Sourdough cranberry banana bread starts with a sweet classic banana bread batter and is flavored with orange and cranberries. This moist and delicious quick bread makes the perfect holiday or weekend breakfast to enjoy during the winter months.
This recipe is very simple to make. You can whip it up the morning of, or start this delicious cranberry banana bread recipe the night before to long ferment it for more digestion benefits.
With bright flavors of zesty orange, sweet bananas, and slightly tart cranberries, this moist quick bread makes a wonderful treat for the holiday season.
It’s divine for a weekend breakfast. Slather it with homemade butter and serve it alongside a warm cup of coffee and perfect sunny side up eggs for a delicious morning treat. You can even turn it into an amazing French toast by soaking it in custard and cooking it on a hot skillet. Yum!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Winter flavors – Next time you are in the mood to do some cold weather baking, reach for this moist banana bread recipe. It’s the best way to enjoy winter flavors like cranberry and orange that are so fun to incorporate this time of year.
Easy – This quick bread recipe is a go to in my collection of easy bread recipes. It comes together fast and makes a very impressive tasty treat.
Use up ripe bananas – If you buy bananas at the grocery store regularly, they probably get ripe pretty fast! I love recipes that use ripe bananas when I need to use them all up quick.
Ingredients
Bananas – Ripe bananas in this recipe are ideal. The more ripe they are, the more sweetness they will add to the bread.
Sourdough Starter – Making sure the sourdough starter is stirred down gets rid of any bubbles and helps to measure it more accurately in cup measure form.
Cranberries – If using fresh cranberries, slicing them in half before you add them will help to prevent them from swelling and popping during baking.
How To Long Ferment This Recipe
The night before, mix together orange juice, flour, maple syrup, sourdough starter, and melted butter in a large bowl. Cover and allow to ferment for 8-12 hours.
The next day, add remaining ingredients (use a stand mixer for easier mixing) and bake as directed.
How to Make Cranberry Banana Bread
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir well and set aside.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, mash the banana well with a fork.
Step 3: Whisk in the melted butter, maple, brown sugar, orange juice, and zest into the mashed banana until combined.
Step 4: Whisk in the eggs until combined, then stir in the sourdough starter until well incorporated.
Step 5: Fold the dry ingredients and the cranberries into the wet ingredients with a spatula until everything is just combined. Be careful to not over mix.
Step 6: Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted in the center and comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Begin testing at the 55 minute mark.
Step 7: Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes-1 hour before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Tips
- This recipe makes a very moist loaf. It will cook in the oven a bit longer than a typical banana bread recipe, because it’s a very moist finished product.
- Overripe bananas provide sweetness to this loaf, so it doesn’t require as much sugar to sweeten.
- Slice the cranberries into smaller bits if you prefer less cranberry in each bite.
Recipe FAQs
Let the cranberry banana bread cool and place it in an airtight container for up to one week in the fridge or for up to three days at room temperature. You can wrap this bread in plastic wrap or aluminum foil in an airtight container and freeze it up to three months.
When making a bread like this one, be careful not to over mix the batter. The instructions specify to mix the wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated. This prevents your loaf from becoming tough when baked.
Yes. To make a non-sourdough version, increase the flour by 1⁄4 cup and add 1⁄4 cup of yogurt.
Using a sourdough starter is considered to make a healthier bread due to the process of fermentation. Fermentation breaks down the phytic acid which is naturally occurring in flour. This breakdown allows the nutrients present in flours to become more bioavailable and easier to absorb. Fermentation also helps break down the gluten, making it more digestible.
More Bread Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Sourdough Fruit Bread
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Bread
- Easy Sourdough Blueberry bread
- Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Bread
- Easy Einkorn Sandwich Bread
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
The Best Cranberry Banana Bread Recipe (Sourdough)
Equipment
- 1 Loaf Pan
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 very ripe bananas
- ½ cup salted butter, melted
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- ½ cup orange juice
- Zest from 1 orange
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup stirred sourdough starter
- 1 cup dried cranberries or fresh cranberries, halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir well and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash the banana well with a fork.
- Whisk in the melted butter, maple, brown sugar, orange juice, and zest until combined.
- Whisk in the eggs until combined, then stir in the sourdough starter until well incorporated.
- Fold the dry ingredients and the cranberries into the wet ingredients with a spatula until everything is just combined. Be careful to not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted in the center and comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Begin testing at the 55 minute mark.
- Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes-1 hour before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- This recipe makes a very moist loaf. It will cook in the oven a bit longer than a typical banana bread recipe, because it’s a very moist finished product.
- Overripe bananas provide sweetness to this loaf, so it doesn’t require as much sugar to sweeten.
- Making sure the sourdough starter is stirred down gets rid of any bubbles and helps to measure it more accurately in cup measure form.
- If using fresh cranberries, slicing them in half before you add them will help to prevent them from swelling and popping during baking.
- Slice the cranberries into smaller bits if you prefer less cranberry in each bite.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How is this considered sourdough? It’s not fermented for 24 hours or more?
I can’t digest unfermented sourdough recipes.
Is it possible to ferment it for 48 hours or more?
This was spectacular! FYI in case others want to try it, it did great with all purpose einkorn.
Turned out amazing! Tastes soooo good!
It would be lovely to have the grams for this recipe, definitely something I’d love to try but struggle with cup measurements in U.K.
Here’s a conversion chart!
1st time maker..
Don’t really know the different characteristics of the different baking floors, (i.e. cake, bread, and all-purpose). So I dont know if it’s okay to substitute cake or bread for the all-purpose??
Thanks,
-jenn
Yes, you can substitute them.
1st time maker. Is it okay to substitute bread or cake flour in this recipe?
Thanks.
Yes.
I made this recipe and baked in two English cake pans .. took less time, about 45 minutes.
They just came out of the oven and the house smells delicious and banana..
I also made your cranberry orange cookies and they were delicious and enjoyed by all .