Cranberry Bread, the Best Way to Use Leftover Cranberry Sauce

This Cranberry Bread is the sweetest way to use up about ½ a cup of leftover cranberry sauce from your Thanksgiving or Holiday dinner! With a swirl of leftover cranberry sauce, this bread based on a classic quick bread style so it's easy and endlessly flexible. Shall we?

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How Much Leftover Cranberry Sauce You Need

You need ½ a cup of leftover cranberry sauce for this Cranberry Bread recipe. If you have a little less or a little more, try making any of these recipes!

If you have ½ cup of leftover Cranberry Sauce:

• this very Cranberry Bread recipe!
• Cranberry Bread Pudding uses ½ cup leftover cranberry sauce plus dried cranberries

A full 1 cup of leftover Cranberry Sauce cane make:

• Cranberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast with Cornflake Crunch Topping 
• Cranberry Sorbet uses at least 1 cup cranberry sauce or more

No-recipe Ideas:

• a few tablespoons for Cranberry Brie Grilled Cheese
• Spread onto you Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Sandwich
• Swirl into yogurt or oatmeal

Ingredients You Need for Cranberry Bread

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter softened or melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup cup sour cream
• ½ cup cranberry sauce or other fruit jam/preserves

Instructions for How to Make Cranberry Bread

After the usual pre-heat oven to 350°F and preparing the loaf pan, this Cranberry Bread whips up in about 5 minutes! Here are the step-by-step instructions how to Make Leftover Cranberry Bread, plus some pro-tips and tricks:

Prepare loaf pan by buttering and dusting with flour, or spray with baking spray

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Add dry/flour mixture and sour cream alternately to liquid/sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spread ¾ the batter into prepared loaf pan. Spoon cranberry sauce over top, leaving a ¼-inch border. Dollop remaining ¼ batter over cranberry sauce mixture. It's ok if the cranberry sauce isn't completely covered.

Bake Cranberry Bread at 350° for 50 minutes or until wooden stick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

What Kind of Cranberry Sauce for Bread?

Your cranberry sauce can be a very classic homemade cranberry sauce, or it can have fancy extras like spices, citrus, or other flavors, which will add even more flavor dimension to the bread.

Honestly though, it doesn't even have to be cranberry, but whatever fruit jam or preserves you might have leftover.

Cranberry Bread Recipe Substitutions and Variations

Cranberry Sauce Bread, as with most quick breads, is forgiving, flexible and great for customization by making ingredient substitutions or additions. I have made this recipe many times as it's presented, as well as with the substitutions and variations as noted below.

• Buttermilk or Yogurt for Sour cream. You can substitute with an equivalent amount of plain unsweetened yogurt or buttermilk.
• Whole Wheat Flour - Substitute in whole wheat flour for up to 100% of the all-purpose flour to add fiber to the nutritional profile and slightly more texture to the final product. I have made this Pumpkin Bread with whole wheat flour and it comes out perfectly!
• Almond Flour and Other Alt- Flours - Substitute up to half (50%) of the all-purpose flour in this recipe with alternative flours like almond flour, cassava flour, or coconut flour. If you'd like a completely wheat-free version, see the next section about making the recipe 100% gluten-free...
• Brown Sugar—Substitute up to 50% of the granulated (white) sugar in this recipe with brown sugar for similar results in texture and a slightly "warmer" brown sugar flavor.
• Reduced Sugar—You can absolutely reduce the total amount of sugar in the recipe to ¾ cup, or even ½ cup! Any less than that, however, and you will compromise the structural integrity of the bread, as sugar is not just for sweetness, but moisture and texture.
• Olive Oil or Other Oil — You can substitute with all neutral oil of any kind. I have made this Cranberry Bread multiple times with light olive oil.

Modifications for Dietary Restrictions

• Vegetarian: substitute plant-based egg substitute for the eggs, or use 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds with 2 tablespoons of water.
• Vegan: To make this recipe vegan, make the buttermilk sub above, and use an appropriate plant-based egg substitute or a flax egg, which is made with ground flax seeds and water. I would not leave the egg alternative out completely.
• Dairy-free: use a neutral oil like avocado or olive oil for the butter and substitute sour cream with plant-based sour cream or yogurt or plant-based milk any kind + 1 teaspoon apple cider or other vinegar. You can also use applesauce, which will slightly change the flavor, but provides the required acid!
• Gluten-free: use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend for the flour. Two baking-ready gluten-free flours my gluten-free experts friends have recommended are Measure-for-Measure by King Arthur and Pamela's, both of which you can substitute into recipes 1:1.
• No added refined sugar: substitute out granulated sugar with half the amount of maple syrup. The final Cranberry Bread may still have refined sugar if the original leftover Cranberry Sauce has sugar in it!

