Crusty Cranberry Walnut Bread Recipes

NO-KNEAD CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD WITH HONEY

Steps:

• Start with a large bowl and a wooden spoon, and add your flour to the bowl. Measure the yeast and add it to one side of the bowl. Measure the salt and add it to the other side.
• Using a wooden spoon, stir the yeast into the flour on its side of the bowl first and then stir the salt into the flour on its side of the bowl. This will prevent the salt mixing directly with the yeast. Give the whole mixture a few good stirs to make sure everything is combined.
• Add the cranberries and walnuts to the flour mixture and toss well to coat, and to make sure they're distributed evenly throughout.
• Measure the water. Make sure the water is at room temperature; water that is too warm or too cold can kill the yeast and prevent the bread from rising at all. Add the honey to the water and stir with a fork to combine.
• Pour the water in and stir with a wooden spoon. The dough will be rough and a bit sticky, but that's normal.
• Stir until all the flour is combined. This is not normal bread dough (there's no kneading involved in this recipe), so you don't need to be too concerned about the appearance of the dough at this point. Just make sure the ingredients are combined well.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It's a good idea to ensure there's adequate space left in the bowl for the dough to at least double in size. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free place and let it rise for 12-18 hours.
• After the dough has risen for 12-18 hours, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (if you're using convection, 410 degrees. If your oven runs hot, 400 degrees). Place your Dutch oven with the lid on in the cold oven and let it heat up with the oven. If your dutch oven is black or dark-coloured on the inside, set your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 425. I recommend a 6 or 7-quart dutch oven for this recipe.
• Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it with flour so the dough doesn't stick to the paper. Rub flour on your hands and scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl, gathering it in your hands as best you can (it may feel kind of fluid and not at all like regular bread dough) and forming it into a circular loaf on the parchment paper. Don't worry if it still looks a little rough in places - this lends to the rustic look of this loaf. If your dough is very fluid, simply add an extra 1/4 to 1/3 cup of flour to the dough as you shape it.
• Once you have it shaped, the dough needs to undergo a second rise (much shorter than the first). The goal is to handle the dough as little as possible at this stage because any amount of tugging at the rough can cause it to deflate after it has undergone its second rise. The next few steps will help prevent this. But don't worry if it deflates a bit. This bread dough is pretty forgiving.
• Sprinkle flour over the top of the loaf and loosely cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming over the dough. The flour also prevents the plastic wrap from sticking to the dough so when you take it off at the end of the rise, it doesn't disturb the dough and wreck the rustic shape you've created. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes. Your oven will also be preheating during this time (and so will your pot).
• Once 45 minutes have passed remove the plastic wrap from the dough and trim the parchment paper into a circle closely around the dough. If it doesn't look like the dough has risen that much, don't worry about it. The loaf will puff up a bit when it hits the heat of the oven.
• Remove the preheated pot from the oven and transfer the dough into the pot as carefully as possible by handling only the parchment paper. Place the lid on the pot and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven during this time, and certainly don't take the lid off the pot; the crispness of the crust develops because of the steam that builds up in the pot during this 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes have passed, remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for another 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes have passed, remove the pot with bread from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. You'll probably hear it crackling as it cools - this is normal. Brush a little extra honey on the top of the bread now, if desired.
• If you can, resist the urge to cut into the bread until it has pretty much cooled completely. The bread continues to bake on the inside even after it has been removed from the oven and cutting it too early could result in the inside becoming gummy or rubbery.

CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD

Steps:

• Place all of the ingredients (except the cranberries and the walnuts) in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Light Crust and Sweet Cycle and press Start.
• If your machine has a Fruit setting, add the cranberries and walnuts at the signal, or around 5 minutes before the kneading cycle has finished.

CRUSTY CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine the instant yeast and water. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Add the flour, salt, sugar, and melted butter. Mix until the dough comes together, then knead for about 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured surface or with the dough hook of the stand mixer. If needed, add more flour, in small amounts, to keep the dough from sticking to the bowl or your hands.
• Add the walnuts and cranberries and knead them in until they are distributed throughout the dough. This is best done by hand unless you feel your mixer can handle the task.
• Oil a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl and roll over to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal.
• Punch down and transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Divide into 2 portions and form each into tight rounds. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Cover the loaves with a lightweight kitchen towel and let rest for 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F. Position the oven rack in the center of the oven.
• Bake the loaves for 30 to 40 minutes, until they are nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped on the bottoms. The internal temperature will be around 195 F when done.

