Amy McDermott's Cranberry Bread

For 1 loaf of bread:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup boiling water
1 egg (or 2 tbsp applesauce)
2 tbsp. vegetable shortening
1 orange
1cup frozen (or fresh) cranberries (adding cranberries and walnuts more liberally is OK too)
1 cup chopped walnuts/ walnut pieces
½ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bread pan.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder in one bowl. In a separate bowl add the vegetable shortening and pour boiling water over it. This will melt the shortening (which helps avoid clumps when mixing wet and dry ingredients later). While the shortening melts, zest and juice the orange, and add the juice and zest to the wet ingredient bowl. At this point the mixture should have cooled a bit. If you are cooking with egg, add it to the wet ingredients now to avoid cooking it in boiling water. If you are using applesauce as a substitute, add it in any time.

To mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients, pour a little of wet into dry and mix, then add a little more, and so one. As soon as all wet is mixed into dry, and the batter is smooth, STOP MIXING!!! Overworked batter bakes into chewy bread.

Fold walnuts and cranberries into batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour to 90 minutes depending on your oven (bread is done when a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the bread comes out clean).