Cranberry Quick Bread Recipe

Last Updated on May 15, 2025

Cranberry quick bread is a must for the holidays, especially Thanksgiving. It is moist, flavorful, and easy to make. Everyone will love this sweet dessert-style bread.

Everyone ready for Thanksgiving?  I didn’t think so.  I’m going to throw out another possibility that was courtesy of our friend Linda, who makes this on her boat in the Bahamas. Get ready to bake some yummy sweet bread.

Bob is the captain and husband of Linda, and they try all the time to catch fish off the back of their 48-foot Kady Krogen trawler. They have not had much success at this and maybe need someone to show them the best way to do it.

But it seems if you can’t catch fish and want some fish, you just bake a loaf of cranberry bread and trade it for fresh fish.  That works for me, although I know that Linda’s hubby is a great lobster hunter. 

I guess if you only have lobster to eat, maybe some mahi-mahi is a nice change of pace!  What a dilemma.

This cranberry quick bread is a Martha Stewart recipe, provided by Linda, that is just as Martha would make it.  In this case, though, Mary Jo made it, since she is the baker supreme (not me).

It turned out super moist and delicious.  Mary Jo baked the loaf yesterday and you can see, before I could take photos, 2/3’s of it was gone.  (I’m guilty)! Mary Jo baked this loaf for 1 hr, 5 minutes and did the toothpick trick and it was done.

Here Are a Couple More Thanksgiving Recipes

• Homemade fresh cranberry sauce recipe
• Make ahead mashed potato casserole
• Best green bean casserole recipe

The printable recipe for Cranberry Quick Bread is below.

Cranberry Quick Bread

A perfect bread for a Thanksgiving Day brunch, (like you need more to eat on Thanksgiving)! Can be prepared a day ahead.

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Quick Bread

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cranberry quick bread

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 14 slices

Calories: 177kcal

Author: Joe Boyle

Ingredients

• 1 large beaten egg
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
• 2 level cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces of whole cranberries (1 bag)
• 1 Tablespoon sugar for topping

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.
• In medium bowl combine melted butter, egg and milk.
• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add wet mixture to dry mixture, whisk to combine; fold in cranberries.
• Pour batter into prepared loaf pan; sprinkle top with sugar. Bake till that toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hr to 1 hr 15 minutes.
• Transfer to wire rack to cool 30 minutes, then invert & remove loaf from pan. Turn right side up to cool completely.

Notes

1. The quick bread can be tightly wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 2 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 177kcal