Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

Put cranberries and pumpkins together and you get a delicious cookie. This recipe I found on the All Recipes website but have modified it a bit after trying it a few times. The cookies are really moist and have a delightful spicy flavor. For more sweetness you can top them with some white frosting or lightly powder with confectionery sugar, but I like them just the way they are.

Enjoy!



Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into mixture until well blended.
4. Cut the cranberries in half and stir into mixture along with the orange zest and walnuts.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Yields 3-4 dozen cookies depending the size.

Note: There was still something about the cranberry bread recipe that didn't sit well with me so I modified it even more. This time I think we've got a really nice recipe and Andy loves it. Please see the previous post for the edited version.

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

EDITED on 10/21/09: There was something about this quick bread recipe that still needed to be changed. I spent some time in the kitchen figuring it out and now I think it's much better. The recipe below is the edited version.

After going to the Cranberry Festival last week I stocked up on fresh cranberries. They are in season right now, readily available fresh, and very affordable. They also freeze really well so you can buy lots now and store them for many yummy recipes all winter long.

I decided to first do some baking. I'm trying out a few cranberry bread recipes and this one seemed to work well after some modifications. I cut down on the amount of salt the original recipe called for, cut the nut quantity in half, and added some dried, ground ginger to give it a little more zing. Also, the original recipe said to bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes, but when I took the bread out of the oven the middle collapsed a bit and the inside was not as done as I would have liked. So, I would increase the temperature to 350 degrees and bake it for less time. All of the modifications I made to the recipe are reflected at the end of this post. If you give it try let me know what you think and if you changed anything. I won't be offended... it's not my recipe I just found it and tried it out so I'd love to hear your feedback.

Washing fresh red berries -- The colors are so vibrant.



Here my ingredients are "mise en place" -- ready to go.


Mixing the dry and wet ingredients separately before putting them all together.


Folding in the cranberries.



Folding in the chopped walnuts.


In the loaf pan and ready to be baked.


The finished product. Tasty and very pretty with lots of red chunks of cranberries. A wonderful breakfast treat or an evening snack with a piping hot cup of tea.



Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cut brown sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• Grated peel of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (chopped or whole depending on your preference)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (use less or more depending on your preference or eliminate all together)
• 1/4 tsp dried, ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. In another bowl, beat egg. Add orange juice, peel, butter and hot water.
3. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened.
4. Gently fold in cranberries and walnuts.
5. Spoon into greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Cranberry Country

When the air gets brisk and the leaves put on their golden display it's time to harvest cranberries. Massachusetts is the 2nd largest producer of cranberries in the United States with Wisconsin being the largest. The cranberry is one of only a handful of fruits native to North America - the Concord grape and blueberry being the others. Cranberries were widely found in Massachusetts, as documented by the Pilgrims who settled here. Rumor has it that cranberries may have been served at the first Thanksgiving dinner in Plymouth. Recipes using cranberries date back to the 1700s.


Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines that have slender, wiry stems and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink in the spring which eventually yields a large red berry in the fall. The plants are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the United States. The name cranberry derives from "craneberry," first named by early European settlers in America who felt the expanding flower, stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane.

We are lucky enough to live in the heart of cranberry country.


As a matter of fact the corporate headquarters of Ocean Spray is only a few miles from our house. So what does one do when it's cranberry season? Why you celebrate this colorful fall bounty by visiting the annual Cranberry Festival.

There are several cranberry festivals all over our region, but our favorite is the one hosted by Edaville in Carver, Massachusetts. Edaville is a family amusement park famous for it's old-fashion train rides that wind through acres of cranberry bogs.








After a leisurely train ride we headed for the exhibitor booths and food court.

We stopped at the general store for some some delicious cranberry jam and warm bread.


I enjoyed watching the blacksmith do some forging. My grandfather was a blacksmith so this always brings back memories of visiting his shop when I was a child.




After enjoying some time talking to local craftsman we headed for the cranberry museum. Here's a display made entirely of vintage labels.


This is an early cranberry processing machine. The cranberries would move along the belt and the ones that bounced the most had the highest quality.

Some old cranberry crates.

A vintage barrel label.

These are dry harvesting machines.

A selection of vintage wooden cranberry scoops. These comb-like tools are used to harvest cranberries by hand.



This displays shows the different layers that comprise a cranberry bog.


Here's what's in those layers.

A vintage wet harvesting machine.

Vintage wheelbarrows that are made to hold crates of cranberries.


A vintage barrel.


This display shows the timeline of Ocean Spray.


A cool old truck.... every time I see one of these I want one for myself.

Another harvesting machine.


When we left the cranberry museum we headed for a tour of the bogs.


Here the cranberry bog has been flooded for harvesting.




Andy (on the left) stopped to chat with the man who had just finished harvesting one of the bogs.




As the vines are wet harvested they often get tangled in the machine and have to be cleaned out periodically.


These 3 cranberries look like eggs to me.


Here's a cranberry bog as it looks prior to being flooded. It's not very pretty at this stage but soon it will be a sea of red berries.

All of these cranberries got me itching to do some baking. I'll be posting my favorite cranberry bread recipe soon so stay tuned.