{Recipe} ~ Cranberry Chocolate Chip Bread

I have so many holiday recipes to share and only a few days before Christmas to share them! Sorry I'm not sorry for posting two recipes in the same day :)

One thing I love about having house guests is the opportunity to make breakfast! I hardly ever go through the process of "cooking" breakfast for myself, unless you count pouring a bowl of cereal or toasting an English muffin and poaching an egg "cooking."

Having girl sleepovers makes breakfast tricky though, because I knew they probably wouldn't appreciate sausage balls (my fave) with extra crispy bacon, either. My mom and I whipped up a pumkin french toast bake at Thanksgiving (which I just realized I forgot to post the recipe, dang it), but I didn't want something that sweet for breakfast this time around.

Since I was trying to stick with my festive cranberries, I started searching cranberry bread recipes online. I stumbled upon the one below, realized I had all the ingredients, and went to work!

It wasn't until I adjusted the recipe for 1 loaf that I realized the recipe was actually for mini-loaf pans. No wonder it called for 2/3 of an egg. So mid-recipe, I had to pull out all of the ingredients and start measuring things again to what I assumed would make one regular sized loaf. All of this to say, this recipe was very forgiving. It came out smelling yummy and still tasted delicious! Serve with a pat of butter and some fruit and you have a very satisfying brunch!

There's nothing worse than having 4 hungry girls sitting around your kitchen island while you stare through the oven door saying, "Well, it's starting to resemble bread, so that's a good sign!"

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Bread
from Food.com
Yields 3 mini-loaves

Ingredients

• 1 cup Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup fresh cranberries or 1 cup frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup pecan pieces
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange rind
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease and flour three 5 3/4x3 1/4x2-inch miniature loaf pans.
3. Stir together chocolate chips, cranberries, pecans and orange peel in small bowl; set aside.
4. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl; with pastry blender, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
5. Stir in orange juice, egg and reserved chocolate chip mixture just until moistened; divide evenly among prepared pans.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.