Holiday Cranberry Sauce

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If you are looking for a really special cranberry sauce to serve this holiday season, look no further. This holiday cranberry sauce is fantastic and will have everyone asking for seconds and thirds. It has quickly become a family favourite over the past few years. It’s tart and sweet and full of autumn fruits and flavours. The addition of chopped apples and pears along with the chopped pecans make this cranberry sauce a nice contrast to the usual canned cranberry sauce served at many holiday dinners. It’s made with wonderful fresh ingredients taking advantage of fruits at their peak. This ruby red sauce will have your home smelling of warm cinnamon and spicy nutmeg. Feel free to use this holiday cranberry sauce as filling for a delicious homemade pie. Just be sure to adjust the sugar to taste, as cranberries can be quite tart.

If you are a vegetarian like me, you may be wondering what you can serve this cranberry sauce with. I recommend serving it as a condiment on Vegetarian Shepperd’s Pie or as a spread on Pumpkin Honey Walnut Bread. You could even make a vegetarian “meat”loaf and serve this cranberry sauce on top.

Ingredients
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar (another 1/4 cup if sauce too tart)
  • 1 apple; peeled and diced
  • 1 pear; peeled and diced
  • 1 orange
  • 12 ounces (1 package) of fresh cranberries
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 cup of pecans; chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

Method

1. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, allow the sugar to dissolve into the water to create a simple syrup.

2. Add the cranberries, chopped pear and chopped apple to the sugar/water mixture. Allow the mixture to begin to boil then reduce to a simmer. 

3. Cut the orange in half and squeeze juice into the sauce. Watch out for seeds! Discard the orange. 

4. Add the salt, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg to the mixture. Allow the mixture to simmer for 30 minutes. After the sauce has been simmering a while, you’ll notice the cranberries begin to pop and the sauce will slowly thicken up. Add any additional sugar and then the pecans. Simmer for another 5 minutes, remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool to room temperature.

Store holiday cranberry sauce in a container in the fridge until ready to serve with your Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles (Spice Cookies)

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I love cookies. They are definitely my weakness when it comes to baking. I would rather cookies over any other dessert item. And even though I adore cookies, I am usually able to limit my cookie consumption to a reasonable number of one or two after I’ve baked a batch. This was not the case with these pumpkin snickerdoodles!!! After baking them yesterday, I polished off TEN! I’ve never done that before! *hah* Ten cookies in one sitting!!! And I’m not the only one who thought these little spicy, sweet cookies were addictive. My boyfriend ate about the same amount after work yesterday and I got a call from my dad today requesting I drop more off. :)

 What I think is so addictive about these cookies is the crunchy coating provided by the sugar/cinnamon/ginger mixture you dip the dough in right before you bake the cookies. It caramelizes slightly and provides the best crisp texture when you bite into the cookie. However, the cookie itself is not crunchy or crisp. The interior of the cookie is super soft and cake like. The combination is perfect and the blend of spices is perfect for this time of year. I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful the kitchen smelled yesterday while these snickerdoodles were baking in the oven. Mmmm!

That’s it…I’m off to bake another batch. :) Enjoy your week everyone!

Cookie Ingredients
  • 3 and 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter; at room temperature
  • 1 cup of granulated white sugar
  • 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup of pumpkin purée
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

Coating Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • dash of all spice (about an 1/8 of a teaspoon)

Method

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk to blend and set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2 to 3 minutes). Blend in the pumpkin purée. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well incorporated. 

3. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Cover and chill for at least an hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 350’F. Line a baking sheet with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

5. Combine the ingredients for the coating in a bowl. Mix well.

6. Scoop dough out into 2 and 1/2 tablespoons scoop and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough; enough to fill the cookie sheet. Make sure to space the dough balls about 2 inches apart. Note: this recipe yields 3 dozen cookies.

7. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy bottomed drinking glass in water and then in the sugar-spice mixture. Use the bottom of the sugared glass to flatten the dough balls slightly. Re-coat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed.

8. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes (or until just set and baked through). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. 

Store cookies in an airtight container.

Source: Annie’s Eats

Pumpkin Pie Bars

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And so continues my obsession with pumpkin…
After the Pumpkin Maple Macaroni & Cheese, the next item on my Fall baking to-do list was pumpkin bars with butterscotch chips. What sold me on this recipe was the crust: a pecan shortbread crust with brown sugar and oats. When topped with the whipped cream cheese, pumpkin topping these little bars are pretty irresistible. And butterscotch chips…how have I not tried these before? They are addictive! 

What do you have on your fall baking to-do list?


Crust & Topping Ingredients 
  • 1 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar; firmly packed
  • 12 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter; cut into pieces
  • 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Filling Ingredients
  • 8 ounces of cream cheese; softened
  • 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1-15 ounce can of pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • Butterscotch chips; for topping

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil. Combine the flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a small mixing bowl and toss with a fork. Add the pieces of butter to the dry ingredients and cut it in with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the oats and chopped pecans.

2. Reserve 1 cup of the crust mixture and set aside. Add the remaining crust mixture to the prepared baking pan and press onto the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Bake the crust alone in the oven for 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the filling.

3. To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well combined.

4. Once the crust has been removed from the oven, pour the filling into the pan and smooth over crust. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips (as desired). Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve. Caution: may fill your home with delicious scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm!

Source: Annie’s Eats, originally from Kraft