Cranberry Bread Bake-off

FROM LEFT: Michelle Morgante, Anne Boulley and Michele Thomas get ready to cut their cranberry breads for the competition Nov. 4. Del Norte Triplicate/Rick Postal

Triplicate Publisher Michele Thomas challenged professional chefs Morgante and Anne Boulley, who is also a Triplicate columnist, to bake bread using fresh cranberries from Bouncing Berry Farms in Bandon, Ore., that is owned by the local Webb family.

Morgante won both the judges’ and people’s choice for best cranberry bread.

During the event, $453 was raised for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner on Nov. 24.

Morgante is a chef and owner of Vita Cucina. The event was held in her and husband Devon’s eatery during the Crescent City Art Walk.

She was selected by both the judges’ panel made up of five foodies — Kelley Atherton, Tom Boylan, Paul Madeira, Jon Parmentier and Mechelle Webb — and a majority of the 84 people who cast their votes with a $5 donation.

For those who were tasters, Morgante was the green sticker, Boulley, orange, and Thomas, pink.

People trickled in and out to view Parmentier’s photographs on display for the Art Walk, listen to his soothing acoustic guitar and sample each of the three cranberry breads.

“It’s hard to tell,” said Becky Culbertson, a Gasquet resident about choosing which bread she liked the best. “I love nuts, this one has a lot of nuts, a lot of moisture and orange. I like the topping too.”

Culbertson is no slouch when it comes to breads, she makes a lot herself. She’s willing to try out a new cranberry bread recipe, she said.

The three contestants produced very different breads.

Boulley makes cranberry bread every year when fresh cranberries are available.

She said that she has always used the recipe on the back of a bag of Ocean Spray cranberries, but she tweaked it by adding sour cream, fresh orange zest, toasted pecans and a little bit of Bouncing Berry Farms’ cranberry filling.

“If something works, don’t change it too much,” she said.

She thought the cranberry filling would add more sweetness to the bread since the berries themselves are tart.

She coated the pecans in an egg wash with brown sugar and salt. The sour cream added more moisture, and orange just goes well with cranberries.

She tried only one other recipe for cranberry muffins in a loaf pan, but it wasn’t “what I think of for cranberry bread,” before settling on her standard recipe, Boulley said.

“I’m happy with it,” she said of the result, adding “they’re all really good.”

Thomas didn’t have a cranberry bread recipe that she had used before, so she went searching on the Internet. She found a recipe by James Beard, a renowned chef.

“I don’t know how it tastes,” Thomas said the night of the event. “I went with blind faith.”

It’s a traditional recipe, but was a little different with the addition of rosewater, Thomas said. She also added the spice cardamom. The icing has some kick from a shot of bourbon.

It called for eggs, butter and milk, which Thomas knew she could get locally, in addition to the cranberries. The pecans came from a man who brings up nuts from Davis around the Fourth of July.

She had used Bouncing Berry cranberries to make cranberry sauce before, but not bread.

“They’re so big and beautiful to work with,” Thomas said, adding “I chopped them all up.”

Morgante said she had never made cranberry bread with fresh berries, only dried ones for the convenience. She was excited to try bread with fresh cranberries.

She looked at a couple of recipes on the Internet and found one she liked, but could do a little different. Morgante used some cornmeal with the flour, added cardamom and substituted orange juice for milk.

“It’s a mature bread,” Morgante said her sister told her after tasting it. “It’s not sweet, sweet, sweet.”

She let the cranberries’ tartness ring out.

“It worked out good,” Morgante said. “The cornmeal gave it a great texture.”

She decided not to use nuts because some people have a nut allergy. Now that Vita Cucina is serving food, Morgante said she has to take those things into consideration. She has been using the recipe to make mini bundt cakes at the restaurant.

Michelle Morgante’s
cranberry bread

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 1/2 cups orange juice
3 cups chopped fresh cranberries

For the icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients, set aside. 
3. cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs, one at a time, until totally incorporated. Add zest. 
4. Add a portion of the combined dry ingredients and then a portion of the orange juice. Repeat adding dry ingredients then juice, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in cranberries.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. For the drizzle, stir orange juice into the powdered sugar, mix until smooth.  Drizzle over top of cooling bread.