Orange Cranberry Bread

Since starting this blog, I heave paid much more attention to the food photos on other people's blogs. It never occured to me how difficult taking a good photo would prove to be. The lighting, the contrasts, attempting to adjust the focus and the exposure so the food doesn't appear to have been made by a nearly blind person with hooks for hands, except worse. I'm sure that a nearly blind person with hooks for hands could make tasty and presentable food, but I think you will see what I'm trying to say.
I'm trying to improve the quality of my photos. This has led to many discoveries.
(1) Flashes are generally bad.
(3) Close-ups are generally good.
(2) Loaves are difficult to photograph well, as are oatmeal cookies.
(3) Picassa is very useful.

The loaf here is a Cranberry Orange Bread and it is a particularly beautiful loaf. But since loaves tend to look like unpleasantly like wet, clay bricks, I tried to capture the interior. I'm not entirely satisfied with this picture, so I'll hope for a better one next time. This bread is so good, I don't need any coaxing to make it again.
The secret to a good orange bread is to use freshly squeezed oranges for the juice. An even better secret is to use blood oranges, which I did. This resulted in the batter looking bright purple. Fortunately this color baked out and the loaf was light tan with a slightly pinkish-orange hue. The other secret is to add some dried cranberries, which add sweetness to the bread and a different texture from the fresh cranberries.

Orange Cranberry Bread

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 egg, well beaten

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Combine orange juice, orange zest, oil and egg. Pour juice mixture into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in cranberries. Spread evenly in loaf pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.