61 thoughts on “P & Q: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf”
Watch out: the dough has to rest overnight in the fridge.
I did not have fresh cranberries (never seen them here) but found canned ones (in water and sugar): was good but not the best! Impossibile not to squash them!
Will try again with dried cranberries, I’m almost sure, it will be delicious.
I had mine “fresh” and toasted and I preferred toasted.
A yummy autumn loaf.
Did you use the recommended three loaf pans or did you use two standard size loaf pans. I was thinking of using two rather than three small ones.
I was wondering this as well. I may buy the three small pans, depending on how much they cost.
I’ve been wanting small loaf pans for awhile, so I checked in at BB&B. The had a set of 4, chicago metallic brand, for $10. $8 with a 20% coupon, so not bad at all. I think they’ll make nice little breads to share.
Hi, I’ve used two loaf pans of about 9.5″ x 4″. I’ve never seen smaller loaf pans over here, but I don’t think I’d bought them anyway: we love bread too much here!
I was wondering about using a regular loaf pan like we did for the white and wheat bread..did you have to adjust the cooking time at all?
How manageable is this dough? Would I be able to hand-knead it, or will that be a monstrous disaster?
I’d like to buy one as I love the marks they leave on the breads,
but I’m afraid about the sticking – cleaning – rinsing.
It it hygenic?
What are your experiences?
Thank you so much
I have a couple of baskets and they are great for non-enriched bread. I wouldn’t use them for bread with any kind of dairy or eggs in them. You have to flour them very well, but otherwise they are fine. I have never rinse mine–I just tap out excess flour when I am done and store them in the cupboard. The only problem I have ever had with sticking is when I used them for a really wet dough. Use a stiff dough and you should have no trouble with sticking. They bake up beautifully!
♥ Thank you so much for your reply, loavesandstitches.
there are certain breads made in these baskets and made for the shapes they provide and the “ridging” shall we say :) nice to have but certainly not essential!
Thank you Alice.
Am I the only one not all that interested in this recipe?
please, tell me I’m wrong and that its delicious.
i feel the same. was more excited about it when i initially thought it was a quick bread.
I did too until I got started on it. I love pumpkin. I love cranberries. Hoping for a delicious outcome! Been craving something “fall-ish”.
I too feel the same way. I should have read the recipe more closely because I thought it would be a quick bread,
Ha, funny, I wasn’t going to make this one when I thought it was a quick bread! Love quick breads, but I’ve made so many variations on cranberry pumpkin quick bread already. A yeasted pumpkin bread is something new and different though.
This bread is an absolute surprise! I didn’t have time to rise, refrigerate, rise, bake. So I made it, raised it and baked it all within the same 6 hours. End result unbelievably good! My family keeps saying, “this is great bread” with each slice. I make bread all the time so for them to get this excited about it — means it is wonderful. The fruit makes the yeasty bread slightly sweet. I didn’t have fresh cranberries so used craisins and they were great.
I don’t love it as much as the whole wheat loaves but it has an interesting character :-)
I’m making it again with dried cranberries.
I like it toasted and with butter and jam (perfect breakfast with an autumnal touch)
Personally I don’t think you will be missing much. Not worth the investment in time. Makes decent toast – flavor similar to raisin bread. For me, the pumpkin flavor was not very pronounced.
Curious if this was a dense bread…or if my yeast just wasn’t working!!!! Thanks!
As far as I remember I had to add flour to the dough as it was pretty sticky.
I’ll pay more attention when I remake it.
The funny part was the rising in the fridge, into a plastic bag. Before I went to bed I checked, hoping that the bag would not explode!
I took it out, deflated and put it in another bag (two bags in total – as didn’t want to risk to clean the fridge)!
PS: It did not explode. yuhhui!
I had the same issue. Never really rose like I´m used to and it was dense… not what I was expecting. I can´t believe both our yeasts failed at the same time and thousands of km away…!
