Sweet Cranberry Soda Bread #BreadBakers

Baked with brown sugar and dried cranberries, this sweet cranberry soda bread is delightful as part of a dessert course cheese board. Or all on its own.

This last month of the year, our Bread Baker theme is dessert bread, thanks to our fellow Bread Baker and host, Swathi. 

Her challenge to the group was "Bake any sweet bread, whether yeast, sourdough, or quick version. It will be wonderful to see if you come up with a dessert bread for Christmas. Show your creativity."

Well, my favorite dessert course is actually a cheese platter so I’m always delighted when that is on a restaurant menu. Even better is when they wheel out a special cart and I can choose the few cheeses for my platter. Heaven!

With that in mind, I’ve created a loaf that is slightly sweet, with sweetened dried cranberries as a nod to the Christmas season, that would be perfect to enjoy either plain with butter or with a cheese board as your savory dessert option. 

Sweet Cranberry Soda Bread

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, an easy substitute is 2 teaspoons of white vinegar added to the measuring cup, then topped up with milk to the required 3/4 cup or 80ml line. Stir and let it rest while you get started with the recipe. 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups or 312g flour, plus extra for dusting and kneading

1/3 cup, packed, or 66g light brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter (cut into pieces)

3/4 cup or 100g sweetened dried cranberries, plus a few more for topping

3/4 cup or 80ml buttermilk

1 large egg

Method

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat your oven to 400℉ or 200°C. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the butter piece. Pulse until butter is incorporated and small crumbles are formed.

Pour the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl. Add in the cranberries and use your clean hands to separate the sticky cranberries from each other. 

Add the buttermilk and egg.

Mix until the flour is completely moistened. 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. 

Knead gently 5 to 10 times, dusting flour lightly onto dough if it’s too sticky. Knead just until the dough comes together and is smooth.

Shape into a round then poke a few extra cranberries into the top of the loaf. 

Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. With a sharp knife, slash the top with a large X about ½ in or 1 cm deep. 

Dust the top lightly with a little flour.

Bake until the loaf is golden brown and crusty, 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the X comes out clean. 

Serve warm or at room temperature, preferably as part of a special holiday cheese board.

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means, as I mentioned above, it’s time for my Bread Baker friends to share their dessert bread recipes. Many thanks to our host, Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen. Check out the links below 

• Eggnog Babka Knots by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Coconut Pandan Babka by A Messy Kitchen
• Gingerbread by Palatable Pastime
• Sourdough Sweet Potato Loaf by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Sweet Cranberry Soda Bread by Food Lust people Love
• Eggless Oats Litchi Loaf by Sneha's Recipe
• Sourdough Zucchini Bread by A Day in the Life on the Farm

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Sweet Cranberry Soda Bread! 

 .

Spicy Marinated Cheese

Spicy marinated cheese is not just pretty, it’s also delicious! It’s the perfect party food for the cheese lovers in your life. 

Personally I can, and often did, eat cheese in prodigious quantities sliced straight off the block or wedge. In fact, in a recent conversation with my primary care physician, I blamed cheese for my high cholesterol and (ahem) I’ve been cutting down on its consumption since. I’ve never smoked and I’m not much of a sweet eater. After alcohol, I’d call cheese my second vice. 

It’s hard to resist. 

I've been pretty good for weeks but today I’m going to eat spicy marinated cheese! My friend and fellow blogger Camilla is hosting our Sunday FunDay event today and she chose the theme holiday cheese boards, saying “Let's share recipes or tips for making holiday cheese boards. Think phyllo-wrapped baked cheeses, pickle relishes, homemade crackers, spiced nuts, and more. Anything you would put on a cheese board is fair game. Be as creative as you like!” This is like permission, right? 

Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to see what everyone else has made. 

Spicy Marinated Cheese

Start this recipe early in the day because it’s best if the cheese has at least eight hours to marinate. It can also be made one day ahead. My recipe is adapted from one on the blog The Kitchen is my Playground. 

Ingredients

8 oz or 227g block extra sharp cheddar cheese

8 oz or 227g block cream cheese

For the marinade:

1 red bell pepper aka (Br.E. capsicum)

3 cloves garlic

1 hot red chili pepper

1/2 cup or 120ml white balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 120ml extra-virgin olive oil

small bunch fresh parsley, leaves picked off

2 green onion tops, green part only

small bunch fresh basil, leaves picked off

few good grinds black pepper

Method

The first step in this recipe is to put your two cheeses in the freezer. They are much easier to slice neatly when well chilled. 

Secondly, we’ll roast the outside of the bell pepper in order to peel it. You can put it in a baking pan and use the broiler (making sure to turn the pepper often) or use a long fork to hold the red pepper over your gas stove till it chars and bubbles all over. 

Either way, once the pepper is properly charred, pop it in a plastic bag and close. Set aside. Once cooled, the peel will slip right off.

Mince the garlic and the hot chili pepper. Put them both in a clean jar with the vinegar. Add in the sugar and salt and give the jar a swish to help them dissolve. The vinegar helps reduce the sharpness of the garlic and chili pepper while simultaneously being infused with their flavors.  

Finely chop your parsley, onion tops and basil. Add the olive oil to the marinade jar along with the herbs. Give the jar a good shake. 

Use your clean hands to remove all of the skin off the bell pepper and a sharp knife to remove the core. Discard the seeds. Cut half of the bell pepper into thin strips, then small cubes. Run a knife through these a few times to mince. 

(Save the other half of the bell pepper for another recipe. It can be used in place of the jar of pimentos in my spicy pimento cheese recipe.)

Add the bell pepper to the marinade jar along with a few good grinds of black pepper and shake well to combine. 

Cut the block of cheddar in half lengthwise; then cut it crosswise into 1/4 in or 1/2 cm thick slices. Lay the cheddar out single file on your cutting board. 

Cut the cream cheese block in half lengthwise and put half back in the freezer. Cut the cream cheese in similarly thick slices. As you cut the cream cheese, place each piece on top of a piece of cheddar. This makes the cream cheese easier to handle because as it softens up, it will stick to whatever you set it on and it’s easier to handle if that’s not the cutting board. Get the other half out of the freezer and slice it up too, still setting each slice on top of the cheddar. 

Arrange your pairs of cheese slices in as small a dish as possible where they will fit comfortably without being too crowded. 

Give the marinade another good shake then spoon the more solid bits over the cheese squares. 

Pour the rest of the marinade over. 

Cover the dish with cling film and refrigerate it for at least eight hours.

To serve, transfer the cheese to a serving platter and spoon a little of the marinade over it. 

Save the rest of the marinade to use as salad dressing. It makes a wonderful vinaigrette. 

Serve the spicy marinated cheese with crackers or sliced baguette.

Enjoy! 

Check out all the other holiday cheese board posts my Sunday FunDay friends are sharing! Many thanks to Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for this fun theme and for hosting!

• Breakfast Charcuterie Board by Palatable Pastime
• Cheese Boards: A Feast for the Eyes and the Tastebuds by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Holiday Cheese Board Ideas by Making Miracles
• Homemade Grilled Veggie Cottage Cheese by Sneha's Recipe
• Honey Thyme Feta by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Marinated Cheese by Food Lust People Love

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Spicy Marinated Cheese! 

 .