Last updated on March 8th, 2026
This no-knead overnight Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread is packed with loads of chewy dried cranberries, nutrient-rich walnuts and warming cinnamon then lightly sweetened with honey. It’s hearty and satisfying and bakes up beautifully!
Sweet and nutty with that perfect crusty top we love, this cranberry walnut loaf is SO GOOD served still warm from the oven or toasted to crispy perfection with lots of melty butter and more honey.
This recipe builds on my simple 4-ingredient, no-knead Everyday Artisan Bread. It’s still super easy to make and requires just a handful of extra ingredients.
Here’s everything you’ll need to make it
- Water
- Liquid honey (see note below)
- Active dry yeast
- Bread or all-purpose flour
- Kosher or fine sea salt
- Ground cinnamon
- Dried cranberries (see note if baking with fresh or frozen cranberries)
- Chopped walnuts
Ideally, you will also have:
- Digital scale
- Dough scraper
- Parchment paper
- Razor blade or very sharp knife
- Dutch oven such as this one or this one
New to working with yeast? Reference my Baking with Active Dry Yeast guide for answers to common FAQ’s.
You can read more about why you will achieve your best results using a Dutch oven here.
All the ways to enjoy Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread
This breakfast loaf is incredibly versatile. We’ve used it to make bread pudding and French toast, added slices to cheese boards, it makes a deliciously sweet and melty apple and Gouda grilled cheese and we love it for stuffing over the holidays!
How to make Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread in 5 steps
- Mix the dough.
- Cover and let it rise until it has doubled in size.
- Shape your dough and dust with flour.
- Cover and proof the dough in the fridge overnight.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, reshape if needed, score it and bake.
Baking schedule
Making this Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread is a two-day process where the bread is mixed and prepared on day one, cold proofed in the fridge overnight, then baked on day two.
This is what it looks like:
Saturday morning: Mix dough, cover and let rise.
Saturday afternoon or evening: Shape dough, cover and put it in the fridge.
Sunday morning, afternoon or evening: Remove dough from the fridge and prepare to bake.
A super simple and addictive bake that we enjoy year-round, this Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread is a staple from Thanksgiving through Easter. Happy baking!
Try this Cinnamon Raisin Artisan Bread or this Cranberry Orange Walnut Bread next.
For more tips and helpful information, reference my Artisan Bread Basics guides for answers to common FAQ’s.
If you make this recipe, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see!
And of course, feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews. This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you!
Cranberry Walnut Artisan Bread
Ingredients
- 1½ cups water, room temperature (at or near 70°F/21°C)
- 1-2 tablespoons liquid honey 20-38 g (see note below)
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 3 cups bread or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries or 1 cup (250 g) fresh or frozen
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Whisk together honey and water, then sprinkle yeast across the top and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, cranberries and walnuts until the cranberries are well-covered in flour. Let sit for 10 minutes. *If using fresh or frozen cranberries see note below.
- Add yeast mixture to the bowl and mix with a rubber spatula just until combined. The dough should look a little sticky and stringy and there should still be a little flour around the edges of the bowl.
- Cover and let rise somewhere warm (see note below) until it has doubled in size, about 8-10 hours.
- Once the dough has doubled in volume, use your hands (or a dough scraper if you have one) to pull the dough out onto a floured surface. With floured hands, gently fold the dough into itself several times until a soft, flour-covered ball is formed. Seam side up, lift and place it into a flour dusted bowl. Dust with flour, cover and refrigerate overnight. You can even leave it for as long as 48 hours at this point if you’re not able to bake it right away.
- When you're ready to bake your bread, preheat oven to 450ºF (232ºC) with your Dutch oven inside the oven.
- Uncover then invert the bowl to turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface seam side down. If needed, gently turn it with your hands and nudge it into the shape of a loaf. Place it on a sheet of parchment paper and score the top with a razor blade or the tip of a sharp knife with a design of your choosing. This will allow steam to escape while it’s baking.
- Once the oven is preheated, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and transfer the dough, still on the parchment, into the Dutch oven. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for 15-20 minutes more. Your bread will be done once the top is browned, and it sounds hollow when you tap the top.
- Using parchment edges, lift bread from Dutch oven and transfer it to a wire cooling rack to let cool for up to an hour before slicing.
Finally got around to making this loaf this week, with pistachios as they were the only nuts I had in the cupboard. Delicious. The loaf doubled in size in about three hours and then I gave it 24 hours in the fridge. Now to pick another one of your no-knead artisan loaves.
Hi Jeanette,
Wonderful! Thanks so much for trying this recipe. I am so glad it turned out well for you, happy holidays! (:
I’ve never made bread with this method before but it was incredibly easy and delicious!
Hi Nancy,
Wonderful! Thanks a bunch for trying this recipe, I am so glad it turned out well for you!
Although there are plenty of similar artisan bread recipes all over the Internet, yours is the only one that states the essential information about size of the Dutch oven! I spent quite a while searching in order to make sure my cast iron Dutch oven was the right size. I read that too large will result in flatter bread, and too small could result in bread smashed against or stuck to the lid. I can’t thank you enough for including this common sense information, and I don’t hesitate in saying that you have the best recipe and directions of them all.
Hi Sherry! This is so thoughtful of you. I really appreciate your kind words, thank you for sharing! K
Such excellent bread! Mine seemed to rise faster than expected, but no complaints. I added a bit of leftover candied orange peel, a nice spark of flavor!
Thanks Nancy! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it, thank you for sharing! K
Kerry,
Have loved this recipe for a long time and just printed it out with the modifications which I will try. Any reason you omitted the corresponding gram equivalent for the water (360g), yeast (3g), flour (290g), salt (6g), cranberries (130g), and walnuts (75g)? I bake by weight measurements and they were in the first recipe you published.
MJ
Hi MJ! I do as well. You can find everything you need by clicking on the metric conversion link in the recipe card! K
K,
Thank you, totally missed that, exceptional bread recipe!!!
MJ
Thank you!
Hi Kerry, I want to be sure that the gram equivalent for flour is correct . For this artisan bread ,it’s 390gram flour with 360g water ,while your other artisan bread receipts have 455 gram or 425 gram flour with 360g water. Can you explain the difference ?
Thanks
Thomas
Hi Thomas! Flour measurements vary across my artisan bread recipes for various reasons. In this case, it is to hold up to the weight of the add-ins, similar to the Fig & Walnut, and results in a denser, heartier breakfast loaf. I hope you love the recipe, it’s one of my favourites! K
Delicious, wonderful, easy. I let the dough rise for about 12 hrs. Thanks!
Thank you so much Kenny, so glad you enjoyed it! K