Even if you are new to baking, this Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread is easy to prepare and makes a delicious treat!
It’s a new year, which is great and all, but for bloggers? Not so much. Q4 is super intense, so much to write about – from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve… and then it’s like crickets ::chirp, chirp:: {Enter the need for a delicious recipe, like this Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread}. The good thing is, that means I have lots of time to fix up my blog. Last year, I really started working on my SEO, and I’d like to continue to do the same. So today, I set over 150 old posts to draft because they just did nothing for my blog. Ultrasound images from my second pregnancy, plants in a garden in a house where we no longer live, breastfeeding information. It reminded me that “Wow, my family has grown a lot with this blog!” but also how much my blog has grown with me. I found a few old recipes to rework, including this bread recipe. I only made this recipe once, the time I posted it with the most ridiculously terrible photo, back on March 1, 2012. Well, 7 years later, it was time to bake it again, tweak the recipe a bit, and share it with you. Warning: It’s so tasty!
Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread ingredients:
- 2 1/2 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2/3 c warm water
- 2 t yeast
- 2 T sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 stick room temperature butter, cubed
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 c walnuts, chopped
- 1/4 c dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup honey
Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread directions:
- In a larger mixer with a bread hook attachment, combine warm water, yeast, and two tablespoons of sugar. Allow the mixture to sit about 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to bubble. Add the egg and butter and let the mixer run for 1 to 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the cinnamon, salt, and flour. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until a dough forms that easily pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- On a floured surface, knead the dough briefly and place in a bowl covered with a damp, warm cloth for one hour to rise. Knead the dough for several minutes, and again place in the bowl for one hour to rise.
- At this point, fold the chocolate chips, walnuts, and dried cranberries into the dough. You can form the dough into a ball to make a standard loaf, or you can try your hand at braiding like I did to make it a little fancier. This was the first time I did a 4-strand braid, but it was so easy, I will definitely use this technique again in the future! Here’s the YouTube video I used to learn how to braid the bread. Place the bread on a baking sheet, and allow it to rise one last time for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the honey in a small dish in the microwave until it becomes very liquidy. After the dough has risen for a 3rd time, brush it with the honey. Place it in the oven to bake.
- While cooking, at the 10 and 25-minute intervals, quickly brush the bread with honey. Bake the bread for 40 minutes total, or until the crust is a golden brown.
Eat immediately, while still warm and gooey! This bread is sort of a panettone-challah hybrid, so it can be enjoyed on its own or even used to make other dishes, like bread pudding or French toast.
Bread baking can be intimidating if you are new to the process, but once you master the basics, you will want to make your own breads all the time. I definitely recommend you try this Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread, and feel free to switch up the ingredients – try dried cherries, pecans, or milk chocolate instead!
Pin this Chocolate Walnut Cranberry Bread image below!
[tasty-recipe id=”28074″]
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