Gluten Free Cranberry Bread

This gluten free cranberry bread is super moist, lightly sweet and pleasantly tart. It’s the perfect quick bread for your holiday table, so grab your fresh cranberries as soon as they hit the grocery store shelves!

Why this recipe works

I love it when cranberries start to appear in the grocery store, but they can be so tart that you really need to add something sweet or they’ll really make you pucker.

This bread is perfectly browned on the outside, then soft and lightly sweet on the inside. It takes about an hour to bake, since there’s a full cup of buttermilk in the batter and the berries release their moisture as they bake. The reward is a super moist and tender bread, and one that doesn’t burn during baking even if you end up baking it a little too long.

You can also make this into a cranberry orange bread by juicing a navel orange and using that juice in place of an equal amount of the buttermilk in the batter. Add the zest of that orange as well for more orange flavor.

This classic holiday quick bread should be on every table this season, serve it along with my gluten free chocolate banana bread.

Recipe ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this quick bread, including the role each ingredient plays in supporting the final result. For ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.

• Gluten free flour blend: Provides most of the structure of the bread. I recommend Better Batter’s original all purpose gluten free flour blend without added xanthan gum or Nicole’s Best multipurpose with 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum for binding. If you use Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour, add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum because it has some binder, but not enough to prevent a crumbly bread that doesn’t rise fully.
• Baking powder: Helps the bread to rise in the oven.
• Baking soda: Aids rise, neutralizes acid, and helps the loaf brown in the oven.
• Salt: Balances and brightens the other ingredients.
• Granulated sugar: Makes the bread tender by locking in moisture, and adds enough sweetness to balance the tartness of the cranberries. There’s an additional tablespoon of sugar that we sprinkle on top of the raw loaf because cranberries are so tart, but you can either skip that or add it right to the bread if you prefer.
• Buttermilk: Adds moisture, flavor, and tenderness. If you’re out of buttermilk, it’s easy to replace 1 cup of it with 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup milk, or even 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt.
• Butter: Adds moisture, buttery flavor and helps the loaf to brown in the oven.
• Eggs: Give the bread structure and help it rise.
• Cranberries: Fresh tart cranberries provide lots of flavor and texture. Most bags of cranberries have 12 ounces of berries, but this recipe only calls for 10. This allows you to select only the best berries. Slice them in half before adding them to the batter.

How to make gluten free cranberry bread (step by step photos)

Here’s a visual overview of the steps to make this quick bread in your own kitchen, plus an explanation of the reason behind each step:

Step 1: Prepare dry ingredients; toss cranberries
Whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a small bowl to prevent bitter clumps of leavener. Slice cranberries in half so they don’t burst in the oven and cause overly wet pockets. Toss the halved cranberries with a bit of the dry ingredients so they don’t sink in the batter later.

Step 2: Beat most wet ingredients
Using a handheld or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. This will incorporate air into the batter and dissolve the sugar in the butter for a lighter crumb. Beat in the eggs separately until smooth so you don’t overbeat them which would create an unstable loaf.

Steps 3-6: Combine wet and dry
Add the dry ingredients in 2 parts, alternating with the buttermilk in between, and beating just to combine after each addition. This allows the flour to absorb the moisture gradually without becoming overly thick or stiff, and prevents clumps of dry flour. It also prevents overbeating, which tends to lead a rapid rise from too much trapped air, and then collapse. The batter will be smooth and pretty thick.

Steps 7-8: Mix in the cranberries
Add the halved cranberries tossed with the reserved dry ingredients to the raw batter, mixing just until the cranberries are evenly distributed throughout it.

Steps 9-10: Finish and bake
Transfer the batter to a greased and lined loaf pan, and spread it into an even layer for an even rise. The batter will mostly or completely fill the loaf pan. Score the batter down the center about 1/4-inch deep with a knife or offset spatula to encourage it to rise up, not lopsided.

Sprinkle the final tablespoon of granulated sugar evenly over the top to create a thin, crispy and sweet shell to offset the tartness of the cranberries. Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour; let cool, then slice and serve.

Recipe tips and tricks

Slice the cranberries in half

Just be sure to use a sharp knife to slice each cranberry in half before folding them into the batter. Smaller cranberries cut in half release a more modest amount of moisture more gradually (rather than bursting open) and more evenly, which helps avoid oversaturated portions of the loaf that sink and become dense.

Toss the cranberries in dry ingredients

Toss about 1 tablespoon of the whisked dry ingredients with the halved cranberries. This will help keep them from clumping in the batter and will help avoid wet pockets of quick bread.

Use only the firmest cranberries

Cranberries usually come in 12 ounce bags, and this recipe calls for 10 ounces. In every bag of fresh cranberries, some are not very fresh. The fresh cranberries aren’t wrinkled or bruised, and they’re very firm. Discard the bruised and less fresh berries.

Don’t defrost frozen berries

As soon as cranberries become available, I usually buy 6 or 8 bags of them because I bake with them all season and make tons of cranberry sauce for the holidays. I store 2 bags in the refrigerator, and put the rest in the freezer. If your cranberries are frozen first, you’ll need to let them defrost partially so you can slice them in half, but don’t let them defrost all the way.

If they’ve been frozen and fully defrosted, they tend to get too soft and don’t hold their shape long enough during baking. They’re also more likely to bleed color in the raw loaf batter.

Ingredient substitutions

Dairy free

To make this recipe without dairy, you’ll need to replace the butter and the buttermilk. For the butter, try vegan butter in block form, like Melt or Miyoko’s Creamy brand. Remember that you need something that can be beaten until creamy with the sugar, so don’t use anything that comes in a tub, which is mostly oil and won’t whip. For buttermilk, try half nondairy plain yogurt and half unsweetened almond milk both by volume.

Egg free

There are two eggs in this recipe. If you need to make the recipe without eggs, try replacing each of them with one “flax egg” or one “chia egg.” I’ve made a chia egg by mixing 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water and allowing it to gel.

Cranberries

If you’d like to replace the cranberries in this bread, you can try blueberries, but they’re less firm and it may not work. You’re probably better off trying our recipe for gluten free blueberry bread instead, which is similar but not exactly the same.

Flavor variations

To make it into a cranberry-orange quick bread, add the zest of one small orange to the batter. You wouldn’t have to change anything else.

For even more orange flavor, squeeze the juice out of that orange, too, and use it to replace an equal amount of the buttermilk in the recipe. One navel orange usually has about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup juice. Reduce the volume of buttermilk by the same amount as the juice. The batter may look a bit curdled, but it will bake beautifully.

For a bright lemon flavor, replace 1 tablespoon of buttermilk with 1 tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice. You can also add up to 1 tablespoon of lemon zest.

Try adding up to 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the bread for some texture. Don’t reduce the amount of cranberries.

Storage instructions

Although the batter for this cranberry bread is thick, the bread is really moist and tender. It doesn’t dry out quickly at all. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and it will stay fresh on the counter at room temperature for up to 2 days. It will stay fresher if it’s not sliced, but slices can be wrapped individually and stored that way, too.

For longer storage, either as a whole loaf or individual slices, wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature. Individual slices can also be microwaved for 20 seconds at reduced power to speed up the process.

FAQs