My orange cranberry quick bread is one of those special recipes that tastes great, and everyone asks for the recipe when I bring it to a gathering. It’s a gold standard in our house and a recipe that I got from good friends during a time when we hosted a lot of baby showers together. My only issue is the name: is it orange cranberry quick bread, or cranberry orange quick bread. I confuse myself all the time! It’s packed with mandarin oranges AND cranberries and has a slight citrus flavor so order the name however you want 🙂
This little quick bread recipe made it to every special event we had: we loved to host brunches, and this bread was usually the star of the show. I even started making it at home for a weekend breakfast treat.
It’s not that it’s a difficult recipe to conquer (I have several of those), what makes this orange cranberry quick bread special is how easy it is to make, yet how decadent it tastes and looks! The orange makes it scented and adds a burst of freshness to the box quick bread mix.
It starts with a boxed cranberry quick bread mix. Can’t be simpler than that! You add a can of mandarin oranges (drained) and some cut up pieces of softened cream cheese. The cream cheese is the secret that no one thinks is in the bread. It makes is so moist.
Bake the bread and top with a glaze of orange juice and powered sugar, and you have a masterpiece that people will be asking YOU for the recipe. I’ll leave it to you if you want it to be our little secret or if you want to share the love.
Orange Cranberry Quick Bread
Ingredients
- Box of cranberry or orange quick bread
- Mandarin oranges 3/4 of a 8 oz can
- 4 oz. cream cheese
Glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon oranje juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 (or temperature it says on your box mix)
- Follow the directions on the quick bread mix
- Drain the mandarin oranges. Use about 3/4 of the can and put into mix. Stir to combine.
- Cut cream cheese into small bits and add to mix.
- Optional: walnuts or pecans
- Bake according to directions on box.
- While bread is cooling, make the glaze
- Mix powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth consistency. Add more sugar is it's not thick enough, or add more orange juice if it's too thick.
- Drizzle on top of cooled bread.
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