Mine did not rise either, and i bought the yiest at the day of making it..
I thought this was a quick bread too – glad I read these instead of waiting till the day of baking!
I also thought was a quick bread.Now I’m curious to try it;)
I can’t find cranberries anywhere! Thanks for the heads up about an overnight rest. I probably would have waited until the last minute :)
I’m not having any luck either, will probably have to use dried cranberries. Good thing dried cranberries are yummy!
I’m re-doing mine with dried cranberries… the dough is resting.
I found frozen cranberries in the freezer aisle and they worked very well once thawed. Just fold the dough gently and you shouldn’t smash too many ; )
It’s too early for fresh cranberries here, too. I bought dried ones to use in this recipe.
Update: I went to the same store I was at 2 days ago, and they had just stocked fresh cranberries!!!
Lucky you ! Well done… never give up :-)
Did anyone make this in one or two loaf pans instead of mini’s? How did you adjust the cooking time?
I haven’t made it yet, but I’m going to do it in one or two pans. I’ll probably just add about 10 minutes to the baking time, then check the temp of the loaf to see if it needs to go longer. Should be about 200-205F when it’s done.
I’m so sorry I did not write down the time difference of my two loaves.
I think I also followed the temperature check (one of the best tricks I’ve learned from the book! It made my bread baking much easier).
PS: the first bread I made rose so quickly. The one I’m making today is very lazy… Still have plenty of time, won’t cook it without seeing a nice rising!
PS. I don’t tink that you really need an overnight rest:
if you start very early in the morning you’ll be able to bake it in the evening.
My nights never last longer than 7 hours :-)
My larger l
Darn iPhone….. My larger loaves baked about 8 minutes longer than called for the mini loaves
This is a nice bread. My three loaves rose beautifully; two have already been frozen, and one consumed. I used fresh cranberries, which I always have available in the freezer, but next time I would like to try dried cranberries.
The overnight refrigeration is worthwhile because it improves the texture of the dough before shaping.
I used SAF Gold yeast and the breads seem to be rising…..
Hmmm my bread dough just finished its first “rise” (and I use that term very loosely) and it’s certainly gotten bulkier but not risen per se. It’s quite sticky. Wondering if I might add some flour now as it goes into the fridge overnight or if I’ve messed up :(
Oh goodness. So It’s out of the fridge at 49˚F right now and it’s heavy heavy heavy. Not got a lot of hope for this one.
Im really nervous to make this. I hardly have any time in the day to bake anymore..I do not want to go through all the trouble of baking and it does not turn out. hmmm what to do, what to do?
What do we need to know about this bread? – it’s another long one folks! Read through the recipe and make sure you don’t start mixing it together at 11:30 PM like I did last night. Didn’t realize that it had to rise at room temp for 2 hours BEFORE putting it in the fridge. After 8 hours in the fridge it doesn’t look much different – cross your fingers for me because I had high hopes for this one.
Mine’s been out of the fridge for a couple of hours now and it’s at 60˚F. Does not look ANY different than it did yesterday after the first rise. I do not have high hopes for this one :(
I’m baking it right now and it smells pretty delish. I haven’t given up yet. How’d yours turn out?
Is it supposed to rise while it’s chilling overnight? Not sure whether to put in a large bowl to give it room or one that’s the same size so it just chills. Any thoughts? Thanks. BTW mine rose high on first rise.
It says to wrap it tightly in plastic so I don’t think so, although mine kind of stretched the plastic!
Mine rose not a centimetre either in the fridge or in the first rise. Only slightly in the second rise. It ended up like this: http://instagram.com/p/QNo4xiKZP3/ So MUCH better than I expected!!!
It looks great! So pleased for you!
I had to deflate it before I went to bed as the plastic sack was almost exploding :-)
Mardi, looks great even with little rising action. Mine is VERY active, already stretching the plastic in the small bowl in the fridge.
