Whole Wheat Cardamom Cranberry Olive Oil Yogurt Loaf

This seemed like a very good idea in my head. Why not? Cardamom goes very well with oranges. Cranberries are great with any citrus. And I made very successful whole wheat olive oil yogurt loaf before.



The execution was simple. I followed Dorie Greenspan's recipe, replaced whole wheat flour for the all purpose, and added a cup of dried cranberries and a teaspoon of ground cardamom.



The result wasn't as brilliant as the idea... Although it was nice to burp cardamom, the spice doesn't compliment the aroma of extra virgin olive oil. I'll use light tasting olive oil the next try.

Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet

If you are looking for ideas for those fresh cranberries available all over right now, definitely try this cranberry sorbet. Vanilla bean surprisingly rounded out the tartness of cranberries - making the sorbet perfectly sweet, tart and smooth.

I pureed the cooked cranberries in a food processor and didn't strain the mixture despite the recipe. The sorbet was most delicious and refreshing especially after a heavy meal.

Cranberry Walnut Wholewheat Bread

My quest for the perfect cranberry/raisin walnut bread made with 100% whole wheat flour stops here. This is the one. I adapted the recipe from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. The bread was extraordinary. It was soft and light. The wild yeast starter gave it wonderful complex taste.



It took a while to prepare for this bread. But it was well worth it. First, I cultivated yeast from the air with whole wheat flour and pineapple juice. That took about two weeks. I keep my yeast pet in the refrigerator and feed it every other week if I don't bake any bread. The night before baking the bread, I prepared a soaker and a mother starter. The soaker was basically soaking whole wheat flour in milk/water with dry fruit and a little bit of salt. Mother starter was kneading flour and water to the wild yeast starter and letting it rise.



Then on the baking day, all were combined with more flour and nuts. There were kneading, first rise, shaping, second rise, preparing the oven and finally baking. This sounds complicated but it's not. It just requires planning ahead and a little bit of patience.

Anybody who wants a perfect 100% whole wheat bread, please please get this book. It explains the science and everything bread fantastically. And the pictures are beautiful. I first borrowed a copy from The New York Public Library. But I used it so much during the three weeks that I had it that I bought my own.

Walnut Cranberry Raisin Bread

My stock pot is awesome. Not only that it doubles as a wok, it can also bake bread! No-knead bread that is. This bread is so easy to make even I didn't mess it up. It came out crusty, dense and full of flavor. It tastes just like professional bread I buy at the farmer's market. No more spending $5 a loaf for me!



Original recipe is from King Arthur Flour. I increase the amount of whole wheat flour to 2 cups and water to 2 1/4 cups because I felt like my dough wasn't wet enough.



I can't believe baking bread can be this easy. So basically you stir all the ingredients together. Cover and leave for at least 8 hours. Ball the dough and move to a greased pot. Let rise for 2 more hours. Cover and bake.

Note to self: don't forget to grease and flour the pot with corn meal. The first time I tried this recipe I forgot just that. The the bread was stuck to the pot. Stuck so bad that I ate the entire loaf of bread (over a few days) out of the pot...

Red Wine Apple Cranberry and Currant Crisp

Umhmm.... That's all-the-things-I-have-in-my-refrigerator crisp. I had leftover red wine from a dinner party (months ago - not suitable for drinking anymore), a lot of apples from my apple pie madness, frozen cranberry that I bought on a whim from Trader Joe's. From my apple pie experience, I learned that McIntosh apples are sweet when baked. So I only used 1/4 cup of Agave nectar in the fruit and no sweetener at all in the crisp. It came out delicious with sugar-free and gluten-free bonus!



Ingredients

• 9 McIntosh apples - peeled, cored and cut into chunks


• 1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries


• Zest of an orange


• 1/4 cup dry currants


• 1/4 cup red wine


• 1/4 cup Agave nectar


• 1 cup old fashioned oats


• 1/2 cup almond flour


• 1/4 cup sliced almonds


• 1/4 cup chilled butter - cut into small cubes

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


2. Soak currants in red wine for about 15 minutes.


3. Toss apples, cranberries, orange zest, and red wine soaked currant together with Agave nectar. Transfer to a 2.2 Qt. baking dish.


