Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

I found this recipe in Parade Magazine. You can also see it here. Although my version turned out to be a slightly flatter cake, it still tasted awesome. This will definitely be made again--probably during the holidays. It works as either a dessert or a brunch-time coffeecake.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients for cake:
1-1/2 cup fresh cranberries
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/2 cup butter, softened and divided
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk

Ingredients for glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon melted butter
2 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray and flour lightly.

In a small bowl, combine cranberries, walnuts, and orange peel.

In a small saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cranberry and nut mixture.

Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and remaining butter until creamy. Add vanilla, egg, buttermilk, and flour mixture. Spoon over cranberries.

Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before inverting onto pan. Beat glaze ingredients and drizzle over cake.

Cranberry-Orange Scones

A friend was kind enough to pass on her scone recipe to me. They were so fantastic--not dry and heavy like many other scones--that I was tempted not to bring them into work as promised. I did manage to get most of them into work, and I also tried making my own variation by adding some dried cranberries and orange zest. These turned out yummy, too!

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated orange peel (a.k.a. orange zest)
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk mixed with 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and grated orange peel. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture becomes coarse like cornmeal. Make a hole in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Mix until dough is sticky. Stir in dried cranberries.

Divide dough in half. Using one-half at a time, shape it into a 5-inch circle on a floured surface. Cut into pie wedges. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

For the plain scones, simply omit the dried cranberries and orange peel.

Cranberry Walnut Brownies

Sometimes I make a dessert with the intention of posting it on this blog, and then I almost forget to snap a photo before the dessert disappears!

Such is the case with these brownies.

I brought them into work. My team loved them, and I brought home a few leftovers. Then what? Yesterday I realized there were only two left, and I hadn't taken a picture yet! So the photo you see below is of the last two remaining brownies. They aren't as moist as they first were, but I have to say that the dried cranberries seemed to keep the brownies moist longer than usual.

Cranberry Walnut Brownies

Ingredients:
10 tablespoons butter
5 oz. semisweet chocolate
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9 x 9 inch pan with foil. Spray with cooking spray.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and butter 2 minutes on high. Stir every 30 seconds. If necessary, continue to melt at 30 second increments.

Stir in both kinds of sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla. Add flour and stir. Mix in dried cranberries and walnuts. Spread into pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes until knife comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

These cookies were kind of a "what do I have at home that might make a good cookie" type of recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 small package (3.9 oz.) chocolate or chocolate fudge instant pudding
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup Craisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add pudding and beat again. Add eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour.

Stir in Craisins, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Yields: about four dozen cookies

Cherry Ranger Cookies

I made these just before the Michigan trip. I stashed them in Ziploc bags so we could enjoy some homemade goodies right away. On the first night of the trip, we bought some black cherry ice cream, and a few of us made ice cream sandwiches with these cookies. The cookies were pretty good on their own, but I thought they were even better with the black cherry ice cream.

Cherry Ranger Cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup cherry-flavored Craisins

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Add flour gradually and continue beating. If your mixer can’t handle all the flour, you can stir the rest by hand. Mix in the oats, coconut, and Craisins.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Baking at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Cool on cookie sheet one minute before transferring to a wire rack.

Black Forest Cookies

I love the combination of chocolate and cherry. However, I have to admit that these cookies might be a bit too rich even for me. I chose to make them without the nuts and I used semisweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate, and those two changes may have been a mistake. If I were to make them again, I would put in the nuts, be sure to use milk chocolate chips, and perhaps even increase the amount of cherry-flavored Craisins.

Actually, I'm thinking of trying my own concoction of Black Forest Cookies. I'll let you know if I do. In the meantime, this recipe comes straight from the back of the cherry-flavored Craisins package. You can find them in the raisin aisle. They're basically dried cranberries that come in a variety of flavors.

Black Forest Cookies

Ingredients:
1 11.5-ounce package of milk chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 6-ounce package of cherry-flavored dried cranberries (Craisins)
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour 3/4 cup of chocolate chips into microwave-safe bowl. Set the remaining chips aside. Microwave for about two minutes. Stir until the chocolate is smooth.

Stir in brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder. Mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in remaining chocolate chips, Craisins, and nuts.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Baking for 12 minutes. Cookies should be puffed yet firm to touch. Cool on cookie sheet for two minutes. Then remove to wire rack.

Yields about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.