Cranberry White Chocolate Bread
This Cranberry White Chocolate Bread is an easy way to add delicious, festive flavor to the holiday season. A moist, tender loaf studded with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries is topped with a sweet, white chocolate glaze for a beautiful, delicious holiday treat.
When we think of sweet comfort foods, we always think of breads, muffins, and donuts. From blueberry butter swim biscuits for a sweet start to the day to copycat Cheddar Bay biscuits with dinner, you can’t beat the cozy, comforting feel of any kind of bread!
With the holidays approaching, treats like pumpkin pull apart bread and apple cider donut muffins are squarely in our sights. This year, we’ve added a new bread to our rotation that really fits the season.
Our cranberry white chocolate bread is soft, tender, and loaded with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. We top it with a simple white chocolate glaze to finish it off and watch everyone come running!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Basic Ingredients: This recipe uses basic baking ingredients, and they’re probably all in your kitchen right now.
- Easy to Make: Just mix, bake, and top with the glaze. It’s so easy.
- Moist and Tender: The cake is so soft, moist, and tender with a wonderful crumb.
- Festive Flavor: Every bite is loaded with sweet white chocolate chips, tangy dried cranberries, and white chocolate glaze.
- Customizable: It’s easy to change this recipe to create other delicious flavors.
- Great for Prep: This is a freezer-friendly recipe, so you can make extra loaves for future use.
Key Ingredients
We’ve made this list to help you save time on your next trip to the grocery store. You can find the full amounts needed in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk makes the bread extra-tender and moist.
- White Chocolate Chips: White chocolate chips add sweet flavor and richness to the cake. They also make the sweet base for the chocolate glaze.
- Dried Cranberries: Dried cranberries add a tart, holiday flavor to the loaf.
Variations
- Citrus: For another classic holiday flavor, add lemon extract to the bread and glaze for a citrus cranberry version.
- Add Nuts: Chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, or even pistachios add tons of flavor and texture to the bread.
- Extra Tender: For a super-tender version, use cake flour in place of all-purpose flour.
- Gluten-Free: Use a high-quality 1:1 gluten-free flour to create a version perfect for mixed company.
How to Make Cranberry White Chocolate Bread
This is a quick overview of the steps needed to make this recipe. You can find the full instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Beat the butter and sugars. Then, mix in the eggs and vanilla.
- Whisk the dry ingredients in another bowl.
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk. Repeat until all the batter ingredients are just combined.
- Fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips. Then, pour the batter into a nonstick 9-inch loaf pan.
- Bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Then, cool the bread in the pan for about 15 minutes. Turn the bread out onto a loaf pan to cool completely.
- Melt the glaze ingredients in the microwave and whisk until smooth. Then, pour it over the bread. Let it set, slice, and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- Bring your cold batter ingredients to room temperature to ensure easy, uniform mixing.
- Mix the batter until just combined for the most tender loaf.
- Your bread should be fully cooled before adding the glaze. This ensures it sticks to the top of the bread rather than sliding off of it.
- Give your pan several firm taps along the sides and bottom to make turning out the loaf easier.
Cranberry White Chocolate Bread FAQs
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Cranberry white chocolate bread is an easy quick bread recipe loaded with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, and topped with a white chocolate glaze.
There are two main reasons your bread came out tough. First, you may have used too much flour. Always spoon your flour loosely into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Second, you may have overmixed the batter. Mix your ingredients until just combined to avoid tough bread.
This bread will last for up to 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. For longer storage, freeze it for up to 2 months. Avoid refrigerating the bread, as it will dry out.
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📖Recipe
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Cranberry White Chocolate Bread
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- small bowl
- hand mixer or stand mixer
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- 9-inch loaf pan
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Knife or toothpick
- cooling rack
- Microwave Safe Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Glaze:
- ½ cups white chocolate chips
- 1 Tablespoon heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar together. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add about ⅓ of the flour mixture into the butter and combine.
- Add about ½ of the buttermilk and mix. Alternate the remaining flour and buttermilk until both are all added.
- Use a spatula to fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into a nonstick 9” loaf pan and place in the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a knife comes out cleanly.
- Remove and allow to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before turning the bread out onto a cooling rack to come to room temperature.
- To make the glaze, place the white chocolate chips, heavy cream and vanilla in a small, microwave safe bowl and heat in short increments, stirring each stop, until the chocolate has completely melted. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour over the top of the bread. Slice and serve!
Notes
Disclaimer
Any nutritional data I provide is an approximation and actual dietary information can vary based on ingredients and proportion sizes.
