This cranberry orange sourdough loaf is the perfect bread for all your festive gatherings! With the abundance of orange flavor, it tastes delicious as French toast, served with butter, or slathered in goat cheese on your next charcuterie spread. I’m already thinking about how to serve it with Thanksgiving dinner next year! It comes together like any other loaf of sourdough with a few inclusions and swaps. 

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A note on sourdough starter: be sure you have an active, bubbly starter before you bake! You can read more about how to achieve this below

Sourdough Starter Tips

Sourdough inclusions

I like to add additional ingredients to sourdough after bulk fermentation and before shaping. I do this through a process called lamination. I actually have a great video showing lamination and shaping here if you want to learn more. Waiting to add the cranberries until later on will give the dough time to rise without the extra weight. 

To learn more about sourdough inclusions, check out this blog for all my favorite recipes and tips!

Cranberry Orange Sourdough Loaf Sample baker’s schedule

Stretch and fold notes

If you’re still new to stretch and folds, check out my video on how to perform them!

Cranberry Orange Sourdough Loaf

Print Recipe

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 300 g orange juice
• Zest of 1 orange
• 150 g active sourdough starter
• 450 g organic all purpose flour
• 10 g salt
• ¾ cup dried cranberries

Instructions

• Combine orange juice, zest, and sourdough starter
• Mix in flour and rest for 30 minutes to an hour (this is the autolyse)
• Incorporate salt into the dough and rest for 15 minutes
• Perform stretch and folds in 15-30 minute intervals for the next few hours until dough is elastic and very stretchy.
• Let the dough rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
• Laminate the dough with the cranberries and then shape. See my notes and tips above for lamination and shaping
• Place dough in a banneton basket and store it in the fridge for 8-14 hours.
• When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven and baker with lid at 500 degrees F for at least 30 minutes
• Score and bake the loaf for 25 minutes.
• Remove the lid and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until you achieve a golden crust.
• Wait at least an hour before slicing for the best texture.