extra flour and 1 T extra liquid. It turned out great and have had several requests for this recipe! I also made this same recipe using blueberries and used lemon juice instead of orange. What a delicious recipe!
I was actually wondering how this would have been with lemon juice. I’ll try that next time. I made this today, and it’s amazing!!
Oh my goodness is this good! Easy to make/bake and delicious to eat. Fabulous for gifting too.
This recipe tastes so good. Thank you. I’ve fixed it 3 times. The last time I shared it and got raves back for it.
When making this wonderful recipe, I failed to notice the Vegetarian notation on the description. I did substitute a stick of melted butter for the 1/2 cup of oil and also added about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. The bread and the glaze are fantastic! I used chopped fresh frozen cranberries and was surprised it did not add additional baking time. I tossed the cranberries with a small amount of Wondra flour and they remained evenly distributed throughout the bread. The glaze took a bit more orange juice and I also added a drop of almond extract ~ yummy! Thanks for a great recipe!
I have some cranberries in the freezer. Should I thaw them before proceeding or add them to the batter frozen?
Thanks!
You don’t need to thaw them first. Enjoy!
I made this recipe, doubling the ingredients and despite the extended cooking time, it came out un cooked in the center.
The batter did look very runny to me but i figured because of using oil vs butter, maybe that was why.
It look great in the oven, the flavor is nonetheless delicious, but it is wet .
Any suggestions?
Can I use dried cranberries?
Sure!
Very good nice soft crumb and flavor!
Haven’t made it yet, but I have a question.
Your recipe says 1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped. Someone asked anyway, do you leave them whole. Your reply was “leave them whole.” What way do you do it? You also indicated check the mini pans at 30 minutes — someone who baked them in the mini pans, said it took 60 minutes. That’s quite a difference.
You can leave them whole if you want bigger chunks of cranberries. I suggest checking the mini pans at 30 minutes because every oven is different and I have seen different sizes of mini pans. Better safe than sorry. It might take the loaves longer!
This is one of my holiday staples now. The loaves make great gifts for friends and neighbors – the flavor gets better after a day or so. Plus, it freezes very well so you can enjoy it well after the holidays.
I made this and it did not rise and had a weird chewy consistency. Have no idea what went wrong. I followed the recipe to the letter except I used 1/2 applesauce instead of the oil but I do that to all my quick breads and it always turns out.
Hoping to make this for my in-laws this weekend! I will use Miyokos vegan butter and King Arthur GF Cup for Cup flour because we have food allergies (your recipes have always worked so well with those subs in the past and I can’t wait to try this one!) One quick question – would this work as muffins?
Sure, you can make muffins, just reduce the baking time. Probably 18-22 minutes.
I make this recipe every Christmas for family, friends and neighbors, and it ALWAYS gets rave reviews. So delicious!
For decades I have been looking for the perfect cranberry orange bread and this is it! I have thrown out all my other recipes for it, it’s that good. It bakes evenly and beautifully and never browns too much on top or on the sides before the bread is fully baked. It is so moist and lovely that it doesn’t even need anything drizzled on top. No need to fiddle with perfection! Thank you for this excellent recipe!
Excellent!
This was a winner last year! QUESTION: Making it again this year—can i freeze it, and if so —then do i hold on the glaze step until i thaw it out?? Or freeze after glaze dries? Thank you!
Yes, you can freeze the bread. It will look prettier if you glaze after, but it will still taste good if you freeze it with the glaze. So I guess it just depends on how you want it to look:)
Hello 🙂 if I make the bread the day before I plan to serve it, do you recommend waiting to put the glaze on just before serving or is it better to glaze it while it’s still slightly warm? Thank you so much for thoughts and wonderful recipes!
Hi, you have a lot of great reviews for this recipe so I’d like to try it, but I do have a question; Can this be made as mini loaves?
If so, can you perchance provide how it would affect the cooking time and how many mini loaves this would make?
Thanks in advance.
Tania
Yes, you can make mini loaves. I would check around 30 minutes but it might take longer.
Absolutely delicious! We love this bread so much! Keeping this for my go to recipe. I might do lemon blueberry next time!!
For decades I’ve been searching for a moist, non-butter, tangy orange cranberry bread recipe that bakes evenly. This is it! I love the addition of buttermilk. This recipe is so perfect that I have thrown out all my other recipes for cranberry bread. I made 5 mini-loaves for Christmas gifts that were met with rave reviews. Perfection!
I just made this to pair with a coffee tasting for my job. It just came out of the oven and I can’t wait to try it.
Is this best with butter or oil?
I use oil.
I have been making this recipe every year since 2008. It is by far the BEST quick bread recipe I have ever had. LOOK NO FURTHER!!! This bread will blow your mind!
It is the best:)
Loved the cranberry and orange bread aka cake. My husband finished it off before I could hide half of it.
Will definitely make it again.
Ha!!
Oh my days, this cranberry orange bread is absolutely delicious! Super easy and bakes well every time. Tender and full of flavor. Plan on giving this bread as gifts this season!
It’s the best:)
Do I need to lower the baking t8 w if I make the mini loafs?
Reduce the baking time but keep the temperature the same.
Can I use butter instead of oil and how much. For some reason I don’t like using oil in my baking items.
This is my second loaf and it was such a big hit on Christmas morning. My husband really loved this bread which is why I’m making another for the college football games this weekend. You are such a trustworthy baker, I never hesitate to make your recipes.
Thank you!
Can I freeze this? Would I put the glaze on after defrosting? Thank you.
Yes, it freezes well! You can add the glaze after if you want it to look extra pretty, but it will freeze with the glaze too!
Hi Maria! Huge fan here. I make one of your recipes at least once a week. Can I substitute the orange for lemon in this recipe and would the measurements be the same?
Thank you! Lemon would be great! You can use the same amount.
How long do you recommend baking mini-loaves?I would like to make these to give as gifts.
Love love your recipes!
I would guess 30-38 minutes, check early to be safe!
I freeze fresh cranberries do I need to defrost before using this recipe? Thank you
No, don’t defrost, stir in frozen!
my friend made this and it was delicious! can I double/triple this for a 10 cup bundt pan?
I haven’t tried it but it should be fine! I would double it but it depends on the size of your bundt pan. Just don’t over fill!
So delicious this time of year, and so easy! I tossed the cranberries in the flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the bread. Tented with foil at 50 minutes and baked 20 minutes more.
Perfect!!