Vegan Gluten-Free & Sugar-Free Cranberry Orange Bread

I closed my medical practice in December 2017 to take a sabbatical. As a result, my sabbatical coincided with the entire calendar year of 2018, making 2018 a really special year. I spent a lot of time outside, climbed mountains, did a lot of handstands, and went through major de-cluttering of my home. Now that we’ve gotten rid of three thousand dollars worth of stuff, the next step is clearing out my paper mess. My papers have piled up for many years, and it’s in embarrassingly bad shape. This is my first post in 2018, and my primary motivation, was so that I could throw out the paper notes for this recipe. #progress

This is a recipe I’ve had for a while. In fact, the original version was posted on archerfriendly in 2011! A few years ago I re-made the recipe to exclude eggs and walnuts, since I no longer tolerate those foods. Taking out the eggs made it vegan. I make this bread every year around Christmas time, and ever since I’ve updated the recipe, I’ve had to rustle through the paper pile(s) to find it. I will not have to do that any more!

What’s extra special about this orange cranberry bread? I put an orange peel in it. Not orange zest, but an entire peel! The white part of the peel, otherwise known as the pith, is full of bioflavonoids. How could I not puree it up and stick it in my bread? Now, I did hold back. I only put the peel of one orange in the bread, otherwise it’d be too bitter to be enjoyable.

Speaking of oranges, in lieu of orange juice, I use orange puree. You need a Vitamix or a really good blender to puree an entire orange with it’s peel. Using a pureed orange rather than orange juice is more of a whole foods way about things. More nutrients, more fiber. I’m not really into straight-up orange juice (too hard on the blood sugar).

This delicious gluten-free cranberry bread is sweetened with fresh oranges and stevia. That’s it. There’s no sugar!

Vegan Gluten-Free & Sugar-Free Cranberry Orange Bread

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 3/4 cup millet flour
• 3/4 cup chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup unhulled buckwheat flour (hulled buckwheat flour will work too)
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon saigon cinnamon
• ~ 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 1/8 teaspoon (powdered) stevia

Wet Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh orange puree (made with 2-3 organic oranges)
• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1/3 cup virgin unrefined coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix-Ins

• 2 cups cranberries, at room temperature

Makes 1 loaf in a 5″ x 9″ 1.5-quart glass baking dish

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Liberally grease a glass loaf pan with virgin unrefined coconut oil.
3. Mix dry ingredients together.
4. Prepare orange puree: Puree 1 of the oranges with the peel in a Vitamix (cut off ends before pureeing). Pour out the puree into a liquid measuring cup large enough to hold 2 cups of liquid. Next, peel the remaining orange(s) and discard the peels, pureeing only the fruit this time. Pour the orange puree into the liquid measuring cup until it reaches 2 cups. Only the peel from one of the oranges should be used in the puree.
5. Pour the orange puree into a Vitamix with the rest of the wet ingredients. Blend well.
6. In a large mixing bowl, combine wet and dry ingredients together.  Briefly stir in the cranberries.
7. Pour into greased, glass loaf pan and bake for about 60-65 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

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