Cranberry Thanksgiving
When I was a little kid, one of my favorite books was Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. Fortunately my mother made a point of preserving our books, and this 1971 edition is still in perfect shape.
All of the Devlin books come with a recipe on the back cover. For yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner, I made 'Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread' (the recipe for which is central to the plot of Cranberry Thanksgiving).
Until yesterday, my history of baking consisted of a miserably failed attempt to make bread when I was 19, and a few moderately successful batches of muffins during one recent San Francisco winter. But holy cow, this cranberry stuff came out good. 
And now Thanksgiving is over, which means one thing. It's that time of year.
4 comments:
I vouch for the cranberry bread. It did come out well. Not that I got a lot of it, because SOMEbody and her housemates sucked it all up before I could get a second shot at it.
So happy you found the books!
Hi Cara,
Here you go! This is the recipe exactly as it appears on the back of the book. (I even preserved the typo at the end.)
I tend to use extra orange peel, and I add 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. Walnuts and candied ginger also go well. I use dried cranberries and they work fine.
Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread
(Get Mother to help)
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp grated orange peel
3/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries.
Spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and ten minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
If you choose, you may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have an all cranberrry bread.
Recipe tested by the Food Department of Parents' Magazine.
Thank you so much. I can't wait to make it!
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