Cranberry Lemon Loaf
When everything on my website started with “Spiced Pumpkin” a few weeks ago, my sister gently reminded me that it was time for cranberry season and asked that I could create something for the leftover cranberries she had in her fridge. The tart crimson berries hadn’t even crossed my mind as of late because they were non-existent in the Kona grocery stores I was frequenting. I did see them at Costco but it was enough to feed a small village, so I waited until we got home. I took my first trip to Trader Joes, and there they were! And organic no less.
Living in Hawaii was such an incredible experience and we made so many dear friends that I miss terribly, but I do have to admit it was nice to get home and see Christmastime in full swing. It’s a bit difficult to get in the spirit with the warm weather and lack of decorations there! While cranberries usually make their first appearance on the Thanksgiving table, they are synonymous with the December holiday season to me. I’m fond of a good quick bread, which pretty much all grain-free breads are, so I set out to create a holiday loaf and put my new berry bounty to use. Cardamom, the spice often used in Chai tea, is used to bring out the tart flavors of the lemon and cranberry. And keeping with all things Christmas, I just had to incorporate the twinkly little white lights in the background!
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup honey
- ⅓ cup palm shortening, or unsalted butter – room temperature
- 4 large eggs – room temperature
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped cranberries, fresh or frozen
Glaze - ¼ cup raw cashews
- 4 teaspoons coconut milk
- 3 teaspoons expeller pressed coconut oil, melted
- 3 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons honey, liquid
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly coat an 8×4 loaf pan with coconut oil, then line with parchment paper.
- Place all of the loaf ingredients, except the cranberries, in a blender. Blend on low for 20 seconds to get things moving, then increase the power to high and blend for 30 seconds, until very smooth. *Tip: place the liquids on the bottom to help the blade move easily.
- Mix in the chopped cranberries by hand, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Place the loaf in the oven, then immediately reduce the oven temperature to 325.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the loaf.
- Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then gently loosen the sides and remove it from the pan.
- Continue to cool until it has reached room temperature.
- Meanwhile, make the lemon glaze. Add all of the ingredients to a small blender or food processor and process until smooth. Stop to scrape the sides if necessary to get all of the little bits of cashews. *If you only have a large blender, you may need to double the glaze recipe so it fills it enough for the blade to work and doesn’t just spread up the sides. You can store the extra glaze in the freezer for 2 months for later use. *If you’re allergic to cashews, you can use the glaze from this iced pumpkin cookie recipe and add a little lemon to it instead of the vanilla beans and cinnamon.
- Once the loaf has cooled completely, drizzle the icing over the top. You can also evenly spread a thin layer on top.
- Store the leftover loaf tightly wrapped in the refrigerator.
Enjoy!
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[...] came across Danielle’s site around the holidays when my pinterest was blowing up with her Cranberry Lemon Loaf. At first glance I thought a recipe this gorgeous had to be gluten filled, but when I noticed her [...]
WOW – love cranberries. Love lemon. I’ve got to try this for the holidays. Thank you for sharing. Thanks to your sister for the “reminder”…
Jen
Beautiful! I can’t wait to try out the recipe. I’m highly allergic to almonds, though, so I’m planning to sub out cashew flour. Think that’ll work ok?
I have some cranberries in the fridge that I’ve been wondering what to do with, and this looks perfect! Thanks for the recipe. I LOVE your blog!
Bookmarked for a holiday brunch!!…Question…Just what is the “whiteness” surrounding the cranberries in the photos of your cut bread?…Is this glaze resulting from poking holes in the top of the bread…trickling down?…Did I miss something?…Gorgeous offering at any rate…Thank you for the inspiration during these hectic holiday times!
It happens when the moisture from the cranberries is released during baking. Almond flour browns as it bakes and the extra moisture keeps it from doing so in those little spots. I think I can keep the whole load more white by placing a dish of water at the bottom of the oven while it bakes but I haven’t tried it yet
I find it (this white “halo-ing” ) quite lovely at any rate!!….Thank you for explanation!
I’m making this tomorrow… I’ll try the water pan in the oven and let you know!
I just made this loaf and it turned out delicious. The flavor is more cardamom less lemon. Next time I think i might add some lemon rind. I loved the cardamom cranberry combination. I did not get any white spots but I kept my cranberries whole.
Looks great! What can I replace the eggs with and how much ? Thanks
Looks and sounds like a wonderful treat for the season! At the risk of dampening that wonderfulness, do you happen to know or have the nutritional data for it? Although a lot of work, I was thinking that it would be good to have the data in a side bar. Happy season!
MmmmMMmm your loaf & icing look divine. I’d take the Hawaii weather any day over cranberries
That looks divine! Can’t wait to give it a try. Question: I like to bookmark pages that have recipes (like yours) on my computer, for easy reference. Yours is the only blog that I’m not able to do that on. Do you have some kind of setting enabled that prohibits me from doing this?
I’m thinking this would be great as muffins, amiright?
