Recipe Sunday: Guilt-Free Apple Cranberry Bread

I have a friend here in town.  (Don't laugh.  I really do have an in-person friend here or there.)  We don't see each other all that often, because she's insanely busy with kids and work.  But whenever we do get together we talk and laugh and share (or bitch and moan and vent), like friends do.

Anyway, she knows how much I love to try new recipes.  A few years back, she gave me this awesome recipe book called Any Bitch Can Cook (from the Any Bitch* family of cookbooks) wherein I found the recipe I use for Cake Mix Cookies.

This year, my wonderful friend - being dipped in awesomesauce the way she is - got me a 'guilt-free' recipe book (Taste of Home: Guilt Free Cooking).  OMG, everything in it looks so yummy.  I know I said I wasn't baking this year because of last year's Christmas poundage, but this is guilt-free, people, so I made the Apple-Cranberry Bread recipe (which I tweaked a little because I can't help myself.)

Here's my version - and at only 115 calories a slice (with very little fat) it really is guilt-free:

Apple Cranberry Bread
(makes two loaves - 16 slices each makes 115 calories per slice)

4 eggs
1.5 c. sugar
4 T vegetable oil
3 c. flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 medium granny smith apples (peeled & chopped)
2 c. fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray two 8x4" loaf pans thoroughly with fat-free cooking spray.  In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil until smooth and fluffy.  In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Slowly stir dry ingredients into wet mixture.  (It will be very thick.)  Stir in apples and cranberries.  Spoon batter into loaf pans.  Bake for 60-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for ten minutes before tranferring to wire rack or whatever you use for cooling baked goods.  Let cool overnight, slice and serve.

The original recipe was for one loaf and called for walnuts.  I doubled it and killed the nuts - because, frankly, after stirring in the fruit, my arms were so tired I didn't see how I'd get the nuts into the batter.  (And the deletion had the benefit of dropping the calorie count 25 calories per slice.)  I'm also recommending you let it cool because I sliced mine warm and the darn thing was so tart, it made my cheeks hurt.  Leaving it overnight gave the loaf time to calm down and the flavors time to meld into a much less aggressive tartness.

If you try it, let me know.  I sliced up a bunch and passed it out around town to rave reviews. 

Heh, no wonder my friend calls me Betty Crocker.

*Bitch, btw, means Babe In Total Control of Herself.  I can get behind being called that.  =o)