Apple Pie Quick Bread with Cranberries

This is based on my traditional quick bread recipe. I had half of a container of apple pie filling left and decided to dump it into some batter. The result was extraordinary! I will be making this as gifts for sure!

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cups of sugar
1/3 cup of canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups apple pie filling*
3/4 cup of dried cranberries
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

Preheat oven to 375

In the bowl of your mixer beat together eggs, sugar and oil until pale yellow and fluffy. Add vanilla and baking powder and gradually add in the flour. When all is well mixed (mixture will seem dry - not to worry) add the apple pie filling* and cinnamon if desired. A chunky cinnamon flavored apple sauce might be a very good substitute. Mix well, add cranberries, mix well.

Into a pre-greased bread loaf add the batter.
Bake for approximately 1 hour.

The inside will be soft and moist!

Cinnamon Apple, Raisin and Cranberry Oatmeal -- A Breakfast to Warm Your Soul!

 

We're always in a rush, it seems, these days. We never seem to have the time for a proper breakfast. As the kids race out the door I toss assorted granola bars their way. Too much sugar, I know. I do make the effort to read ingredients in the stores so that I know that they are loading up on protein, minerals and fiber. So all is not lost. It's not like I'm tossing cookies their way. Close, but not quite.

On Saturday we had to leave the house, for two wakes sadly, at Noon. I need to get something filling in to the children. I needed something that would not leave them feeling empty and hungry an hour later. They love oatmeal (not the instant crap) but get bored with it. I decided if I added lots of "goodies" to the mix they'd be a bit more enthusiastic.

I tossed in some dried cranberries, raisins and apples. I had the apples sit in a mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar for a while so that the apples would be nice and sweet before I even cooked the oatmeal.

I made enough oatmeal, (following the directions on the box) for all of us. I added a handful of raisins and cranberries to the water as I let it boil so the fruit would plump up and get juicy.

As the water rolled to a boil I added the oats, the seasoned apples and oodles of brown sugar.

Our wholesome breakfast tasted more like dessert! Not a drop was left over!

Ingredients:

Old Fashioned oats, NOT the quick cook version -- followed recipe for 4 people
1/2 Cup of raisins

1/2 Cup of dried cranberries
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, seeded and cut into small cubes
3Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (or to taste)
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon

Chewy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Ahhh.... I love oatmeal cookies. Chewy crispy crunchy oatmeal cookies are my favorites! I adapted this recipe so that it would have some holiday flair. I substituted the raisins for the dried cranberries and added some white chocolate chips.

I have to let you in on a little secret. The recipe on the back of the Dole raisin box blows all the other oatmeal raisin recipes out of the water. Really, its that good. I will copy the original recipe for you and then write the edits in red. I highly suggest you try both recipes... Immediately!

Prep time: 15 minutes Bake time: 15 - 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon (did not use for the cranberry recipe)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (omited for cranberry recipe)
1/4 tsp salt (I always omit)
3/4 cups of margarine, softened
3/4 cups of packed brown sugar
3/4 cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups of old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups of Dole raisins (I used 1 cup of dried cranberries and 1 cup of white chocolate chips)

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in bowl and set aside.
Beat butter and sugars together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in oats and raisins (or cranberries and white chocolate chips).
Drop by spoonfuls on to ungreased baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
Bake at 375 F for 10 -12 minutes. Let cool on wire racks. Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Nothing less than Aaaaahmazing! Light and yet decadent... this recipe is Giada's (de Laurentis). I opted not to dip the cookies in melted chocolate as I thought they really didn't need anything else!

These would be perfect in any cookie jar... would make a lovely hostess gift or a wonderful accoutrement to any holiday dessert buffet table.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped ( I made one batch nut-free and used almonds in the other in lieu of the pistachios)
  
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries
• 12 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped (I used a good quality white chocolate chip)
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries.

Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.

Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the baking sheet for the chocolate to set. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.

Cranberry, Raisin and Apricot Scones

Soft, flaky, light and fruity these scones are a perfect fall afternoon snack or breakfast. You can substitute any fruit you want, as much or as little, but the cranberry-raisin-apricot combination is one of my favorites!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour, plus more for rolling and cutting scones
3 Tbs. sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
8 oz plain yogurt (I've used vanilla in the past and got the same good results)
1 egg
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried apricots, cut into pieces
1/3 cup raisins

* In a large bowl stir together sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda
* Add egg, yogurt and butter, mix well
* Add dried fruit, mix well
* If the dough is too wet add more flour 1 Tbs at a time until your dough is rollable and not too sticky
* If your dough mixture is too dry (crumbly) add water 1 Tbs at a time

* On a clean, flat surface, sprinkle some flour, then roll out the dough and cut out into circles using a cookie or biscuit cutter. Repeat until all the dough is used.