I didn’t read through the recipe ahead of time, promised fresh bread for dinner and yikes! I started at 1 p.m. What to do? I skipped the overnight refrigeration. If that adds to this bread then it is even more outstanding! We loved the taste, texture and fall orangey look! Blessings!
Just pulled mine out of the oven. I love Love LOVE this bread! It’s not the pumpkin bread you’re thinking of, so don’t be expecting a sweet, squishy, pumpkiny loaf. As someone else pointed out, it’s more like raisin bread. Really good raisin bread. With walnuts. And cranberries.
The pumpkin doesn’t add a distinct flavor to the bread, but it does make the bread moist and gives it a pretty orange color.
Definitely a keeper!
I too am in love with this bread! I could not resist adding a tiny cinnamon-sugar swirl to the center…I think I will be making this A LOT during the Fall/Winter months. So delicious!
Mine’s in the refrigerator right now. I’m a bit worried since it doesn’t look like it rose a whole lot.
I was pleasantly surprised by this bread once it was baked as initially I wasn’t too excited. I’ve been munching on it all morning. I had to use dried cranberries which is fine by me as i havent seen fresh on the market yet. I made sure to read recipe several times and time myself… reserving the weekend for all the rise periods. It requires a tiny bit of babysitting :)
Going to have to wait for the extra week this month to make this one up. Waited until the last minute. ;)
i’m going to do the same.
I disobeyed the recipe and did a standard two-rise today, omitting the refrigeration. The loaves are gorgeous, rose beautifully, and are very tasty!!! I do wonder what the refrigeration would offer the recipe. Did anyone try both ways to compare?
I could not find frozen cranberries or fresh, so I added dried sweetened cranberries which I always have on hand for kids’ snacks. Delish!
Whoops, think I should have made this yesterday! I knew it had to sit in the fridge for several hours, but didn’t realize it needs to sit at room temp for 6 hours after. Looks like my post will be going up late on Tuesday! Just took the butter out to warm up.
Tuesdays with Dorie 
Watch out: the dough has to rest overnight in the fridge.
I did not have fresh cranberries (never seen them here) but found canned ones (in water and sugar): was good but not the best! Impossibile not to squash them!
Will try again with dried cranberries, I’m almost sure, it will be delicious.
I had mine “fresh” and toasted and I preferred toasted.
A yummy autumn loaf.
Did you use the recommended three loaf pans or did you use two standard size loaf pans. I was thinking of using two rather than three small ones.
I was wondering this as well. I may buy the three small pans, depending on how much they cost.
I’ve been wanting small loaf pans for awhile, so I checked in at BB&B. The had a set of 4, chicago metallic brand, for $10. $8 with a 20% coupon, so not bad at all. I think they’ll make nice little breads to share.
Hi, I’ve used two loaf pans of about 9.5″ x 4″. I’ve never seen smaller loaf pans over here, but I don’t think I’d bought them anyway: we love bread too much here!
I was wondering about using a regular loaf pan like we did for the white and wheat bread..did you have to adjust the cooking time at all?
How manageable is this dough? Would I be able to hand-knead it, or will that be a monstrous disaster?
Hi, I have a question:
Does somebody of you let their bread rise is these baskets?
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:G%C3%A4rk%C3%B6rbchen.jpg&filetimestamp=20051021184722
I’d like to buy one as I love the marks they leave on the breads,
but I’m afraid about the sticking – cleaning – rinsing.
It it hygenic?
What are your experiences?
Thank you so much
I have a couple of baskets and they are great for non-enriched bread. I wouldn’t use them for bread with any kind of dairy or eggs in them. You have to flour them very well, but otherwise they are fine. I have never rinse mine–I just tap out excess flour when I am done and store them in the cupboard. The only problem I have ever had with sticking is when I used them for a really wet dough. Use a stiff dough and you should have no trouble with sticking. They bake up beautifully!
♥ Thank you so much for your reply, loavesandstitches.
there are certain breads made in these baskets and made for the shapes they provide and the “ridging” shall we say :) nice to have but certainly not essential!