CRUSTY CRANBERRY BREAD WITH CARAMEL ALMONDS (ALMOST NO KNEAD)

Steps:

• For the caramel almonds: In a nonstick saucepan heat the ingredients for the caramel almonds over med. high heat for about 8 min until thick and bubbly. Spread out on a non stick pan, and cool in the fridge. Once cool seperate into little pieces and leave at room temperature.
• For the dough: In a VERY large bowl add the yeast, then the water, flour, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix well until all the flour has been incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap (sprayed with butter spray). Set in a warm area to rise for 2 hours (I turn my oven to warm for 3 minutes, turn it off, and then put my dough to rise in there. Just make sure it's not too hot.).
• When the dough has risen, you may at this point put it in the fridge to use at a latter time or use now.
• When ready to use, cut away about 1/4 of the dough from the rest, and gently mix in a 1/4 of the cranberries and caramelized almonds, until well incorporated. Form into a ball by tucking the edges of dough under until it forms a tight ball.
• Place on a non stick pan (I like to use the non stick foil) and let it rise in a warm area for another 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees, with a shallow metal pan on the bottom rack. Mix together the topping ingredients.
• Once the dough has risen, top off with 1/4 of the topping and place on the middle rack. Before closing the door, toss the 1 cup of hot water into the metal pan, closing the door quickly to trap the steam. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

NO KNEAD CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD

Steps:

• Make sure you have an oven-proof 5 to 6 quart Dutch oven with a lid, safe up to 450 degrees F.
• Dissolve the yeast and sugar with the warm water (110 to 115 degrees F). Let it sit for 10 minutes or until foamed up. If it doesn't foam up, discard and start over with fresh yeast.
• In a large bowl, whisk bread flour with salt. Add the yeast mixture and honey and combine with a wooden spoon. Add the cranberries, walnuts, and orange zest. Stir to combine until no pockets of flour remain. Dough will be very sticky and wet. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest for 18 hours on the countertop, undisturbed. Yes, 18 hours!
• After 18 hours, the dough will be very wet and sticky.
• Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and turn to coat with flour. Sprinkle more bread flour as needed. Gently fold the dough over from the edges to the center to form a flat-ish ball, being careful not to burst the air bubbles trapped inside.
• Transfer dough to a sheet of parchment paper, smooth side up (no need to transfer back to the bowl, on the counter is fine). Gently press the sides to re-shape if needed, and flour the top a little bit. Cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place the Dutch oven (with lid) inside the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F for 30 minutes.
• Score an X or pattern on the dough.
• Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven, and immediately transfer the dough to the Dutch oven, along with parchment paper. Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, and bake for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove from oven, and lift it up with the parchment paper. Cool for 20 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD (NO KNEAD)

Steps:

• Add flour, yeast and salt to large bowl (large enough for dough to double), stirring yeast into one portion of flour, salt the other, then stir together. Toss cranberries and walnuts and stir well to coat in the flour mixture.
• Pour honey into warm water and stir to combine. Pour honey water into flour mixture. Stirring to combine, it will be sticky, that's okay!
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, placing bowl in a draft-free , warm spot for at 12-18 hours (yes, hours!). I place in my oven, with a tea towel over the top of the plastic wrap.
• NEXT DAY | Once the dough has risen, and place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust with flour; with floured hands, gently scrape the dough away from the bowl and onto the parchment paper, the dough will be stringy and sloppy.
• Gently shape the dough into a round or oval shape. It will feel different than other breads, kind of fluid, that's alright it lends to the rustic look. Cover the shaped dough with a piece of plastic wrap (sprinkle a little flour on top of your dough if it's still really sticky) and then with a tea towel. Let rise for another 45 minutes.
• While dough is doing second rise, adjust your oven rack so that the dutch oven sits several inches above the bottom, but still has plenty of clearance on the top. PLACE DUTCH OVEN with LID INSIDE THE OVEN TO HEAT WITH THE OVEN. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
• Remove the plastic wrap, don't worry if it doesn't look like the dough has risen too much, it will puff up once it hits the heat of the oven.
• CAREFULLY (it's really hot!) remove the pot from the oven, set the lid to the side and using the excess parchment paper as a sling, gently transfer bread dough to the dutch oven, cover with lid (it's hot too!) and place back in hot oven for 30 minutes -- no peeking!! This is when the crispy crust develops. See notes if bottom burns below.
• After 30 minutes, remove the lid (remember it's still hot!), baking for another 15 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool completely. You can leave it in the pot, I prefer to remove it using the parchment and cool on a wire rack. If desired, brush or drizzle with a little extra honey, while warm.
• Resist cutting into the bread until it has mostly cooled, breads continue to bake while cooling and if you cut into it too soon it could make it gummy inside.
• *A great way to make sure your yeast is active, is to dissolve ½ teaspoon of sugar (or in this case honey) into ½ cup of warm water (between 110-120 degrees), stir in ½ teaspoon of yeast and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes.
• This is called proofing, after 10 minutes, it should be light and bubbly and smelly yeasty.
• If doesn't do the above, the yeast is "gassed" and won't do its job.
• I store my yeast in the fridge as I use it all the time, it will last even longer if store in the freezer.
• For more information read this article from King Arthur Baking outlines how to test yeast, baking powder and baking soda.