One of my favorite quick breads comes from a wonderful classic children’s storybook, Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. This yummy bread is so moist and so chock full of cranberries! Orange and cranberry are such a great flavor combo!
Maggie’s grandmother is the credited author in this delightful story. The guarded recipe is so precious that one of the Thanksgiving Day dinner guests attempts to steal it! Is the villain the rough and rugged Mr. Whiskers or the polished Mr. Horace? You’ll have to read the book to find out!


When the kids were little, we decided to try this recipe which is found at the back of the storybook. The original recipe uses cranberries and light raisins. To keep my husband from gagging, we have always substituted more cranberries for the raisins as the recipe suggests at the end! I think we now love it as much as Maggie. It is one of my go-to quick bread recipes, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
One bag of cranberries supplies the needed 2 cups for this recipe. I used to chop them with a nut chopper, but now I pulse them in the food processor making sure to leave them coarsely chopped.

Great without butter as pictured, but there’s no harm in spreading it nice and thick if you like!

Cranberry Orange Bread
The delicious cranberry bread recipe found in the classic story "Cranberry Thanksgiving".
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 cup cold butter
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp. grated orange peel
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel and orange juice all at once, stirring just until mixture is evenly moist. Then fold in cranberries.
- Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to cool on wire rack.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 15 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 160Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 276mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 1gSugar: 15gProtein: 2g
you left out the golden raisins in the ing list.
The original recipe says you can use either golden raisins or substitute in more cranberries. I always use more cranberries.