I made this tonight. YUM! The kids liked it too. I had a hard time getting the glaze creamy (I even doubled and used a small food processor), but it was still good. I’m wondering if soaking the cashews over night would help… Thanks for sharing this recipe!
This recipe sounds wonderful!
I do have a question if the last 4-5 ingredients are for the glaze. Thank you!
I’m just curious – I’m unable to copy this recipe and print it…usually I can. I know there is a print button but it prints out 4 pages. Usually I select and copy the recipe and the picture and take it over to Word and format it to just print 1 page. Are you doing something different now with how you are posting it….or is it something I’m doing wrong…which is probably the case
What would be a good substitute for honey in your recipe since I cannot have any sugar or honey?
i used agave as a 1:1 substitute and it came out delicious!
Thanks Lee! Agave is highly processed so it unfortunately is not used in my recipes, but its good to know its easily subbed in!
What a beautiful loaf of cranberry bread! I made a cranberry nut bread a few weeks ago with some orange zest but I love how you paired the cranberries with lemon… and your glaze looks amazing!!!
Well Done!!!
Can you use dried cranberries?
Looks delicious. Can I use coconut oil instead of the palm shortening?
I made this today with just a couple of changes. I added some lemon zest to the batter to up the lemony goodness, and I skipped the glaze, finding the cake to be sweet enough without it. Thanks for a great recipe. It’s going in my “keeper” file.
OMG! I just finished these and glazed them and popped 4 mini muffin (I wasn’t patient enough for the loaf pan) in my mouth, AMAZING! I followed the recipe 100% and they are the BOMB!
Thanks!
What a marvelous looking quick bread! I had cranberries on the brain last night as I used a bag to string a long garland with them. It felt very old fashioned and cozy.
We’re celebrating holiday recipes this month on the Shine Supper Club and this would be a wonderful contribution. I hope you’ll consider joining us!
Could you sub coconut flour for this instead of almond flour? How would that affect the temp and baking time (or anything else)? Thanks!!
No you cannot do a 1:1 sub
I made this last night and it is absolutely delicious!! Super moist and flavorful. What a treat. I used clarified butter instead of the coconut oil in the glaze, but otherwise I followed the recipe and it worked perfectly. I did have to double the glaze recipe (not a bad thing since it’s soooo tasty), and it took a long time to get the cashews to be creamy, but it worked! For the commenter who had problems with that, if you try again, be patient and it will pay off! THANK YOU for your blog. I love it.
I really want to try this but cannot have eggs! What can I use? Thanks
mmm what an interesting mix of flavors! this look awesome!!
This is so yummy! I had FOUR slices
Definitely a keeper at this house!!
We made this for my daughter’s second birthday party brunch and everyone loved it! Not only was it super easy to make, but the adults and also the kids loved it. Thank you again for your beautiful recipes!
I made this over the weekend and it turned out perfectly! My two-year old loved the “special treat” and it tastes just like the wheat-filled dessert bread my mom used to make for our neighbors at Christmas-time! I had to cook mine a bit longer – closer to 75 minutes and I used whole cranberries vs. chopped. I took the advice of Danielle and threw a pan of water in the oven while baking and got a whiter loaf of bread with no “halos” around the cranberries. I also doubled the icing recipe for my large blender and still couldn’t get it creamy enough, but we were okay with the slightly-nutty texture alongside the cranberries. LOVE this recipe. Thank you!
This looks wonderful. Especially your note about Kona. Couldn’t be more true. I just found your blog and live part time in Mauna Lani. Where in Kona would you find items? The health food store mainly I’m sure – but what other locations? Feel like when I’m here I don’t make many items due to lack of products. Thanks. Jen
I made this today, and I usually have such great success with your recipes, but this really didn’t work for me. I followed the recipe exactly, and it took much longer than 45 min to bake and ended up with a kind of strange texture. The glaze also turned out lumpy even though I blended it for over 5 min in my blender (which is small). The flavor was great…any suggestions for if I try the recipe again? I’m wondering if I should try mini muffins like PP did?
Hmm what kind of almond flour did you use?
Made this over the holidays. Turned out beautifully, very delicious.
I must be sooo tired…forgot the eggs and didn’t notice until after adding cranberries! Should’ve seen me picking the cranberries out so I could add the eggs. ; ) Then, forgot to turn the temp down so the outside of my bread was getting pretty dark while the inside was still not done…covered it in foil and lowered heat. All this to say, the bread was still AWESOME! We all tore into it while it was still hot! We will definitely be making this again…per your instructions. I can only imagine how good it will be when its made properly!! ; ) Thanks for sharing all your hard work! You truly bless our family.
Haha so happy it still turned out with all of the mishaps! That sounds like my kitchen a lot of times. You must have had kids running in and out asking for things
This is fantastic! Being originally from New England, I grew up with the cranberry the way folks in Florida grow up with citrus! I eat cranberries year-round! This sounds like a great snack!