Thrice the Cranberries

I am still on my cranberry quest. This time it was Cranberry Date Bars. These are really delicious but kind of messy to eat. To start, in medium sized bowl, mix the cranberries (fresh or frozen, or in my case, fresh that I froze) with sugar.




Add chopped dates. Now I recommend whole pitted dates and chopping them yourself. If you buy already chopped dates, they tend to have a coating of sugar on them and who needs even more sugar than this already has?



Then add chopped walnuts. I always use more than the recipe calls for because Nick is a nut fanatic. "Everything tastes better with nuts in it" is one of his favorite things to say.




Mix them together and set aside. Then in another bowl, mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, rolled oats (not the quick ones), and baking soda.




Add melted butter or margarine and mix well. Reserve 1 cup of this mixture and set aside. The rest is pressed into the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and then baked for 10 minutes.




When that comes out, sprinkle the cranberry mixture over the partially cooked crust then then top with the reserved oat mixture. Bake again for about 20 minutes or until a lightly browned.




This is, like I said, really delicious, but the cranberry topping tends to fall right off. I wonder how it would be if I added a can of sweetened condensed milk to the top of the crust, before the cranberry topping? Hmmm... something to ponder. Would it be too sweet? If you try doing it that way, let me know how it works out.


Cranberry Date Bars

1 cup cranberries
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup margarine or butter, melted
1 1/2 cups dates, chopped
2/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a bowl, combine cranberries and 2 Tablespoons sugar. Add dates and walnuts and mix to combine. In another bowl, combine flour, oats, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar and baking soda. Add melted butter or margarine and mix well. Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture then press remainder firmly on bottom of 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake 10 minutes. Sprinkle cranberry mixture over crust then top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and then cut into bars.

Cranberries, part deux

Thanks to Wendy on the PVB Recipe Board for this recipe for Pear Cranberry Pie. The moment I saw the title I knew I had to make it. And it kills two birds with one stone... it continues my new year's quest to make more pie and it uses up some of the cranberries I have been hoarding in my freezer.

I am not a pie maker so I find crust intimidating. Actually I find anything I have to roll out intimidating. It's never even, it's never the shape it should be. But I'm goin in. Cover me!

The full recipe will be at the end, but here is the play by play. You start with 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup cake flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Pulse that in the food processor a few times to mix the ingredients. Then add 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces and 2 Tablespoons cold vegetable shortening. Pulse about 6 times until the until you have lumps about the size of peas. Then with the processor running, add 3 Tablespoons of the cold water and process until large moist clumps form and the dough holds together. If the dough is too dry, add more cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time. From there you want to put all the dough together and form it into a flat square. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour.




Butter a 9- or 10-inch pie pan. Take the dough from the fridge and, on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a round about 4 inches wider than the bottom of the pie pan.




You can roll the dough around your rolling pin then place it in the pie pan. Carefully press the dough into the pan. Trim the edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and crimp the edge.




Freeze for 15 minutes before baking. As not a pie baker, this part made me sweat! I didn't want to overwork the dough, so even though it was way thinner on one side, I kept it the way it was. I also have no clue how to crimp edges! I thought of flattening them with a fork too late so I tried to make a nice edge from seeing so many chefs on TV do it. Not bad right!?




While the crust is in the freezer, mix together pears, sugar and melted butter. I used red pears. They looked the best in the store that day. Funny thing, I bought 5 pears to use. When I was slicing them, I lost count and wasn't really paying attention but assumed when I came to the end of the bag, that I had sliced 5 pears. A few days later, I found a lone red pear rolling around in my trunk! Oops! Stir in cranberries and cinnamon (I also added a little nutmeg). Then pour the mixture into the pie crust.




Now it's time for the best part, the crumb topping!!! In a small bowl, stir together granulated and light brown sugars, flour and cinnamon. Pour in melted butter over the flour mixture and mix until fine crumbs form. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the pie.




Now it's time to bake this beauty! Bake until the crumb topping is golden brown in color, the pears are tender and the cranberries are soft. Let it cool for about an hour or more. This pie is delicious. It's not overly sweet and the pears are a nice mild compliment to the tart cranberries. A little vanilla ice cream with it rounds out this great dessert!!






Flaky Pie Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling dough
1/3 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus additional for the pan
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

In a food processor, mix together the all-purpose and cake flours, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter and shortening and process, using about 6 pulses, until the mixture forms pea-size lumps. With the machine running, add 3 tablespoons of the cold water and process until large moist clumps form and the dough holds together. If the dough is too dry, add more cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Gather the dough into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour before rolling. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead and refrigerated.) This makes one crust for a 9 or 10 inch pie plate.

Butter a 9- or 10-inch pie pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a round about 4 inches wider than the bottom of the pie pan. Press the dough into the prepared pan. Trim the edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and crimp the edge. Freeze for 15 minutes before baking.

Pear and Cranberry Crumb Pie

For the filling:
5 cups peeled and cored ripe pears, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar, or more to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cranberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the crumb topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

For the filling: In a large bowl, mix together the pears, sugar and melted butter. Stir in the cranberries and cinnamon. Transfer the mixture to the pie crust.

For the crumb topping: In a small bowl, stir together the granulated and light brown sugars, flour and cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the flour mixture and mix until fine crumbs form. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the filling.

Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until the crumb topping is golden brown, the pears are tender when tested with a toothpick and the cranberries are soft, about 30 minutes. Set the pie aside to cool for at least 1 hour before serving. The pie can be baked 1 day ahead of time, covered and stored at room temperature.

Cranberries, it's only the beginning

I have recently discovered that I have 4 bags of fresh cranberries that I had put in my freezer. I guess they were on sale during the holidays and I bought them repeatedly and forgot. You know what this means don't you? It means I'm going to be making a lot of things with cranberries in them! Please share with me your cranberry recipes... the more the merrier!

To start off I made Cranberry Streusel Muffins. I searched recipes and, as often happens, I did not find exactly what I was looking for. Why is it that most recipes for anything cranberry call for orange too? YUCK! I absolutely hate anything with orange in it. Not the color mind you, the flavor of an orange makes me shudder, and the smell is even worse. Ack, I'm giving myself the heebies just talking about oranges! I know I can leave out the orange or substitute lemon, but it becomes a mission to actually find a recipe that doesn't have orange in it.

The recipe I actually ended up using is a variation on a recipe for Apple Streusel Muffins. Make the streusel topping first by combining 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon. Set aside.





For the muffins, sift together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon. To that, cut in 1/4 cup of vegetable shortening until it resembles fine crumbs. Combine 1 egg (slightly beaten) with 1/2 cup of milk and add the whole thing to the flour mixture and mix until it's all incorporated. This is a very thick batter. Add 1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries and mix.

Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin pan, filling each about 2/3 full.




Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the streusel topping.




Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.




This recipe makes 12 muffins.


Cranberry Streusel Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup shortening
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 cup cranberries

Toppping:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender (or fork) until it resembles fine crumbs. Combine egg and milk. Add to dry ingredients all at once and stir until just combined. Stir in cranberries. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Sprinkle each with some of the streusel topping. Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.