cranberry bread – a true kitchuation
grandma betty is nothing if not concise in her cookbook. some of the recipes assume some knowledge of cooking and force me to rely on what i know to get a dish to come out the way i’d like. the recipe for her cranberry bread (or, at least, i assume it is her recipe because there is no name written after it) is a perfect example. it is less a recipe and more a list of ingredients with a baking temp and time.
grandma betty’s cranberry bread recipe
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 ” b. powder
1/2 ” soda
1 c sugar
2 tbsp. melted shortening
1/2 c orange juice
2 tbsp. water
1/2 c chopped nuts
1 c cranberries (sliced)
1 egg – rind of 1 orange
bake 350 1 hr
i have become so accustomed to recipes being written end to end: mix dry ingredients. cream butter and sugar. add eggs. etc. i’m used to ingredients being in order and clear descriptions of them. all purpose vs self-rising flour. dried vs fresh cranberries. you get the idea.
my reaction was to flip right past the page because there are no instructions other than bake 350 1 hour scribbled on the side of the page. i kept coming back to it, though. the combination of cranberry and orange was calling my name and i even found myself trying to find similar recipes online. i debated what to do and i realized I’ve become pretty reliant on recipes because i am mostly self-taught in the kitchen. i hear people talk about how they just throw things together and out comes an amazing dish. i am not that cook, but i won’t be that cook unless i start experimenting. my go-to will be to try to find a recipe. i had this moment when i realized: this really is a recipe. i know what to do here because i’ve been making quick breads for years. and that was that: i was going to make grandma’s cranberry bread.
the first thing i ran into: cranberries. were they fresh? dried? i took a cue from her parenthetical comment that they be sliced and decided she must mean fresh. who slices dried cranberries? those are typically chopped. i consulted other recipes and found many called for dried cranberries reconstituted in boiling water but i stuck to my instincts. fresh it was going to be.
and look how nice the batter looks with fresh cranberries! maybe it wouldn’t taste right but it would look festive!
second, i did read through the recipe but was following my method of adding ingredients in order. i had read there was orange zest and i only had mandarins. i made an executive decision to not go to the grocery store for the 9th time before 10am and zested two mandarins. in my mind: 2 mandarins = 1 orange. and rind = zest. i also used bottled orange juice rather than fresh as – well, no oranges still.
finally, i’m folding in the sliced (fresh) cranberries, chopped pecans – because grandma betty let me decide the nuts and what goes with cranberries like pecans?? – and the mandarin orange zest, and i’m thinking to myself how strange it is that this quick bread doesn’t have eggs and how the bread batter seems pretty dry. i re-read the list of ingredients and there it is at the end crammed onto the line with the rind of 1 orange. the egg. i have two options: start over because all of the other times I’ve made quick breads, I’ve put the eggs into the creamed sugar before adding dry ingredients. or i crack the egg into the bowl and see what happens if i add it late.
i’m sure someone knows what happens if i add it late and maybe it messes things up somehow but i did it anyway. the batter looks good and ready to bake.
a shade under an hour later, i pull this out of the oven. i want to cut it open and try it immediately but it’s for thanksgiving and i think it’d look a little strange if a piece is missing. a few hours later, we are enjoying thanksgiving with the hollenbach family and i’m excited to share a grandma betty recipe! i decide to wait until dessert and make no mention of it. dessert comes and goes. everyone is stuffed full. another dramatic adventure with the turkey behind me. after everyone leaves, flower and i are cleaning when i see: a full loaf of cranberry bread!
fun fact: i also forgot to put out the cranberry relish.
so on Friday morning, sitting at my table, i had a slice with a cup of tea. and i have to say: i think i nailed it. it was moist and light. and the cranberries were exactly right. this is going into my list of breads to make and i’m not going to rewrite it. perhaps the lost art of real cooking gave me the confidence. perhaps it was a home cooking: a writer in the kitchen. perhaps it was just reading over and over the advice that repeating a recipe or style is the most important thing. wherever it came from, i know that i can make a good quick bread. and the worst that can happen is i have to start over. not really that intimidating when you think of it that way.
