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Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Bread

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Festive for the holidays, this gluten-free cranberry chocolate bread is perfect for sharing with your family or guests. With two kinds of chocolate, tart fresh cranberries, and roasted almonds, it’s sure to please! This gluten-free cranberry loaf recipe is sponsored by Enjoy Life Foods as part of my ongoing partnership with them.

Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Bread

I love gluten-free quick breads and muffins, as do my kids. They make such a fun change from cereal for breakfast, a yummy snack, or even a healthy “dessert” in the evening. Loaves of quick breads never last long around here. I’ve realized that while I’ve shared a number of gluten-free muffins and coffee cakes on my site, I haven’t shared any gluten-free quick breads yet!

I had to remedy that, so here’s my first quick bread offering: gluten-free cranberry chocolate bread. This gluten-free loaf has melted white chocolate in it, lending some great flavor to the batter. Buttermilk makes it so moist and is always my go-to in muffins and quick breads, whenever I can use it.

Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Quick Bread recipe

The recipe I used for inspiration for this one was a white chocolate cranberry bread from the book Tates Bake Shop: Baking for Friends. That gluten-filled recipe gave me some ideas on flavors, but one big change I made was to include semi-sweet chocolate in my loaf. That was a good choice!

Notes on ingredients for this gluten-free cranberry loaf:

  • Almonds: you can buy already chopped almonds, or do like I do and buy slivered almonds and just give them a quick chop or put them in your food chopper for a spin. I buy these certified gluten-free slivered almonds and keep them in my freezer for my granola recipe, so I had them on hand for this bread too and they worked great.
  • White chocolate: This bread has melted white chocolate in it that helps make for the amazing, flavorful bread texture. No one noticed a distinct white chocolate taste – it just really helps with texture and richness. I use these Baker’s White Chocolate Bars which I have no problem finding locally at grocery stores.
  • Buttermilk is also important for the texture of this loaf – you can buy it in the milk section of your store! I use it in just about all of my muffin and quick bread recipes because it gives such great texture!
  • I prefer to use mini chocolate chips in my quick breads and muffins lately. Using mini chips means you never get a bite without chocolate in it! My go-to is Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chips. They’re certified gluten-free, dairy-free, and free of the top 8 allergens. I always have several bags on hand.

I’m able to find the Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chips locally at my Fred Meyer, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Natural Grocers stores. If you are having a hard time finding these at your local store, you can buy them directly from Enjoy Life’s online store.

No matter where you pick them up, make sure you buy extra for snacking on and for making some of the other recipes I’ve used them in, like these gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. or my gluten-free peanut butter cookie cups, both great choices for fall/winter baking!

Oh, and if you want to try another recipe with the fresh cranberries, try this Cranberry Sour Cream Almond Cake. It’s on my must-make list! I also used fresh cranberries in my gluten-free apple pear tart recipe and they gave it just the perfect finishing touch of color and flavor!

Festive Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Quick Bread

I hope you’ll try this gluten-free cranberry bread soon and do please let me know what quick bread recipe you’d like me to make and share next! Gluten-free banana bread will be coming soon!

Gluten-free Cranberry Bread Recipe:

Yield: 1 large loaf

Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Quick Bread

Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Bread

This gluten-free cranberry chocolate bread is perfect for sharing with your family or guests. Chocolate, tart fresh cranberries, and roasted almonds all make this delicious!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped almonds (*see notes for instructions)
  • 6 ounces white chocolate
  • 2 1/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
  • 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum*
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 8 Tbsp. (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries

Instructions

Prepare a 9x5x3" or 9x4x4 or similar size loaf pan by spraying with cooking spray and sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour, tipping and tapping pan to coat bottom evenly. Set aside.

Toast the almonds:

Spread one cup of slivered almonds on a baking sheet. Bake at 3500 for 10-11 minutes or until starting to brown. They should smell yummy! Remove from oven. Let cool 1-2 minutes, then move to cutting board and coarsely chop.

Meanwhile, place the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then repeat. Continue melting in 15 second increments, stirring in between, until melted. Set aside to cool slightly while you start the batter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum (*if needed), salt, and baking soda.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well on medium speed after each addition. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of bowl after adding each egg. 

