Coconut and Cranberry Bread

When it comes to my favourite dried fruits, cranberries comes right after dried apricots. I love dried cranberries almost as much as dried apricots, and recipes that use these ingredients will definitely get a second glance. The cover of this book got my attention, look at the beautiful speckled of cranberries in that lovely loaf of bread.

This is a lovely, dense, soft and sweet bread, really tasty and good eaten on its own. The addition of the desiccated coconut adds a light pleasant aroma and really goes well with the dried cranberries. It is not as soft on the second day, but still as good!

Super easy, without any effort at all, as this is a bread-machine bread. I did plan of baking the dough separately in the oven but decided at the last moment to let the machine do all the work. And what a great job it did! :)

It has a soft texture, eat it while still warm,  good on its own, no jam is needed, with just a cup of Earl Grey tea for company! Enjoy!

I'm sharing this with :

Bake with Bizzy at Bizzy B. Bakes
Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Coconut and Cranberry Bread
(adapted from "Bread Machine Easy" by Sara Lewis)
Makes 750gm (1-1/2lb) loaf
Time : 2 hours 50 minutes - 4 hours, depending on machine


250ml (8 fl oz) water
2 tablespoons milk powder
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
40gm (1/1/2 oz) desiccated coconut
425gm (14 oz) strong white flour
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon fast-action dried yeast
100gm (3-1/2 oz) dried cranberries

1. Lift the bread pan out of the bread machine and fit the kneader blade. Add the water, milk powder, butter, salt and coconut. Spoon in the flour, make a slight dip in the centre and add the sugar and yeast.
2. Insert the pan into the bread machine. Shut the lid and set to a 750gm (1-1/2 lb) loaf on a sweet setting with a pale crust. Press Start.
3. When the raisin beep sounds, gradually add the cranberries.
4. At the end of the programme, lift the pan out of the machine using oven gloves. Loosen the bread with a plastic spatula, turn it out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.