Grandmother’s Famous Vegan Cranberry Bread

Early in our homeschooling journey, many years ago, we used Five In a Row curriculum, and were introduced to a wonderful book – Cranberry Thanksgiving – part of the beloved Cranberryport series by Wende and Harry Devlin.

In this book Grandmother hosts her annual Thanksgiving dinner, where she makes her famous Cranberry Bread recipe. Grandmother is well-known for her Cranberry Bread, and has turned down multiple offers to sell it to local bakeries. She guards the recipe carefully and suspects one of the invited guests, Mr. Whiskers, of trying to steal the recipe for himself. The book has a lesson in judging others based on outward appearances.

This book includes a recipe for Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread, which I modified slightly to be vegan.

Grandmother’s Famous VEGAN Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup unbleached sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup plant-based butter
1 egg equivalent (flax egg or egg replacer)
1 tsp grated orange peel
¾ cup orange juice
3 cups chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen) *

* optional: use 1 ½ cups raisins and 1 ½ cup cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 °F.
Grease 9 x 5 x 3 in loaf fan. Set aside.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, into mixing bowl.
Cut in plant-based butter until mixture is crumbly.
In a separate bowl, combine egg equivalent, orange peel and orange peel. Stir together and add to dry ingredients.
Stir just until evenly moist.
Fold in cranberries (and raisins, if using).
Spoon mixture into loaf pan.
Bake 350 °F 1 hour 10 min.
Check center with toothpick, adding more time if needed.*

* Stoneware will require a longer cook time.

The recipe has a bake time of 1 hour 10 minutes, but honestly I always give the bread additional bake time. In a glass baking pan, I gave an extra twenty or so minutes, and in the past when I have used my stoneware bake pan, I have gone almost a full additional hour.

This is a MOIST bread recipe, especially if you use three cups of chopped cranberries, so be prepared to check for doneness and allow for extra time.

This is a sweet bread with a tanginess from the cranberries and the orange juice. It’s perfect served at room temperature or warmed up with a pat of vegan butter.

Want to print this recipe?

Don’t know how to prepare a flax egg?
Whisk together 1 Tbsp ground flax seed with 3 tsp warm water. Let sit for 10 – 15 minutes to thicken up before using.