One Perfect Bite: cranberry recipes

Showing posts with label cranberry recipes. Show all posts

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Zucchini Bread with Cranberries and Pecans

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...It's that time of year. Zucchini is being passed from neighbor to neighbor and there is a good chance you'll end up with a surplus of it on your kitchen counter if there are vegetable gardens and friendly gardeners in your area. I have a hopper full of recipes for zucchini, but when I was gifted with two large specimens, I decided to look for new ways to prepare them. I found this recipe on What's Cooking America and it sounded so good that I simply had to give it a try. I keep cranberries in the freezer, so I actually had everything I needed to make this colorful bread on hand. This is an extremely easy bread to make and it can be made by anyone who has two bowls and a wooden spoon. I think those of you who give this recipe a try, will like the tart play of the cranberries and sugar in this sweet bread. The zucchini keeps it moist and the bread can be stored at room temperature for several days if it is well wrap. It will freeze for up to a month before it starts to dry out. I really like this simple quick bread and I think you will, too. Here is how it's made.

Cranberry Christmas Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a lovely cake that is simple to make and perfect for the holiday. It freezes well, so in order to keep my nerves steady and counters clear, I make the cake several days before I actually plan to serve it, and save myself some stress on D-Day. The recipe comes from Barefeet in the Kitchen and it includes directions for making a gluten free version of the cake. It is great to have this recipe in your files if you have friends for whom gluten is a no-no. If you want to dress the cake up a bit, you can drizzle it with a simple sugar glaze, but taste-wise that is really not necessary. I usually make and freeze 2 cakes and cut them into pieces for storage. I pull them out for unexpected company during the holidays, and on the off-chance there are leftovers, the Silver Fox likes the cake well-enough to see there are no wasted slices. If you have a ton of company during the holidays, do give this recipe a try. Here is how the cake is made.

Cranberry-Cormeal Skillet Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Long holiday weekends are wonderful, but for those who have friends and family dropping by, keeping the larder company ready can be difficult. Pumpkin and apple desserts are so ubiquitous at this time of year, that I try to bypass them once the big day itself has passed. This cake is one that I fall back on during the Thanksgiving season. It is child-like in its preparation, but when served warm with a scoop of good ice cream, it a welcoming dessert that will please all who gather at your table. The cake has a slight crunch due to the addition of cornmeal, and because fresh cranberries are used for flavor, it is a step above your average holiday cake. It will have a special appeal to those who enjoy desserts that are not overly sweet. The cake takes about 15 minutes to mix and it requires no special equipment to make. If you have a couple of bowls and a wooden spoon you can have the cake on the table in about an hour. If you like sweet and savory combinations, do give this recipe a try. Here is how the cake is made.

Cranberry Walnut Bars

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The Silver Fox and I haven't yet firmed up our plans for Thanksgiving Day. As a matter of fact, we don't know where or with whom we'll celebrate the holiday. Our trip to Egypt is still on for December and I don't want to complicate the coming holiday unnecessarily. I've been working around firm plans, playing with desserts, side dishes and a simple turkey roulade in case we end up spending the holiday at home. I wanted to share some of the simpler recipes I've been testing with you. It's hard to go wrong with a dessert, so I thought I'd start with this simple streusel bar. It would be a wonderful accompaniment for ice cream following a heavy Thanksgiving meal. There is nothing not to like here and I know those of you who enjoy tart/sweet combinations will be happy with the results. Here is how the bars are made.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I suspect your holiday dinner plans were set in stone weeks ago, but on the off chance that you still haven't firmed up your menu for Christmas morning, I'd like to suggest these moist and lovely, cake-like, muffins. While they are not difficult to make, Christmas morning can be hectic and the muffins can be made well-ahead of serving time. They freeze beautifully and, if you choose not to do that, you'll be able to keep them at room temperature for several days in an airtight container. I do have a few cautions to share with you regarding the making of these garnet beauties. To prevent lumps, make sure your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature and well-creamed before other ingredients are added. You will also want to make sure your muffin cups or the interiors of your paper liners are well-greased or coated with a non-stick spray. I didn't follow my own advice and had to wrestle them from my cup cake pans. I also managed to end up with enough extra batter to make 2 large Texas-sized cup cakes. I love the texture of these muffins and their bright pop of color is perfect for Christmas morning. I know those of you who give this recipe a try will be happy with the results. Here is how the muffins are made.

Cranberry Streusel Muffins for Christmas

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These muffins are an easy addition to your Christmas breakfast table. They require no special equipment to make and they can be mixed in about 15 minutes. The recipe on which they are based came from Midwest Living magazine. Based on my first test results, I've made a few minor changes to the original recipe. My first batch of muffins flat-topped, so in an attempt to prevent that, I gave the recipe another try. Increasing the oven heat to 400 degrees and using less batter in the muffin cups finally gave me dome-shaped muffins. I was able to get 16 muffins from the recipe second-time around. These are tasty, colorful and perfect for Christmas morning. If you are looking for sweet things to make for your sweet things, do give this recipe a try. Here is how the muffins are made.

On the Side - Cranberries with Port Wine, Vichy Carrots and Peppered Squash

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I did the shopping for our holiday meal this morning and then, as luck would have it, learned this afternoon that there will be more people at the table than I had planned or shopped for. At this point, I'm not about to run out and buy a larger roast or supplement it with a second meat entree, but I will add some additional side dishes to the groaning board. I've had my eye on the three recipes I'm featuring tonight for awhile now and the news was all the motivation I needed to give them a try. The first is a cranberry sauce that is made with a reduction of ruby port, and while it is not for children, those of you who are known to take a nip or two will love it. The sauce is great go-with for pork or turkey, but it would especially shine if served with fattier duck or goose. The second recipe is for Vichy carrots. The recipe gets its name from the sparkling water that the French originally used to prepare the dish. The lightly glazed carrots are simple, delicious and inexpensive to make. If you have no sparkling water, throw a pinch of baking soda into tap water and pretend you have the real thing. The last recipe is for winter squash, and, of the three side dishes, it is the most interesting. Bland squash is seasoned with fresh thyme and hot pepper that takes it up a notch or two or three. The best thing about this recipe is the the dish can be made early in the day and reheated come party time. I do hope you'll give these side dishes a try. The are all a new take on old holiday recipes and I really think you'll enjoy them. Here is how they are made.