4. In a large bowl, combine oats, almond flour, and sliced almond. Rub butter into the mixture until big chunks of butter disappear.


5. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool and refrigerate.

Orange Cranberry Scones

I just found out about a new realm of baking - scones and biscuits! Why haven't I ever thought of baking them earlier? There are endless possibility with these. I can go either savory or sweet. And they are super easy to make - no electric mixer - not a lot of cleaning required. I must go crazy making these with all kinds of substitutes!

Just as I was thinking which fruit to put in my first scones, my dear neighbor gave me a bag of cranberries. So I made orange cranberry scones from this base recipe from AllRecipes.com.



I added 1/4 cup of sugar into dry ingredients, and zest from an orange and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries to the batter.



The apartment smelled amazing while these were in the oven. I love the baked orange smell in the air. The scones came out light, delicate and not too sweet although not as flaky and buttery as I thought they should be. But what do I know? I shall try other recipes and compare.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Enough with cupcakes and full fat cookies. The holidays are over. Time to start eating healthier. This oatmeal cookie recipe from AllRecipes.com was a good start. It only used wholewheat flour and oatmeal. I tried to outdo its health factor by decreasing the amount of butter and sugar and replace them with apple sauce and Splenda.



The cookies came out not bad - chewy and not too sweet - very oatmeal. Because I used Splenda, the cookies didn't expand while baking. I had to flatten the dough before they went into the oven so that I don't get meatball-look-a-like cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup wholewheat flour


• 3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup Splenda for baking


• 1 stick butter - room temperature


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 1 egg


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce


• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.


2. In a dry bowl, whisk wholewheat flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt and Splenda together.


3. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. Beat until well blended. Add vanilla.


4. Stir in flour and apple sauce. When the mixture is well combined. Stir in cranberries.


5. Drop by teaspoonful onto prepared baking sheet. Leave about an inch between cookies. They don't expand much. With the bottom of wet tablespoon, flatten the cookies and bake for 12 minutes.


6. Let cool on cooling rack. I got 40 cookies.

Cranberry Pear Cobbler

I decided that I like cranberries. They are pretty. They are super tart - which means that they must be healthy - full of Vitamin C and antioxidant and etc. (And I was right!)

I also decided that I don't like cobbler - this fluffy quick bread thingy over baked fruit. I much prefer crisp with oatmeal and nuts.

Here is my latest attempt at cobbler: cranberry pear cobbler. I like how the fruit came out. I just wish there's some crunch in the topping.



Maybe it's me. Maybe I don't know how to make a good cobbler. Maybe it's the too little sugar or too little butter....

White Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies

I don't remember the last time I made cookies. Looking through this blog, it was way back in July. I need to use up my white chocolate chips before they expire. This recipe from King Arthur Flour looks good and easy.

Although I reduced the amount of sugar and white chocolate, the cookies still came out way too sweet. Note to self: every time I bake with white chocolate chips, reduce sugar by half or more. Other than being too sweet, the cookies came out nice and crunchy - a little tangy from dried cranberries - and little salty from nuts.



Here's my take on the recipe. I got 40 cookies/

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter - room temperature


• 1 1/4 cups sugar


• 1 egg


• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour


• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries


• 1 cup white chocolate chips


• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.


2. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg. Continue beating until well combined. Add vanilla extract.


3. Combine salt, baking soda, all purpose flour and whole wheat flour in a separate bowl. Stir into the butter mixture until blended.


4. Fold in cranberries, chocolate chips and almonds.


5. Drop by tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheet. Flatten a bit. Leave about an inch between cookies as they will expand. Bake for 12 minutes.

