My 127th experiment: Eggless cranberry orange nut bread for Thanksgiving

I bake this loaf as a Thanksgiving gift, specially for someone who enjoys sourness of good berries. I've scaled it to a 8x4 pan. This is another KAF recipe that is good.

Recipe: Cranberry orange nut bread (1 medium loaf)

Ingredients:
- 1+3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tp baking powder
- 1/4+1/8 tp baking soda
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3 TB vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup cranberries
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tps orange peels

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and orange peel
2. Mix together in a separate bowl sugar, orange juice, sour cream.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Roughly mix, ignore lumps.
4. Add chopped cranberries and walnuts to mixture.
5. Add 3 TB oil to mixture. Mix lightly. Spoon mixture into a 8x4 loaf pan greased lightly with crisco, then lined with wax paper, and greased lightly again with crisco. Fill pan up to 2/3 full.

Results:
4:09pm, ingredients:

4:30pm, wet ingredients:

4:31pm, final batter:

4:31pm, batter height in bowl:

4:32pm, cranberries added:

4:32pm, nuts added:

4:34pm, batter in pan:

4:35pm, batter height in pan:

4:35pm, to bake at 350F:

5:24pm, loaf baked 50 minutes:

5:28pm, loaf's internal temperature reaching 190F:

5:28pm, clean thermometer:

5:29pm, loaf's corner:

5:29pm, loaf's height:

5:59pm, comparing this loaf with the lemon loaf (right top corner) and the pumpkin bread (top middle):

Observations:
1. I do not understand why the pumpkin loaf has a mound-shaped top while this cranberry loaf has a flat top. Maybe the composition of the two are just too different to make a fair comparison.

My 124th experiment: Cranberry orange nut bread without egg

This is another Thanksgiving gift for those that I am so thankful for. Two loaves, one large and one small.

Recipe: Cranberry orange nut bread without egg (1 medium loaf, 1 small loaf)

Ingredients:
- 2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1+1/2 tp baking powder
- 1/2 tp baking soda
- 3/4 tp salt
- 1/2 tp orange peel
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 3 TB vegetable oil
- 1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Procedure:
1. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and orange peel
2. Mix together in a separate bowl sugar, orange juice, sour cream.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Roughly mix, ignore lumps.
4. Add chopped cranberries and walnuts to mixture.
5. Add 3 TB oil to mixture. Mix lightly. Spoon mixture into pans greased with crisco. Fill pans up to 2/3 full.
6. Bake at 350F for about 1 hour. For small loaf, bake for 30 minutes.

Results:
10:28pm, almost all ingredients, except for orange juice:

10:38pm, wet ingredients and dry ingredients prepared separately:

10:41pm, mixing wet ingredients and dry ingredients:

10:43pm, final batter, with lumps:

10:45pm, nuts and cranberries added to batter:

10:47pm, oil added to batter:

10:52pm, batter in pans:

10:52pm, batter height in pans:

10:52pm, loaves to bake at 350F:

11:28pm, small loaf baked 35 minutes, reaching 200F:

11:28pm, small loaf not having much strength to hold the thermometer:

11:28pm, thermometer coming out of small loaf very clean:

11:28pm, small loaf's top in pan:

11:29pm, small loaf's height in pan:

11:30pm, large loaf continues baking covered:

11:42pm, small loaf turned out:

11:42pm, small loaf's bottom, with broken pieces:

11:43pm, small loaf's side:

11:43pm, small loaf's top:

11:46pm, large loaf baked 50 minutes, reaching 190F:

11:46pm, large loaf's height:

11:46pm, large loaf's top:

12:04am, large loaf turned out after 15 minutes of cooling:

12:06am, large loaf's side:

12:06am, large loaf's heel:

12:06am, large loaf's top:

12:06am, large loaf's crack on top:

2:40pm, slicing up the small loaf, pretty easily when cooled:

2:40pm, crumb of the small loaf:

2:40pm, a bite:

Observations:
1. This experiment has no egg.
2. My friend told me that it is not necessary to mix the dry ingredients too much. It's ok to have some lumps in the batter. So this is one I am doing this time.
3. This loaf turns out to be really soft, spongy and tender. In fact, the bottom cracks and part of it sticks to the pan. I do not know if this is because of the lack of egg. The cranberries contribute to the moisture in the loaf. In fact, the cracks seem to happen at the cranberries.
4. Flavor-wise, I would think that a little more salt will make the bread more flavorful.
5. The loaf's flavor is more richly developed overnight. The crumb is sweet and soft even without eggs. I think the oil and sour cream make it so. The cranberries are distinctively sour because they are fresh ones, not dried and sweetened. I myself like the sourness, but I don't know if others like it that much.

My 122nd experiment: Cranberry orange nut bread

This is specially for the festival season at the end of the year. I love the combination of cranberry and orange in this bread.

Recipe: Cranberry orange nut bread (make 1 large loaf)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1+1/2 tp baking powder
- 1/2 tp baking soda
- 3/4 tp kosher salt
- 3/4 cup (one 6 oz package) orange juice
- 1/4 tp grained orange peels
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 large egg + white of 1 egg
- 3 TB vegetable oil
- 1 cup frozen cranberries, chopped
- a handful of chopped walnuts

Procedure:
1. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, orange peel.
2. In a large bowl, beat together egg, egg white (if used), sour cream, oil, orange juice and sugar until it becomes well blended.
3. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients in three batches. Thoroughly mix each batch before adding the next.
4. Add chopped cranberries and nuts.
5. Pour into greased 9x5 pan. Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes until internal temperature is 190F and toothpick comes out clean.

Results:
3:37pm, frozen fresh cranberries bought just last week:

3:38pm, halved berries:

3:50pm, all ingredients:

4:10pm, wet ingredients:

4:13pm, wet ingredients to beat:

4:14pm, wet ingredients beaten; because of its thinness, the batter flies all over the place when beaten with electric mixer:

4:16pm, batter beaten, ready to mix with dry ingredients:

4:21pm, batter fully mixed with dry ingredients:

4:21pm, batter height in bowl:

4:22pm, berries and nuts added to batter:

4:24pm, batter in pan:

4:24pm, batter height in pan:

4:24pm, batter to bake at 350F:

5:13pm, loaf baked 50 minutes:

5:20pm, loaf's top when baked 55 minutes:

5:20pm, loaf's corner in pan:

5:21pm, internal temperature reaching 190F:

5:21pm, thermometer coming out clean:

5:21pm, loaf's height just out of oven:

5:48pm, loaf's height when cooled:

5:49pm, loaf's top in pan when cooling:

5:49pm, loaf turned out:

5:49pm, loaf's bottom:

5:49pm, loaf's side:

5:50pm, loaf's heel:

5:50pm, loaf's corner:

5:53pm, all of today's Thanksgiving gifts; comparing the height of cranberry loaf with the heights of calabasa loaves:

Observations:
1. The wet ingredients in this recipe are so watery that it becomes really hard to use the electric mixer. It sends the liquid all over the place!
2. This loaf has more batter than the large loaf of calabasa bread. However, this loaf does not hold its risen height after coming out of the oven.