Orange and Cranberry Babka

Orange and cranberry is one of those flavour combinations that has become very popular for Christmas. I have therefore made a festive babka loaf, which is an orange dough filled with a mixture of chopped fresh cranberries, light brown sugar and orange zest. The loaf is glazed with a thin orange icing.

The bread dough has a light and soft texture with a lovely fresh orange flavour. This matches perfectly with the cranberries, which are slightly sharp but sweetened by just the right amount of sugar and a sticky glaze. For once the twisting actually worked and the loaf kept the shape I intended to make. A little liquid did leak out of the cranberries during baking which resulted in a jam like cranberry mess in the tin and down the sides of the loaf, but this just adds to the delicious fruity taste.