Apricot Cranberry Walnut Quick Bread #BreadBakers

By Sona Narayanan @spillthespices

It's time for yet another Bread Bakers challenge. This month's host is Mireille of The Schizo Chef and she suggested stone fruits as the theme. Stone fruits are not in season now as winter has started in this part of the world. So the only option left was to use dried stone fruits. If you love baking bread and want to join this wonderful bread baking group, scroll to the end of the post for further details.
I decided to bake a bread with apricots, but none of the recipes appealed to me much. Finally I settled on this recipe from King Arthur Flour. I was bit apprehensive about the recipe because of the amount of sugar, butter and number of eggs but nevertheless decided to give a try because the reviews for the bread were good.  I'm so glad I tried it because this is definitely one of the best quick breads. Soaking the dried fruits kept the bread moist and the bread was not overly sweet with a nice hint of orange. If you love fruits breads then give this apricot cranberry walnut quick bread a try.

APRICOT CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD RECIPE

{ Quick bread with dried apricot, dried cranberries and walnuts }
Yields 9 x 5 loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped dried apricots
½ cup dried cranberry
113 grams / ½ cup butter, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup milk
½ cup chopped walnuts
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C | 350 F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
2. Soak the apricots and cranberry in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until fluffy after each addition.
4. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, orange zest and beat until well blended.
5. Stir in the flour and then add the milk ¼ cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. Fold in the apricots, cranberries and nuts.
6. Pour the batter into loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. 
Notes and Tips
  • Soaking the dried fruits plumps them and keeps the bread moist. Do not soak for more than 15-20 minutes.
  • You can use pecans or any other nuts instead of walnuts.

#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. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.
#BreadBakers - Stone Fruit