Cranberry season!

Hello Friends,

 Today's blog post has two parts, both using cranberry as the main ingredient. Part one, cranberry raisin pumpkin bread, is a recipe from the book,  Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan (Pg.108.) This recipe, a two day bake, makes a wonderfully tender, rich, brioche like bread. Well worth the time. Part two, is a rustic cranberry coffee cake/pie. By contrast, I threw this one together in 20 minutes. The recipe is from my new friend Diane. Diane, is the owner of Diane's Dynamics, a blog page dedicated to the homesteading lifestyle. I will drop links to both Dorie's page and Diane's page at the end of the post. Go there and you will find the exact recipes. Lets get started!

Cranberry raisin pumpkin brioche bread

This recipe make three small loafs, I made two big ones. I used, 91/2x6x3 loaf pans. You will definitely need a mixer for this dough. The dough is sticky, heavy and takes a while to come together. Additionally, you will need some experience. There are a few variables you will have to work with, such as the amount of liquid in your pumpkin. I had to use my experience in bread making to add enough extra flour to form a nice dough. The dough took a good 20 min. to come together, at medium speed, in my kitchen aid mixer. Here's what it looked like

The dough takes some time, but once it comes together it makes a nice, albeit sticky, dough. 

I left the dough to rise at room temperature for two hours. By then it had doubled. I gently deflated the dough and put it in the refrigerator for a slow, cold, overnight ferment. By the next morning it had doubled again. At this point the dough would sit till it reached room temp. I set an instant read thermometer for 68F. 

After about five hours we were up to temp. I rolled the dough onto a lightly floured counter, split it into two equal halves. One at a time, I carefully stretched the dough into 15x 8 inch rectangles. Then I rolled the dough up jellyroll style from the short end, carefully sealing as I rolled. Alas, I should have did a letter fold and a bench rest before rolling, I missed a step. No worries, it came out okay. Now the shaped breads are in the pans for the final proofing. 

 After a two hour proof they were doubled, puffy and ready for the oven; so I popped them in.

They cooked in a well preheated oven at 350F. for 35 minutes. They came out perfectly done. 

I really like this holiday treat bread. It's so good plain, or toasted with butter! It takes some time and a little work, but well worth the effort!

The last photo is a sneak peak at part two!

You can get the recipe over at Dorie Greenspan's page:  This Bountiful Backyard

Don't forget to come back and tell me how it worked for you.

Part two:

Cranberry, orange coffee cake / pie

I had about three cups of nice plump juicy cranberries left after using one cup in the brioche bread. 

My friend Diane shared her recipe for this "peach" of a cranberry pie with me. While the bread was in the oven I quickly assembled the needed components.

• Unsalted butter
• Cranberries
• Sugar (I used Brown)
• Orange juice and zest
• Salt
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• A.P. flour

That was the hardest part of this recipe. Now all that was left was to mix it all together in the pie pan.

I was not sure if the pie was going to be too tart. To my delight, it was not! It was so tasty and just tart enough! This will definitely grace the Falzon holiday table this year! Thanks Diane, this is a winner! I owe you a chicken dinner! Stop back soon, The Delicata squash in the photo will be pumpkin/ squash pie soon!

Diane has the full recipe at her homestead: 

Diane's Dynamics Cranberry Pie

  

Very Berry - Three Berry Pie

Very Berry Pie
By, Will Falzon
Ingredients

1. 2 pie crust 9” (My recipe below)
2. 32 oz. Frozen mixed berries
3. 1 Pink Lady apple, grated and squeezed dry
4. ½ Cup Brown sugar (Not Packed)
5. 1 Tsp. Lemon juice
6. ¼ Cup Balsamic Glaze
7. 1 Tbs. Unsalted Butter
8. ½ tsp. Salt
9. 1/3 Cup Tapioca Flour
   

Instructions.
Preheat oven to 350F. 15Min. Before the pie is ready for the oven

1. Rinse berries in cold water, place in a large colander/strainer, over a large bowl. Let the berries defrost and release there juices. Ether, over night in the fridge, or on the counter. Reserve all of the berry juice.
2. Add the salt and Lemon juice to the defrosted berries, allow to macerate
   for another 20min. At room temp.
3. Reduce the collected berry juice to ¼ the original volume. You should have about two cups worth. Reduce to ¼ cup. Place the juices and butter in a microwave safe glass, 4 cup measure. Microwave on high, 2min. at a time, stirring to release trapped air bubbles; at the 2min. Intervals.
4. Combine the reduced berry juice, Berries, Apple, Brown sugar, Balsamic glaze and Tapioca flour. Mix well
5. Place one pie crust in a 9” pie pan.
6. Place the berry mixture into the pie shell
7. Cover with the second pie pastry. Fold the top pastry under the bottom pastry and press to seal.
8. Flute the edge of the pie all the way around
9. Slice 6 vent holes in the center of the pie
10. Bake in the 350F preheated oven for 1:15min. Or until the filling is bubbling at the vent holes.

Optionally, you can paint the pie top with some egg white and sprinkle with a little white sugar before baking.

Pie Pastry, dough 

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• 3 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
• About 3/4 cup ice water
  Makes 4 -  9 to 11 inch pie crusts. Enough for 2, two crust Pies.

Preparation

1. Sift flour with salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Beat egg with vinegar in a 1-cup measure using a fork, then add enough ice water to measure 1 cup total. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until incorporated.
3. Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently with heel of your hand just enough to bring dough together. Roll out or pat into a 15- by 9-inch rectangle. Arrange dough with short side nearest you, then fold into thirds like a letter to form a roughly 5- by 9-inch rectangle. Divide dough into 4 equal sized disks. I weigh the dough. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour and up to 6. Alternatively, you could freeze at this point, for use later.