Yogurt Cupcakes with Black Sesame Chocolate Frosting and Cranberry Creamcheese Frosting

Yay! A birthday party! An excuse to make cupcakes and there will be people eating them! What to do! What to do! I was told to make something simple. But... but... I want to try something new - something exciting!

First - new cake recipe - Yogurt Cake from Chocolate & Zucchini. It was extremely simple to make with all the ingredients I already have. I made one and a half times the recipe and got 28 cupcakes. They came out just ok by themselves - a little leathery and bland compared to the vanilla cupcake recipe that I always use. Maybe I over mixed the batter. Oh well - it gave me more incentive to make fancy frosting.


Black Sesame Chocolate Frosting - Doesn't look pretty but was delicious.

Black Sesame Chocolate Frosting

• 1/2 stick butter - room temperature


• 1 cup confectioner sugar


• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder


• 4 tablespoons black sesame seeds - ground (I ground mine in a coffee grinder.)


• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• About 1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. With an electric mixer, whip butter until fluffy. Slowly add sugar. Beat with low setting first and slowly increase the setting. At the same time sprinkle milk over as needed to get the right consistency.


2. Add cocoa powder, ground black sesame, sesame oil and vanilla extract. Beat until blended with medium high setting. Add more milk if needed.

Fresh Cranberry Creamcheese Frosting - The perfect blend of tart - sweet - and creamy.

Cranberry Creamcheese Frosting
I got the idea from the Apple Cranberry Crisp. I prepared cranberries exactly like the crisp recipe but then added cooled cranberries into whipped creamcheese and I got delicious cranberry creamcheese frosting.

• 1 cup fresh cranberries


• 1/4 cup 100% pomegranate juice


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1 package of 8 oz. creamcheese - room temperature


• 1/2 stick butter - room temperature


• 1 cup confectioner sugar

Directions

1. Over medium heat, boil pomegranate juice and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan. Stir frequently until sugar melts. Add cranberries. Cover during the first few minutes so that bursting cranberries won't make anymore mess. Stir occasionally. Simmer until the liquid reduces. Let cool completely.


2. Beat creamcheese and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar. Beat until combined. Add cranberry mixture. Beat at medium setting until blended.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I bought a bag of fresh cranberry meaning to make Cranberry-Ribbon Apple Pie. But my one and only pie dish was occupied by sweet potato pecan pie. So I made crisp - with apples and cranberries prepared according to the pie recipe. It will be healthier anyway - I can eat leftover for breakfast.

I used pomegranate juice instead of cranberry juice because in my supermarket they only have big huge bottles of 100% cranberry juice. I needed only 1 cup. What would I do with the rest? I hate drinking juice. So I bought the littlest bottle of 100% pomegranate juice I could find. I reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe and used a tablespoon of psyllium husk instead of 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to absorb liquid from baked fruit.



Ingredients

• 1 cup 100% pomegranate juice


• 1 bag 12 oz. fresh cranberry


• 1/2 cup sugar



• 2 pounds granny smith apples - peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (I quartered the apple, and then quarter each quarter.)


• 3 large golden delicious apples - peeled, cored, and thinly sliced


• 1/2 cup sugar


• Juice from 1 lemon


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1 tablespoon ground psyllium husk (or 2 tablespoons all purpose flour)



• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal


• 1/2 cup almond flour (or all purpose flour)


• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts


• 1/4 cup chilled butter

Directions

In a small saucepan, heat pomegranate juice with 1/2 cup sugar over low heat. Stir until sugar melted. Add cranberries. Let simmer and stir frequently until the juice reduced and absorbed by cranberries. At the beginning some of the cranberries may burst. You might want to cover the saucepan during the first few minutes. Let cool.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


2. Toss apples, 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, ground cinnamon and psyllium husk together. Pour into 9x13 baking pan.


3. Pour cranberry mixture over the apples.


4. In a clean bowl, rub oatmeal, almond flour, chopped walnuts and butter together by hand until there are no chunks of butter left. Sprinkle over the fruit.


5. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for dessert or with vanilla yogurt for breakfast.