Beat in the buttermilk, then the melted white chocolate and pure vanilla extract. At this point, the mixture will look curdled. It's fine!

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, scraping the sides of bowl with your spatula as needed.

Stir in the chopped almonds and mini semi-sweet chips. Then stir in the fresh cranberries gently, just enough to disperse through batter. 

Scoop the batter into the prepared 9x5x3" or 9x4x4 or similar sized loaf pan. 

Bake at 350° for 90 minutes. I recommend checking at 80 minutes. A toothpick or cake tester should come out clean or with moist crumbs. If the top of bread is starting to burn at all, while the inside is still not done, lightly cover with aluminum foil and resume baking. When bread is done baking, set the pan on a cooling rack for abut 10 minutes. Then gently remove from pan and allow loaf to cool completely on cooling rack. (Tip: I found this easiest to have oven mitts on both hands. One holds the pan and tips the loaf out gently into the other hand, which then can set it down correctly onto the cooling rack. I prefer this over inverting the whole loaf onto cooling rack, because doing that will leave cooling rack marks on the top of your loaf.)

Notes

*omit xanthan gum if your flour blend already includes xanthan gum or guar gum.

I've tested with several gluten-free flour blends and recommend using gfJules, King Arthur Measure for Measure, or Gluten Free Mama's Almond blend.


This sponsored post was created through my partnership with Enjoy Life Foods. As always, all opinions are my own. Collaborating with brands I love allows me to keep bringing you new and varied recipes! Thanks for your support!

Gluten-free Cranberry Chocolate Almond Bread recipe

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If you enjoy this bread, would you come back and leave a rating and review with any tips or adjustments you made that worked? I’d sure appreciate it!

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Susan

Wednesday 17th of November 2021

Hi, Michelle -- This looks amazing! Wondering if you or anyone else might have tried substituting 3/4 cup (or so) almond flour for 3/4 cup (or so) of the gf flour blend? Thanks!

Karen S

Saturday 21st of November 2020

This recipe is so good! I used 4 mini loaf tins and it came out beautifully. Perfect for 1 or 2 people, for gift giving, or keeping on hand in the freezer. A large loaf is too much for a small household. I started checking at about 30 minutes, using the good old toothpick method. It turned out just as pictured and following the recipe as written. Thank you!

Karen S

Tuesday 24th of November 2020

@Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen, you are most welcome. I forgot to add that if you take a mini loaf out of the freezer and you just can't wait - put a slice in the microwave on speed defrost for about 10 seconds. It warms up the slice and also makes those chocolate chips creamy. Yum! I'm about to make 4 more loaves very soon, thank you for a wonderful recipe. I hope you'll offer more gluten free quick breads. Maybe a lemon for Spring? :)

Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen

Monday 23rd of November 2020

Karen, thanks for commenting and sharing that it made 4 mini loaves since I haven't tried that yet! Glad you enjoyed it!

Estelle George

Wednesday 15th of January 2020

HELLO! You call for a 9x5x3 pan but the link to Amazon for the pan shows it to be 9x4x4. Is that okay? I have so much trouble figuring out the correct measurements on pans. Please advise if the one on Amazon will work. I like the pan as described with good materials.

Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen

Saturday 18th of January 2020

Sorry for that confusion! There are all sorts of loaf size pans - just use any of these larger ones as opposed to mini loaves. I will go clarify that in my post - thanks for pointing that out!

Lisa

Sunday 4th of November 2018

This is the best GF sweet bread I have ever made! Perfect texture!! Thank you for this recipe. I will use it for many years to come.

Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen

Monday 25th of November 2019

Lisa, I'm so glad you liked it and hope you do continue to enjoy if for years to come!

Fatima

Tuesday 5th of December 2017

Thanks so much, this looks amazing! What can I substitute for white chocolate...I have dairy allergies? And what kind of white chocolate you use any recommendation?! Thanks you

Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen

Monday 25th of November 2019

Fatima - There are some dairy-free white chocolate chips for sale now - both Pascha and Nestle Simple Delicious are dairy-free options!

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