Easy Chocolate Orange Cranberry Sourdough Bread

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This easy chocolate orange cranberry sourdough bread using tangy sourdough, fresh cranberries, orange zest and chocolate chunks and featuring an orange glaze makes a delicious seasonal dessert or a lovely gift for friends and neighbors.

I absolutely love creating new recipes that showcase beautiful in-season fruit and veggies. When you bite into this sourdough loaf, you’ll be delighted with the burst of tartness from the fresh cranberries and the bright flavor of the orange zest and glaze.

This is a great beginner sourdough recipe because it doesn’t require an overnight rise (bulk fermentation), a second rise, a final rise, allowing the dough to rest, or even making a shaped dough by performing sets of stretch and folds. This is a simple way to use your sourdough discard or active sourdough starter and get your feet wet making sourdough for the first time.

Tips for Chocolate Orange Cranberry Sourdough Bread:

• You can make these cranberry scones with sourdough discard or active sourdough starter. You don’t need the starter to be active because the scones will rise with the addition of the baking powder.
• If you forget to take your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, you can place them in warm (not hot) water for approximately 15 minutes.
• Wash and dry your fresh cranberries before using.
• To prevent your batter from turning pink, add 1 tablespoons of flour to the cranberries before stirring them into the batter.
• You can use frozen cranberries instead of fresh, but be sure not to thaw them as this will cause the juice to bleed into the batter.
• One large navel orange will give you enough zest and juice for this recipe.

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Basic Ingredients:

Unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour

Baking powder

Sea salt

Wet Ingredients

Butter or coconut oil

Sugar – I use white sugar but you can use a mix of brown sugar or coconut sugar

Unfed sourdough starter

Eggs

Vanilla

Orange zest

Fresh cranberries

Chocolate chunks

Glaze:

Powdered sugar

Fresh orange juice

Vanilla extract

Tools You May Need:

Bread pan (I love this naturally non-stick pan)

Stand mixer or large bowl and hand held beaters

Spatula

Parchment paper

How to Make Sourdough Cranberry Bread:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9×5 bread pan or line with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of flour over the cranberries and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the sourdough discard, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, making sure not to overmix. Fold in the cranberries and chocolate chunks.

Spoon batter into the prepared bread loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, make the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar, orange juice and vanilla in a small bowl. 

While bread is still warm, drizzle the top of the cranberry loaf with the orange glaze. Allow the bread to cool in the pan on a cooling rack. Remove the loaf from the pan before cutting.

Storage:

Store orange cranberry sourdough bread in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 1 week in the refrigerator. For longer term storage, you can freeze the loaves whole or sliced in ziploc bags for up to 3 months.

Long-Fermented Orange Cranberry Soft Sourdough Bread:

If you would like to long ferment this sourdough bread for the health benefits, simply follow the steps above up to the point where you have mixed together all of the ingredients. Transfer the batter from the bowl into an airtight container, place in the refrigerator, and allow to ferment for up to 3 days. The longer you allow the batter to ferment, the tangier your bread will taste. Once you have fermented your batter, remove from the refrigerator and spoon into a prepared loaf pan. Continue the rest of the steps as outlined above.

How to Convert Recipe to Sourdough Discard Muffins:

The ingredients for sourdough discard cranberry orange muffins are exactly the same as for the cranberry sourdough bread. The only difference will be the oven temperature and amount of time needed to bake. You will bake the muffins at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack before removing muffins.

More Sourdough Recipes:

• Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Roll
• Glazed Orange Cranberry Sourdough Scones
• Blueberry Sourdough Bread with Streusel
• Sweet Sourdough Pop Tarts