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Baking has become quite the popular past time around our house. Mazzy and Harlow have baked more in the past few weeks than I have baked in my entire life time. (Just to be clear, that is not actually that hard.) After Mike’s birthday football cake, Harlow wanted to bake something on her own and thanks to a partnership with Ocean Spray, I had the perfect recipe lined up— Mini Pumpkin Cranberry Loaves!

Harlow has been obsessed with pumpkin flavored things as of late, so I knew she’s be on board with a pumpkin loaf. But cranberries are another story. Finding any kind of berry inside a piece of bread or a muffin is Harlow’s least favorite thing. If you’ve ever watched me take Harlow for muffins on Snapchat, you know that she routinely makes me dig them out. Would Harlow want to use cranberries in her recipe? I was about to find out.

I set up the ingredients and poured a bunch of the bright red berries on the table. Cranberries are an often-overlooked berry but Thanksgiving is its time to shine. Have you seen a cranberry harvest, by the way? It’s pretty stunning. Harlow watched as they rolled past her.

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“Do I get to mix them straight into the bowl?”

“Yep.”

“Okay!”

We were good to go. She was even more excited when I told her we’d be making everything from scratch.

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What you will need:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 can (15 oz.) Libby’s® 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries 

What you will need to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

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3. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and water in large mixer bowl and beat until blended.

4. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture.

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5. Mix. (It helps if you dance while mixing.)

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6. Fold in the cranberries.

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7. Spoon the mix into greased 5×3 mini loaf pan.

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8. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

9. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and continue to cool.

I think they came out fantastic! I wish you could taste them so you would know Harlow and I are actually turning out to be pretty good bakers.

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To be honest, Harlow made a couple without cranberries so she and Mazzy could have plain pumpkin loaves if they chose. But in the end, she tried the cranberry ones and said, “I like it! They’re delicious!”

I’m totally lying. She wouldn’t go near the cranberry ones. But no matter— the adults with discerning tastes ate them up without her. Cranberries added the perfect mix of sour to the sweet. They were, in fact, delicious.

And now that Harlow and I have tested out the recipe, I think I’ll make them for Thanksgiving too!

My family is going to be shocked.

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This post was sponsored by Ocean Spray, but all thoughts and opinions (except Harlow’s) are my own.