CRANBERRY ORANGE CRUSTY BREAD

 This is made mostly like the Crusty Bread  But the sweetness of the cranberries changed the baking a bit.  It is fantastic!

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Grate 2 oranges to get 3-4 T. orange peel, loose packed.  Then juice the oranges and add water to make 2 1/4 C.  I added a little more water here because the cranberries absorb some.  The first time I made it with 2 C. the bread was a little dry.

Add in a large bowl with 2 T. sugar, 1 3/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. instant yeast and 1 to 1 1/2 C. dried cranberries.  The loaf shown here has only 1 cup.  The first time I made it with 1 1/2 C. but my husband liked it best with less.  I liked it with more so go figure.    Stir in 2 C. unbleached flour until smooth and then 2 more until you have a rough ball.

Cover the bowl with a plate and leave for at least 12 hours (I do have a quick method see the Crusty Bread recipe if you want to make it in 6 hours.)   1 1/4 hours before eating time put your Ceramic pot in a 450 oven for 30 minutes.  Make a small pile of flour and dump the dough onto it pulling the edges up to make a round ball.  Cover with the bowl until the pot is preheated.  Remove from the oven.  Pull up the edges of the dough again and turn over and plop into the pot. (I sprayed the pot a little here because it stuck when I used 1 1/2 C. cranberries)  Put on the lid and back in the oven for 20 minutes.  This is 5 minutes less than the regular bread.  The sugar in the cranberries baked it faster.  Remove the lid and lower the oven to 425 and bake for 15 minutes more.  

The first time I made it in an unfamiliar and it browned too fast.  I think that oven was hotter than mine so if your bread is browning too much in this time you might need to lower your oven temp. a little.