Thank you Alice.
Am I the only one not all that interested in this recipe?
please, tell me I’m wrong and that its delicious.
i feel the same. was more excited about it when i initially thought it was a quick bread.
I did too until I got started on it. I love pumpkin. I love cranberries. Hoping for a delicious outcome! Been craving something “fall-ish”.
I too feel the same way. I should have read the recipe more closely because I thought it would be a quick bread,
Ha, funny, I wasn’t going to make this one when I thought it was a quick bread! Love quick breads, but I’ve made so many variations on cranberry pumpkin quick bread already. A yeasted pumpkin bread is something new and different though.
This bread is an absolute surprise! I didn’t have time to rise, refrigerate, rise, bake. So I made it, raised it and baked it all within the same 6 hours. End result unbelievably good! My family keeps saying, “this is great bread” with each slice. I make bread all the time so for them to get this excited about it — means it is wonderful. The fruit makes the yeasty bread slightly sweet. I didn’t have fresh cranberries so used craisins and they were great.
I don’t love it as much as the whole wheat loaves but it has an interesting character :-)
I’m making it again with dried cranberries.
I like it toasted and with butter and jam (perfect breakfast with an autumnal touch)
Personally I don’t think you will be missing much. Not worth the investment in time. Makes decent toast – flavor similar to raisin bread. For me, the pumpkin flavor was not very pronounced.
Curious if this was a dense bread…or if my yeast just wasn’t working!!!! Thanks!
As far as I remember I had to add flour to the dough as it was pretty sticky.
I’ll pay more attention when I remake it.
The funny part was the rising in the fridge, into a plastic bag. Before I went to bed I checked, hoping that the bag would not explode!
I took it out, deflated and put it in another bag (two bags in total – as didn’t want to risk to clean the fridge)!
PS: It did not explode. yuhhui!
I had the same issue. Never really rose like I´m used to and it was dense… not what I was expecting. I can´t believe both our yeasts failed at the same time and thousands of km away…!
Mine did not rise either, and i bought the yiest at the day of making it..
I thought this was a quick bread too – glad I read these instead of waiting till the day of baking!
I also thought was a quick bread.Now I’m curious to try it;)
I can’t find cranberries anywhere! Thanks for the heads up about an overnight rest. I probably would have waited until the last minute :)
I’m not having any luck either, will probably have to use dried cranberries. Good thing dried cranberries are yummy!
I’m re-doing mine with dried cranberries… the dough is resting.
I found frozen cranberries in the freezer aisle and they worked very well once thawed. Just fold the dough gently and you shouldn’t smash too many ; )
It’s too early for fresh cranberries here, too. I bought dried ones to use in this recipe.
Update: I went to the same store I was at 2 days ago, and they had just stocked fresh cranberries!!!
Lucky you ! Well done… never give up :-)
Did anyone make this in one or two loaf pans instead of mini’s? How did you adjust the cooking time?
I haven’t made it yet, but I’m going to do it in one or two pans. I’ll probably just add about 10 minutes to the baking time, then check the temp of the loaf to see if it needs to go longer. Should be about 200-205F when it’s done.
I’m so sorry I did not write down the time difference of my two loaves.
I think I also followed the temperature check (one of the best tricks I’ve learned from the book! It made my bread baking much easier).
PS: the first bread I made rose so quickly. The one I’m making today is very lazy… Still have plenty of time, won’t cook it without seeing a nice rising!
PS. I don’t tink that you really need an overnight rest:
if you start very early in the morning you’ll be able to bake it in the evening.
My nights never last longer than 7 hours :-)
My larger l
Darn iPhone….. My larger loaves baked about 8 minutes longer than called for the mini loaves
This is a nice bread. My three loaves rose beautifully; two have already been frozen, and one consumed. I used fresh cranberries, which I always have available in the freezer, but next time I would like to try dried cranberries.
