Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn Bread

jeff Giveaways, holiday breads, Recipes, Thanksgiving

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It will soon be American Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d re-post our Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn bread.  It’s based on the Portuguese Broa style (page 151 in the book)—it’s the regular Master Recipe, but with 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour taken out and replaced with an equal amount of cornmeal.

Here’s what you need to do.  Take about 2 pounds of the Broa dough mentioned above and shape it into a ball; then flatten it with your hands and a rolling pin until it’s about 1/2-inch thick.  Sprinkle the dough with 1/3 of a cup of dried cranberries (or 1/2 cup fresh):

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Now break out your microzester, and use it to scrape the zest from half an orange…

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… now sprinkle that over the cranberries, and then sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar over that…

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Now roll it up like a jelly roll… If it sticks to the board as you’re rolling, nudge it off with a dough scraper.

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Tuck the ends under to form a ball, flatten it on a work surface, and then, using your hands and a rolling pin, make a disk the right size for a 12-inch cast iron pan.  It should be about an inch or inch and a half thick.   If you don’t have a cast-iron pan, see below.**  This instruction applies to this flattened thanksgiving bread only; you can make loaf breads this way too (freeform or in a pan).

Grease the pan well with butter, lard, bacon grease, or oil (I used olive oil today), and place the dough round in it.

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Allow to rest for at least 1 hour and 20 minutes.  You’ll get a more open hole structure if you wait two hours.

Put a broiler tray in the oven to dump water to make steam.  20 minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F if you keep a baking stone in the oven.  If you don’ t use a stone, a 5-minute pre-heat is adequate (the stone isn’t required since you’ll bake in the cast-iron).

Just before baking, heat the cast-iron pan over medium heat for 1 or 2 minutes to jump-start the baking process and promote caramelization of the bottom crust.  Don’t overdo it–no more than 2 minutes.  It will start to sizzle.

Place the pan on a rack near the center of the oven.  Pour 1 cup of water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door.  Depending on the thickness of your loaf and the weight of the pan, baking time will be about 25 minutes.

Carefully turn the hot loaf out of the pan onto a serving plate or cooling rack, or just cut wedges directly out of the pan once it cools.  Be careful with the hot cast-iron pan!

You should get a result just like the cover photo.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Other Thanksgiving recipes:

Stuffing from homemade bread:  https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1228

Thanksgiving buns:  https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=443

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie Brioche: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1209

Roasting Your Own Pumpkins: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=50

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** This bread can be done as a simple free-form loaf right on a baking stone, cookie sheet, or silicone mat (about the same baking time, or in a loaf pan (longer baking time needed).  Either way, it’s done at 425 degrees.

1,099 thoughts to “Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn Bread”

  8. The cranberry corn bread sounds wonderful! Thank you for modification for those of us without the cast iron skillets, too.

    Reply

  11. This would be a great gift for my daughter who is thinking about trying no knead. I have made lots of the recipes from this book, and love it!! That dough hook looks like something I need…..very cool!

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  13. I can’t wait to get back in my house and kitchen and start baking again. Admittedly, I’ll have to dig out your book to start baking again.

    Reply

  20. This recipe looks lovely for the Holiday! I love your methods and both the original and the healthy books are on my Christmas want list. Thank you for publishing this website. It makes me feel closer to the authors.

    Reply

  33. This sounds wonderful…we’re getting fresh cranberries and corn meal from our CSA this week, so I think I’ll try this. We did the wheat sheaf bread last year for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit.

    Giveaway sounds lovely, too!

    Reply

  34. This cornbread looks fantastic! I was planning to do the pumpkin oatmeal bread for Thanksgiving, but I think maybe I’ll do this, too. (I don’t have a cast iron skillet yet, so it’ll have to be right on the stone.)

    I like your giveaways. They’re always super fun!

    Reply

  37. King Arthur +ABi5=a fantastic combination. I tell EVERYONE about your book–it’s a great wedding gift, too, for baking friends.

    Reply

  42. Lovely! This will be a great edition to our Thanksgiving dinner. Also, I finally adapted the Gluten Free Challah to be also egg-free and dairy free. I’d be glad to give you the changes I made. My three year old is allergic to eggs, wheat and dairy. He misses your bread terribly, so I have had great success using the flax seed meal with water for the eggs and a milk alternative (like Vance’s Darifree or Rice Milk) for milk. We also use Earth Balance Buttery Spread for the butter in the cinnamon rolls. He got to have donuts for the first time in months last week. Thank you for your books! They are a treasure.

    Reply

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