Variations with Mix-In Ingredients

Additional mix-in ingredients at the end are great for customizing your Cranberry Sauce Bread. Add up to 1 cup of any of the following into the batter at the end, with the understanding that additions will change the nutritional profile of the final recipe. Just fold into the final batter until well incorporated:

• Dried cranberries is an obvious addition! It will definitely amp up the cranberry-ness of the bread!
• Other dried fruit like dates, dried figs, dried plums or raisins
• Chopped toasted nuts of any kind like almonds, pecans, pistachios, or walnuts
• Dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks
• White chocolate chips or chunks

Can You Use Different Pans or Sizes?

Yes, you can bake this Cranberry Sauce Bread recipe in several different pan sizes and shapes! Part of what makes this recipe so easy is that baking in different pans doesn't require much, if any modification:

• Muffin Pan— This Cranberry Sauce Bread recipe fits perfectly in a regular 12-count muffin tin and makes perfect muffins! Grease and flour the muffin tin or line with paper liners. Divide batter evenly among cups. Dollop ½ tablespoon of Cranberry Sauce to each muffin. Bake the muffins for 18-22 minutes.
• Different Size Loaf Pan—Because this Cranberry Sauce Bread is meant to be easy, the recipe is flexible enough that you can use slightly different sized and shaped pans. An 8½x4½-inch loaf pan will yield a taller bread, and needs to bake for a longer time. Check the bread at 50 minutes.
• 8x8-inch Square Pan— In an 8x8-inch square pan, the batter will spread out more, so you will need to decrease the baking time. Bake an 8x8-inch square for a shorter period of time, i.e. start checking the Cranberry Sauce Bread for done-ness at 30 minutes.
• 9x9-inch Square Pan—In a 9x9-inch square pan the batter will spread out even more, making a slightly thinner/flatter final product. Bake a 9x9-inch square for a shorter period of time, i.e. start checking the Cranberry Sauce Bread for done-ness at 25 minutes.

Tools and Equipment

 

As I always say, you don't need any special equipment to make almost any recipe. However, that's not to say there are a couple of gadgets and tools that might make it a LOT easier to get Cranberry Sauce Bread from your pantry to plate.

• 9x5-inch Loaf Pan
• 8x4-inch Loaf Pan
• Angled Measuring Cups.
• Parchment Paper.
• Mini ¼-cup liquid measuring cup
• Glass mixing bowls.
• Sturdy Whisk.
• Mini whisk
• Glass storage container with airtight lids, perfect size for storing leftover Bread and Muffins!

How to Store Leftover...Leftover Cranberry Sauce Bread?

Who finishes an entire loaf of quick bread in one sitting? (Don't answer that.) Whatever you don't eat the same day, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store as follows:

1-2 Days. Store pumpkin bread, as a loaf or sliced into individual servings, at room temperature in an air-tight container on the countertop for up to one day, maybe two days as long as it's not too hot and humid in the house.

Up to 5 Days. Store pumpkin bread, as a loaf or sliced into individual servings, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.

Up to 3 Months. Slice bread into individual servings. Wrap each slice in a piece of parchment paper to protect from freezer burn and to keep slices from sticking together. Place slices in an air-tight zipper-top bag and remove as much as air as possible. Remove individual slices from freezer, unwrap parchment paper, and re-heat in a toaster oven (best option). You can also microwave the frozen pumpkin bread, but the texture will be slightly sticky.

What Else to Serve with Cranberry Sauce Bread

A generous slice of Cranberry Sauce Bread by itself is a perfect light breakfast or snack!

I like to pop slices into the toaster oven until hot and the cranberry sauce is bubbly and a little caramelized. This works straight from the freezer, too. Top with whipped ricotta or softened cream cheese for the ultimate decadent breakfast or snack!

If you like to make it a little more of an occasion, here are some great suggestions for what and how else to serve with Cranberry Sauce Bread:

• Slather a slice, toasted or not, with whipped cream cheese; the whipped version is key as Cranberry Sauce bread is tender so you want something that spread onto it gently
• Spread a slice with nut butter
• Drizzle the entire loaf with cream cheese icing or vanilla icing
• Top the entire loaf with this Cream Cheese Frosting to transform your Cranberry Sauce Bread into a dessert

More Ways to Use Leftover Cranberry Sauce

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4.42 from 17 votes

Cranberry Bread with Leftover Cranberry Sauce Recipe

You can substitute any type of fruit jam/preserves, or even use whole fresh fruit in place of the cranberry sauce. But then that defeats the purpose of using leftover cranberry sauce. serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour I actually used half whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup cup sour cream
• ½ cup cranberry sauce or other fruit jam/preserves

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Lightly spray an 8x4-inch loaf pan with baking spray.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
• Spread half the batter into prepared loaf pan. Spoon cranberry sauce over top, leaving a ¼-inch border. Spread remaining batter over cranberry sauce mixture.
• Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until wooden stick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

when you make this recipe, let us know!Mention @TheDelicious or tag #thedeliciousmademedoit!