The overnight refrigeration is worthwhile because it improves the texture of the dough before shaping.
I used SAF Gold yeast and the breads seem to be rising…..
Hmmm my bread dough just finished its first “rise” (and I use that term very loosely) and it’s certainly gotten bulkier but not risen per se. It’s quite sticky. Wondering if I might add some flour now as it goes into the fridge overnight or if I’ve messed up :(
Oh goodness. So It’s out of the fridge at 49˚F right now and it’s heavy heavy heavy. Not got a lot of hope for this one.
Im really nervous to make this. I hardly have any time in the day to bake anymore..I do not want to go through all the trouble of baking and it does not turn out. hmmm what to do, what to do?
What do we need to know about this bread? – it’s another long one folks! Read through the recipe and make sure you don’t start mixing it together at 11:30 PM like I did last night. Didn’t realize that it had to rise at room temp for 2 hours BEFORE putting it in the fridge. After 8 hours in the fridge it doesn’t look much different – cross your fingers for me because I had high hopes for this one.
Mine’s been out of the fridge for a couple of hours now and it’s at 60˚F. Does not look ANY different than it did yesterday after the first rise. I do not have high hopes for this one :(
I’m baking it right now and it smells pretty delish. I haven’t given up yet. How’d yours turn out?
Is it supposed to rise while it’s chilling overnight? Not sure whether to put in a large bowl to give it room or one that’s the same size so it just chills. Any thoughts? Thanks. BTW mine rose high on first rise.
It says to wrap it tightly in plastic so I don’t think so, although mine kind of stretched the plastic!
Mine rose not a centimetre either in the fridge or in the first rise. Only slightly in the second rise. It ended up like this: http://instagram.com/p/QNo4xiKZP3/ So MUCH better than I expected!!!
It looks great! So pleased for you!
I had to deflate it before I went to bed as the plastic sack was almost exploding :-)
Mardi, looks great even with little rising action. Mine is VERY active, already stretching the plastic in the small bowl in the fridge.
I didn’t read through the recipe ahead of time, promised fresh bread for dinner and yikes! I started at 1 p.m. What to do? I skipped the overnight refrigeration. If that adds to this bread then it is even more outstanding! We loved the taste, texture and fall orangey look! Blessings!
Just pulled mine out of the oven. I love Love LOVE this bread! It’s not the pumpkin bread you’re thinking of, so don’t be expecting a sweet, squishy, pumpkiny loaf. As someone else pointed out, it’s more like raisin bread. Really good raisin bread. With walnuts. And cranberries.
The pumpkin doesn’t add a distinct flavor to the bread, but it does make the bread moist and gives it a pretty orange color.
Definitely a keeper!
I too am in love with this bread! I could not resist adding a tiny cinnamon-sugar swirl to the center…I think I will be making this A LOT during the Fall/Winter months. So delicious!
Mine’s in the refrigerator right now. I’m a bit worried since it doesn’t look like it rose a whole lot.
I was pleasantly surprised by this bread once it was baked as initially I wasn’t too excited. I’ve been munching on it all morning. I had to use dried cranberries which is fine by me as i havent seen fresh on the market yet. I made sure to read recipe several times and time myself… reserving the weekend for all the rise periods. It requires a tiny bit of babysitting :)
Going to have to wait for the extra week this month to make this one up. Waited until the last minute. ;)
i’m going to do the same.
I disobeyed the recipe and did a standard two-rise today, omitting the refrigeration. The loaves are gorgeous, rose beautifully, and are very tasty!!! I do wonder what the refrigeration would offer the recipe. Did anyone try both ways to compare?
I could not find frozen cranberries or fresh, so I added dried sweetened cranberries which I always have on hand for kids’ snacks. Delish!
Whoops, think I should have made this yesterday! I knew it had to sit in the fridge for several hours, but didn’t realize it needs to sit at room temp for 6 hours after. Looks like my post will be going up late on Tuesday! Just took the butter out to warm up.