Baked Cranberry-Orange Donuts

With Thanksgiving just around the corner (ahem, tomorrow), I wanted to share one of my all-time favorite Turkey-day recipes. Growing up, our Thanksgiving day traditions were pretty varied - the food, the people and the places were rarely the same from year to year. That is, except for my cranberry-orange bread.

I can't quite remember exactly when I began making this bread, but if my memory serves me correctly, it was probably during my early high school years. I would wake up early on Thanksgiving morning, run down to the kitchen and start the process of baking several loaves of this delicious sweet bread. Some of the loaves made their way onto our table and some were delivered (that same morning) as gifts to friends and family. The sweet smelling orange peel mixed together with freshly chopped cranberries created an insatiably tangy batter which I couldn't help but lick from the spoon before placing it into the baking pan (with a non-licked spoon, of course ;).

This recipe is based on the original Ocean Spray classic cranberry nut bread recipe, only I have made a few minor modifications to the ingredients. I switched out some of the white flour for coconut flour (and reduced the total amount by 1/4 cup), added some extra orange peel and swapped the vegetable oil for coconut oil. Aside from that, it remains the same. But this recipe is SO DARN GOOD that i just had to share! It is the one Thanksgiving day tradition that I have carried with me through years! This year, I thought it would be fun to try making mini baked cranberry orange donuts instead of using the traditional bread pan mold. It worked like a charm! These cranberry-orange donuts would make the perfect addition not only your Thanksgiving table, but to your Christmas table too. If you try them, please let me know what you think! I love hearing other people's baking stories. Happy Thanksgiving.

INGREDIENTS FOR Cranberry-Orange Donuts:

• 1 1/4 cups white flour & 1/2 cup coconut flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 cup orange juice

• 1.5 Tbsp grated orange peel

• 2 Tbsp coconut oil

• 1 egg, well beaten

• 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (I usually buy cranberries and freeze them, and use them directly from the freezer)

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F / 175 C. Lightly grease a mini donut pan (made 24 small donuts) or a regular-size donut pan (it would probably make 12 regular-sized donuts).
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flours (white & coconut), sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Coarsely chop the cranberries and add them to the dry mixture.
4. Stir in the orange juice, the orange peel, the coconut oil and the egg and mix well.
5. Spread the batter into the donut pan (my batter came just to the top of the pan). Since this is more of a quick-dough recipe than an actual donut recipe, the batter will be thicker.
6. Bake your donuts for about 10-15 minutes (the actual baking time depends on the oven), or until the tops begin to lightly brown.
7. Let the donuts cool for a minute or two and turn them onto a cooling rack to cool completely. They can be eaten right away, or stored in the freezer. Bon appetit!