This Pumpkin Cranberry Bread is a deliciously warm, soft, and sweet dessert. Making it is so easy. Making it is incredibly easy and requires only a few ingredients and a few steps! This pumpkin bread recipe is simple but still packs a lot of flavor.
Easy Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
We are using common ingredients in pumpkin bread. These include pumpkin purée, vegetable oil, and pumpkin pie spice. But we are also using a few special ingredients that will set this Pumpkin Cranberry Bread apart!
This is a quick bread that is delicious and easy to make. This is the best pumpkin cranberry bread. This easy pumpkin cranberry bread will have your family begging for more.
Let's talk Ingredients for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread!
All-Purpose Flour - all-purpose flour is the flour you see most of the time in recipes. Greatness comes from not having anything added to it like other flours can have. Basic and perfect for this recipe.
If you want to learn more about flour and how different flours get made and used, I recommend checking out this link. It has some great information about flour.
Pumpkin Pie Spice - Pumpkin pie spice is a spice blend made up of, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. The great thing about spice blends is that if you run out, you might have the spices on hand.
Other spice blends with similar flavors also exist. For example, you can use apple pie spice in a pinch. This link has a lot of great information about pumpkin pie spice!
Baking Soda - baking soda seriously goes in just about every baked good. That is because it is a leavening agent. This agent helps breads, cakes, and cookies rise a bit. It also makes them soft.
Baking powder has baking soda, but it is different. It also includes an acidic agent, like cream of tartar.
With baking soda, you need to add an acid to make it react. However, with baking powder, you can use any liquid. This is because baking powder already contains an acid.
Salt - every recipe needs a little salt. What makes things taste better is flavor. A little salt helps add a touch of contrast to the intensely sweet ingredients and helps bring out other flavors in your dish.
Vegetable Oil - We use vegetable oil in this recipe instead of butter. The oil adds richness and moisture without changing the flavor. Sometimes, butter can give desserts a strong butter flavor. While that is often nice, it is not what I wanted for this recipe.
Eggs - Bakers almost always use eggs in bread and cake recipes. Eggs are the glue that holds everything together, and they add some additional leavening to the recipe!
White and Brown Sugar - we are using both white and brown sugar in this recipe. You don’t have to use both, but I wanted the extra flavor that brown sugar adds. Brown sugar brings a warmth that white sugar cannot.
Pumpkin Pureé - Pumpkin pureé is a key ingredient in this recipe. Without it, there would be no pumpkin bread. Make sure you are using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. They are different and it will affect the flavor of your bread.
It doesn’t add much flavor, but it does add moisture. It gives a nice orange color and some extra fiber. So, you can say this has a vegetable in it.
Grated Ginger - do you remember in the intro I said that we were using some special ingredients? This is one of them. I added just a bit of grated ginger to give this cranberry pumpkin bread something extra. The bread will receive just a little extra spice and will help cut the sweetness just a bit.
Orange Juice - my second extra special ingredient. This is a more common choice because I have seen it in other recipes. Like the ginger, it adds some acidity. This will balance the sweetness and improve the overall flavor.
Craisins - craisins are raisins cousin. They are dried cranberries and are a perfect mix in for this pumpkin bread. The cranberries will give a little acidity, and will give the bread some texture and interest!
You could also add chocolate chips for some extra chocolatey flavor!
Cream Cheese Icing for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Cream cheese - cream cheese is THE ingredient in cream cheese icing. We are using a whole 8 oz block because I love the tang that cream cheese gives an icing. It also keeps the icing thicker so that it doesn’t run all over the cake.
Who doesn't love bread with cream cheese? In fact, pumpkin bread with cream cheese sounds even better.
Powdered Sugar - I chose powdered sugar for the icing because its texture is hard to notice in icing. It dissolves immediately so that you have smooth and creamy icing.
Milk - I added milk to this for some extra fat, and to keep the white color of the icing. Sometimes adding different liquids like water can slightly change the color of the icing.
Vanilla Extract - You can’t have an icing without adding some vanilla extract.
You can add some pumpkin to the cream cheese. This will change the icing's color and add more pumpkin flavor.
Here are the steps!
Mix the wet ingredients - in a smaller bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. This means all the ingredients that are wet to the touch, plus sugar.
Mix the dry ingredients - in a separate and larger bowl I mixed all the dry ingredients. I used a bigger bowl because I then added the wet ingredients to the dry.
Mix all the ingredients - Once they are mixed, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture Then, mix everything! Make sure there are no lumps.
Prepare your Loaf Pan - for this recipe you will want to use a loaf pan, to make this bread. You want to make sure that you grease it up well so that nothing sticks when you are removing the bread.
Bake the bread - pour your batter in your loaf pan, and put it in the oven for about 60 minutes. While its baking we can make the icing!
Make the icing - in a bowl, you will mix all the icing ingredients! Make sure there aren’t any lumps and set it aside.
Take the bread out of the oven - once it finishes baking, and let it cool. I like to let it cool for about 20 minutes. I wait until it is cool enough to handle without burning myself. Then, I take it out of the loaf pan to cool completely.
Ice the bread - once the bread is completely cool, you can spread your icing on top and cut a slice! If you cut it before it's totally cool, it will lose moisture, and it won’t be firm enough to hold its shape.
Watch Me Make Pumpkin Cranberry Bread!
Check out our other pumpkin recipes, like our Pumpkin Praeline Cake. We hope you love this pumpkin cranberry bread recipe. This cream cheese-filled recipe is to die for!
Tips and Tricks
To keep this bread in the freezer, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in a ziplock bag. Using both will keep it protected. You could also put it in an airtight container. Do this BEFORE you put the icing on.
Use a hand mixer or stand mixer for quick and easy mixing. I recently got the Kitchen Aid Cordless hand mixer and I love it!
Pumpkin bread with orange juice? It sounds crazy but it's a great combo. Have a glass when you have a slice of this cranberry pumpink bread.
Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Bread
- ½ cup Sugar
- ¾ cup Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 teaspoon Grated Ginger
- ¼ cup Orange Juice
- ½ cup Pumpkin
- 2 egg
- 1 ¾ cup Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ cup Craisins
For the Icing
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 8 oz packaged Cream Cheese
- 2 tbs Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Bread
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease loaf pan with bakers joy, oil, or butter
- In a medium size bowl, mix together the sugar (white and brown), vegetable oil, orange juice, grated ginger, pumpkin puree, and eggs. Mix until there are no lumps.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and baking powder, and the salt.
- Pour the bowl of liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
- Using a rubber spatula fold in the Craisins gently.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Tap on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles.
- Bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until cooked through.
- Once the bread is baked through, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting or adding icing.
For the Icing
- In a bowl mix, powdered sugar, cream cheese, milk and vanilla extract until there are no lumps.
- Set aside and put on the pumpkin bread once it has cooled completely.
Notes
- Make sure that you prepare you loaf pan really well! You don't want to miss a corner and have your bread stick to the pan.
- Cool bread completely before cutting it! If you cut it while its still warm it will be crumbly. If you let it cool you will have nice moist and soft slices.
- Make sure you use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling!
- You could add chocolate chips or walnuts to have added texture.
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