Cranberry Orange Tea Bread

This is a great recipe for the holidays, when cranberries are readily available in the stores. I've had this recipe for several years -- I have no idea where I got it, maybe in an advertisement or something. It's also found here at motts.com. It says to make it as a loaf, and I've done that, but this time around I made 24 mini-muffins and 6 regular muffins. This doesn't rise a lot, so fill your muffin cups almost to the top if you make those instead of bread.


Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries OR 1 cup whole fresh berries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cinnamon apple sauce
1/4 cup butter or margarine -- melted
1 egg
2 tsp grated orange peel

Directions:

Combine flour, cranberries, sugar, and baking powder in large mixing bowl. In separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Blend applesauce mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Spoon batter into greased loaf pan or muffin tin lined with paper baking cups. Bake at 350F 45-50 minutes for loaf, 16-20 minutes for regular muffins, 12-16 minutes for mini muffins, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing loaf to cool completely on wire rack. Loaf makes 12 servings.

I use whole cranberries because I like things that are tart and tangy. If you prefer sweeter bread/muffins, you'll probably want to use sweetened dried cranberries (like Craisins) instead.

I made the 24 mini-muffins to send to a friend of ours who is serving in Afghanistan right now. Happy Veterans Day! I can never say 'thank you' enough to those brave soldiers who have put their lives on the line to defend ours, both in the past and today. You are my heroes.