You can definitely use fresh cranberries to make bread. I made it using both just to see how they would compare. I found that I really preferred dried cranberries for the simple reason that fresh cranberries float! This batter is relatively thin, so the fresh cranberries just floated to the top of the batter in the pan. When the bread was baked, the slices showed cranberries just on the top edge. With dried cranberries, they distributed more evenly.