Eggnog Tea Bread with Cranberries and Raisins

At 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve I realized we had nothing for breakfast. I had been too busy preparing low-carb finger foods and getting ready for Christmas dinner to even think about some sort of festive breakfast idea.

My father always had stollen or some sort of coffee cake on hand for Christmas breakfast. He understood the connection between food and celebration, and tried to make sure we had celebratory foods on hand for holidays.

We had plenty of eggnog, purchased with plans to make eggnog biscotti. Biscotti for breakfast? I think not. Too decadent. I took stock of what I else I had on hand and came up with this recipe from my "recipes to try some day" folder.

Eggnog Tea Bread with Cranberries and Golden Raisins

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar or fructose
• 1 cup eggnog
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 teaspoons French vanilla or rum extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries and golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour three small bread pans.

Beat eggs in a large bowl, adding sugar, eggnog, butter, and extracts. In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Blend into eggnog mixture. Add dried fruit and stir enough to blend the batter.

Bake 40 minutes. Once the bread has cooled, wrap it and store it in the refrigerator. It will taste even better the day after it is baked.

The bread was a big hit, even with my husband who is not a fan of tea breads. I am going to try it again, this time with some leftover cranberry-orange relish, which will make for a very moist loaf.

You can spiff up this bread a bit and serve it for an evening buffet by using rum in place of the French vanilla extract, and loading it with candied fruit and walnuts. Serve with a mascarpone cheese spread.