Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Cranberry Challenge, Part 2


This is my second post in a series of cranberry recipes, which I've embarked upon after aquiring a three pound bag of the sour little red berries. This time I used a cookie recipe for the cranberries. The only downside to it was that I had to cut all the cranberries I used in half, which was a long and tedious procedure. I guess I could have thrown them in the food processor, but even the briefest little swirl in there would have left something too mushy. Later, when the chopping was almost done, I remembered seeing someone on the cooking channel illustrate how to cut a bunch of grapes in half. They used two round plastic lids that are about the same size, putting a layer of grapes in one round lid up to the edges, then placing the other lid on top, and then just running a big knife between the two lids while holding the grapes steady between them. I really wish i'd remembered that beforehand, because it would have been much faster...

Anyway, the recipe was for Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies, which felt very appropriate to the season, and the recipe was here. I changed it up a little (as always), by using pecans instead of walnuts (this is the south), and also added mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. Actually I made a few before adding in the nuts or chocolate (so the baby could try them--she can't eat nuts quite yet), and then a few with nuts but no chocolate, and then the rest with chocolate. I'll just say that hands down, everyone most loved the ones with all the stuff in them. I tripled the batch, so have a ton in the freezer. It's a good recipe I'd use again, making a not overly sweet cookie that is quite moist!

A side note: I did use one of my cans of pumpkin filling, which I'm now grateful I stockpiled last year, given this year's shortage! Usually I have it for the family pumpkin bread recipe, passed down from my Mamaw. I'll share that recipe sometime soon, too, if I can find some more pumpkin...

As far as the cranberries, looking at my bag of them it looks like I still have a pound and a half left!

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