Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or coat it with nonstick spray.

Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, mix 4 cups of the flour, sugar, baking soda, and kosher salt.

Grate in the cold butter. Using a cheese grater, grate the cold butter directly into the flour mixture. Stir to distribute the butter throughout the flour. This is a marvelous shortcut for working cold butter into dough, especially if you don’t feel like wrestling with a pastry cutter.

Whisk the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, orange zest, and vanilla extract.

Make the dough. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until the dough comes together, then add the dried cranberries and stir again.

The dough will be very sticky. Again: normal. We are not judging the dough at this stage.

Knead with the remaining flour. Transfer the dough to a floured, flat surface. Sprinkle about ¼ cup of the remaining flour over the dough and begin kneading. Add more flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky and can be kneaded easily.

Shape the loaf. Form the dough into a round loaf and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut an X into the top.

Bake. Bake for 45–55 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool briefly, then slice. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes before serving. It will be warm, fragrant, and begging for butter and jam.