Tag Archives: fresh cranberries

Cranberry Apple Pie/Cranberry Nut Cake

5 Jan

I love dessert.  Really… really love dessert.  I was given a recipe from my lovely cousin, Adena, when I sent out a Facebook request for how to use up leftover fresh cranberries in my fridge.  She sent a very easy recipe that I proceeded to modify for the sole reason that I do not love cranberries.  They are just too tart for me.  My solution? Add apples and more sugar!  It was a success.  The recipe also called to just put the berries into the pie plate and then top them, but I had a frozen pie crust in the freezer so I decided “why not?”

The fruit concoction was then topped with eggs, sugar, flour, butter, and oil.

We sprinkled the top with cinnamon and it browned up purrrrrfectly.

It was a perfect center too.

I’m pretty sure this was polished off in just a few days.  WHOOPS!

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RECIPE
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Cranberry Nut Cake/(My comments in parenthesis for how to change it to a Cranberry Apple Pie)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups cranberries- 1 bag (or lessen this to add slices of 1-2 apples)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 cup sugar (or a bit more if you don’t love cranberries)
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • 5 Tbsp Oil
  • (Pie crust)

Directions:

  1. Wash berries (and peel, core, and slice apples) and put in bottom of 8” or 9” pie plate (or pie crust if you’d rather)
  2. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts (or mix it all together in a separate bowl and then pour in. Add extra sugar directly to fruit if you want it sweeter)
  3. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and then slowly add sugar
  4. Stir in flour, butter, and oil
  5. Pour over cranberries (and apples)
  6. (Sprinkle top with cinnamon)
  7. Bake at 325 for 50 minutes

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Leftover Fruit Cobbler

30 Nov

On my further quest to use up the cranberries (I STILL have more than a full bag left), I got bored and decided to make some form of cobbler thing… I didn’t have apples and was worried just cranberries would be too tart, so I threw in some grapes I had laying around and pears that had been stewing in apple cider since the party.  I also had some of the leftover cider, so I threw it all in a pot with a bit of sugar and let it cook down to a loose syrup consistency.

For the topping, since I neither like nor had oats in stock, I combined flour, sugar, brown sugar, and slivered almonds in a food processor and then combined cold butter in with a fork and my hands.  It didn’t quite come out as the crumble I expected (not enough flour? lack of oats?) but it tasted scrumptious.  I forgot to take a picture of it so about 2 minutes after it went into the oven, I took it back out to take a pic.  It had already melted, but you get the point.  I got to use my new ramekins from Kim, which was OH SO fun!  (I LOVE new kitchen toys!)

I baked it for about 35 minutes and then broiled it for about 30 seconds.  (I’m still new to broilers since I haven’t had a working one in 5 years, so I was cautious not to overdo it… though it probably could have become a little crisper on top).

I then let it cool for 15 minutes and proceeded to burn the heck out of my mouth as I gobbled it down… I’m so impatient! It was worth it though.

It definitely didn’t come out as pretty as I would have liked with crumbles on top, but the taste more than made up for it.  I like things SWEET, and this certainly was.  If I were making it for the masses I’d probably tone down the sugar a tad.  The fruit inside, however, was a perfect consistency and the cranberries + grapes + pears was good enough to repeat!

Since I eyed the entire topping, I don’t really have a recipe.  I also don’t think it turned out pretty enough to make for guests… but for me… it was DELISH

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Fresh Flavors of Fall

18 Nov

Our new apartment is absolutely amazing (have I mentioned I have a pantry, dish washer, 5 burner stove, convection oven, touch screen microwave, and french door fridge?  Yeah… AMAZING!  I still can’t believe we got this place!) however, the one thing really missing in the neighborhood is a grocery store.  I spent the first 2.5 of 3 years of my last apartment in the same predicament.  FreshDirect became a very good friend.  I don’t find it more expensive than grocery stores on most things, and on some things I’m pretty sure I actually save money.  Delivery is only about $6 and I usually find a deal on a DeliveryPass anyway so it’s around $50 for the year.  It sucks that we can’t run out for a dozen eggs or a slab of butter when I realize we’ve run out, but I’m glad to have the FreshDirect solution for most things.

This past order they had acorn squash on sale.  I usually would just roast it and throw on some butter and brown sugar,  however, with my super-duper new kitchen I wanted to do something a bit more special.  FreshDirect had a recipe suggestion of acorn squash with fresh cranberries and baked apples.  Done.  I went to the handy shopping list and got all the ingredients I needed.  My only regret is that I just got one squash and not more! (Oh and if anyone has any great ideas for what to do with the remaining huge bag of fresh cranberries other than making sauce, I’m all ears!)

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RECIPE
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(Since I only had one squash, I cut most of the recipe in about 1/4)

Ingredients:

  • ·      4 small acorn squash
  • ·      2 medium apples, unpeeled, chopped
  • ·      1/2 cup fresh cranberries
  • ·      1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ·      2 tablespoons sliced almonds
  • ·      1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
  • ·      1 tablespoon butter, melted


Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Cut squash lengthwise into halves and discard seed. Arrange squash cut side down in a baking dish and add 1/2-inch water. Bake for 40 minutes.
  3. Combine apples, cranberries, brown sugar, almonds, orange juice, and margarine in a bowl and mix well. Turn squash cut side up and spoon apple mixture into squash cavities. Bake for 30 minutes.

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