Cranberry Streusel Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...My honesty sometimes gets me in trouble. I hope this won't be one of those occasions. I began my Thanksgiving countdown with 2 pounds of cranberries and a determination to use them all before the holiday arrived. That determination led me to this recipe, and the fact that it used several cups of cranberries made it, from my perspective anyway, a perfect candidate candidate for the blog. I had no great expectations for the cake, as its appearance, even in the professional photo, lacked the allure that makes some recipes irresistible. I dutifully worked my way through the recipe, plopped the cake in the oven and got on with making the rolls that I planned to serve on Thanksgiving Day. Save for the fact that it took 15 minutes longer than expected to bake, the cake was trouble free and didn't look half-bad when I pulled it from the oven. I still had no expectations and was in no hurry for that first bite, but when that came 4 hours later I had to eat my words along with the cake. I really think you'll like this. The cake is buttery, the cranberries sweetly tart and the streusel appropriately other worldly. Those of you who enjoy barely sweet, European desserts are in for a real treat. What I thought would be acceptable, is instead, different, delightful and delicious and I highly recommend this cake to you. Here is how it's made.

Cranberry, Orange and Cornmeal Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While everyone is familiar with the ingredients used in tonight's feature, the use of cranberries and orange in conjunction with cornmeal is not something we see every day. I honed in on this recipe, which comes from the LA Times, because I was looking for something unusual for a holiday brunch and I thought the combination of the three ingredients was different enough to be interesting. As I suspected, the cornmeal added great texture to the cake, while the mingling of vanilla and maple syrup wonderfully highlighted the flavors of the tart cranberries and orange zest. This cake is quite moist for one that is made with cornmeal. The moisture comes from the use of ricotta cheese which in this recipe serves as a liquid ingredient. The cake has a rustic appearance and the cranberries add a pop of color that make it perfect for a holiday table. The cake is not hard to make, but I do have one caution to share with you. Make sure the center of the cake is done before you remove it from the oven. The very center of mine fell, ever so slightly, as the cake cooled. The next time I make this, I plan to use a tube pan to assure that this doesn't happen again. I really liked the richness and texture of this cake. I do hope you'll give the recipe a try. Here is how the cake is made.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Yesterday afternoon, I chanced to comment that the sky, which had grayed considerably, looked like the Thanksgiving sky of my Chicago childhood. Well, this morning we were greeted with the remains of an early storm that left a very Midwestern mix of hail, sleet and snow lightly covering the ground. Unfortunately, that pristine cover weighed far more heavily on the fir trees whose boughs were bent under the weight of ice that had accumulated on them. Ice on our shallow rooted fir trees is a bit like a troubled marriage that cracks under stress. As an outsider, you want to avoid the drama and sound affects that are associated with its demise. You especially want to avoid proximity to those limbs, who signal with an eerie echoing crack, that gravity has triumphed and they are coming down. Sensible folks stay inside until the sun begins the melt that will set everything back in order. That also means that those sensible folks who have food blogs get some extra time to search out a new recipe or two. The days when apple, pumpkin and mincemeat pies were the must-have desserts for Thanksgiving Day are long gone, and the need for something new or different has become the order of the day. I found several new recipes for holiday desserts this morning and this upside-down cake is the first I want to share with you. The cake has a lovely crumb and I think you will enjoy the slightly tart cranberry layer that tops it. The recipe for the cake is based on one that was developed by Lindsey Shere and it was originally featured in the Williams-Sonoma, Winter Seasonal Celebration Series. It is not difficult to make and it would be a perfect addition to your holiday brunch or dessert table. Here is how this pretty jewel-toned cake is made.

Cranberry Layered Cheesecake - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Cranberry Layered Cheesecake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I was seduced by its color and because I'm weak, this five layered cranberry confection ended up on my table. I normally don't make desserts that are this involved. As a matter of fact, I rarely make cheesecakes at all. I love them, mind you. I just can't convince myself that the protein packed into all that cream cheese offsets the fat and calories that keep the protein company. The first time I saw this cake was on the table of an accomplished cake decorator. It was gorgeous and its garnet glow snared me before reason could take hold. I made a homely version of the cake, one precious time consuming layer at a time, and thought that would be the end of it. I never dreamed Bob would like it. He did and now I'm dealing with a case of unintended consequences. I'll have to make the cake again. The cake begins with an almond flavored crust that is partially filled with a sweetened cheese custard and then topped with a cranberry filling. The garnet layer is then smothered with the rest of the custard before being topped with sweetened sour cream. The cake bakes a considerable while, and then is cooled and chilled for a considerable while, before a final layer of cranberries crown the cake and decorations of almond whipped cream are applied. It is a lovely tangy cake that provides irresistible color on the holiday table. The recipe was developed by Teri Rasey for Taste of Home magazine. I've made some changes to that recipe and I suggest that in addition to adding salt and almond extract to the crust, you eliminate the ground almonds from the whipped cream. It's also imperative that the cake chill for 24 hours before serving if you have any hope of serving neat slices. This is a very nice recipe and, if you like cheesecake, it will be a great addition to your files. The recipe can be found here.