cranberry bread

I like to eat cranberries. They are not as sweet as raisins but delicious nonetheless.

I baked a tray of cranberry and blueberry muffins some time back and brought them to work to share them with my colleagues. This was the first time that I have used dried cranberries when baking muffins. I usually add raisins instead. Hmm... it was a wonderful combination and I would definitely be baking such muffins again.

In the meantime, I had about 3/4 cup of dried cranberries left over and I was debating what to do with them. I have joined an online chat group on yahoo that is restricted to people who use breadmaker machines. One night, I was reading the messages in the chat group and came across a request by one of the group members for any bread recipe that uses cranberries. Several people in the chat group responded with recipes. One of the recipes caught my eye because it required ingredients that I had available at home. I decided to give the recipe a try.

One day, when I came home late from work (around 2.30 am), I did not want to go to bed immediately. The Chinese believe that if you sleep immediately after bathing, your pores are still open and you are likely to end up suffering from rheumatism in your old age. Regardless whether you believe in this or not, I normally do not sleep immediately after bathing anyway because I am usually wide awake by then. I decided to give the cranberry bread recipe a try but, instead of my preferred method (which is to use the breadmaker to make the dough but complete the baking in an oven), I set the breadmaker machine to the "bread" cycle and went to bed once I had placed the bucket in the breadmaker machine. When Da and I woke up in the morning, gosh... the lovely aroma of freshly baked bread filled our entire apartment unit!

Ingredients

3/4 cup warm water
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tbsp margarine
3 tbsp dry milk powder
2 tbsp castor white sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp salt
2 2/3 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries

Method (fully automated)

1. Place all the ingredients (except the cranberries) in the bucket of your breadmaker machine in the order recommended by the breadmaker manufacturer.

2. Select "bread" cycle and medium crust colour.

3. Start the cycle. When you hear the first beep, add the cranberries. Continue the cycle until the bread is done.

Method (semi-automated)

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast and cranberries) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that all the wet ingredients are fully covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and select "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. After 10 minutes, add the cranberries. Continue the cycle.

6. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough 5 times.

7. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.

8. Cover the loaf pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

9. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.