* Place on a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart, brush lightly with water, sprinkle sugar over the top and bake for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees F until lightly golden. (1o minutes in convection oven)

Let cook about 5 minutes and serve!

Quick, Easy & Fantastically Delicious Oatmeal Bars with White Chocolate, Almonds and Cranberries

You're in a rush and you need to come up with something sweet and filling for an afternoon snack as you know your kids are going to roll their eyes at you if you offer what's in your pantry-- rice cakes, pretzels, Goldfish crackers or what's in your fridge -- cheese sticks, yogurt and apples... "So sick of those!"

I keep packaged cookie and cake mixes on hand for various occasions. I am a huge fan of the Betty Crocker cookie mix. You can totally pull these off as homemade (and I think I am going to one day!) especially when you add your own fixins...

To the packaged oatmeal cookie I added butter and egg as the recipe indicated. Instead of water I added a couple of tablespoons of apple cider! Then I tossed in:

1/2 almond meal
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup of white chocolate chips and
1 cup of dried cranberries

I tossed all ingredients (in no particular order) into the KitchenAid bowl and mixed away until all was well blended.

I took a brownie pan, greased it up really well with non-stick spray and applied the cookie mix to the pan, making sure that it was all evenly spread out.

In my preheated (375 degrees) oven I baked the bars for about 30 minutes.

When they were ready I took them out to cool, and cut them into squares when they were slightly warmer than room temperature.

And then, when you are running late for school and don't have time to make the kids breakfast hand them a cranberry bar and make up some nonsense about them being good for you because they contain oats, nuts and cranberries!

(I have a recipe for an amazing crispy, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie... I thought it was on the blog. But it's not. I'll take care of that over the next couple of days. That recipe can be used for these bars as well.)

Make it your own: Delightful Citrus Cranberry Muffins

I'm not sure why I had these in my house. Daddy picked them up for sure. I'm not even a lemon poppy girl. But the kids were hungry and there was nothing in the house. Well, sure there was... but no one wanted, oatmeal, cereal, eggs or yesterday's pancakes. So I grabbed this muffin mix. It was the small one. The one that makes just 6 muffins, which is totally useless when there are 5 people in a house. But that's not the point and I didn't buy them and I should have been happy they were in the pantry to begin with.

I looked at the directions and turned the oven on as it said to do. Then it told me to "just add water." Well, I don't just do anything and I like to tinker. So I replaced the water with orange juice. And added a half a cup of dried cranberries.

And you know what? These cranberry citrus things were good. Damned good! (No picture. All were eaten!)

It's the Great Pumpkin Muffin (Charlie Brown)!!!

I love pumpkin. Anything pumpkin. I love that my kids love pumpkin too. It's so good and healthy for them too. We make lots of pumpkin breakfast goodies in the fall. It's September and the heat and humidity have left New England. The cool, crisp air is perfect for baking. Yesterday I made some fabulous pumpkin muffins. Always a hit around here. I added dried cranberries and raisins for a perfect breakfast or morning snack. We're running out quickly!

Ingredients:
3 cups of unbleached flour
1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 - 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
1 can of pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
3/4 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of skim or 1% milk
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Pour mixture in to muffin tins either well greased or lined with cupcake liners. (I use a small ice cream scoop and fill each tin about 3/4 to the top.)

Bake in oven for 25 - 30 minutes... check for done-ness with a toothpick after 25 minutes.

When done remove from oven and let cool.

A perfect taste of fall!

Rustic Scone with Almonds, Raisins, Dried Cranberries and Chocolate Chips

My husband has been pushing for scones for a while. I finally gave in! Instead of scones he got one massive, rustic scone! We had such fun cutting away at it... got a bit carried away I'm afraid!

A good scone is moist and flaky, firm not mushy like soft bread as we find all too often here in the States. This was to be a dried fruit and nut scone, but when a 4 year old helps out in the kitchen chocolate chips are inevitably added to the equation... the end result was not exactly fit for a healthy breakfast, but a treat to be savored later on. It was delicious! Thank you, Alexander, for the wonderful addition!


Ingredients:

4 cups plus all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 sticks of cold butter, diced
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold milk
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup almonds, slivered
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 egg white for egg wash



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix flour and cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the dough resembles large crumbs. Add the eggs and milk, vanilla and baking powder and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried fruit, nuts and chocolate and mix on low speed until blended.

Put the dough onto a greased cookie sheet, parchment paper or liner. Spread the dough into roughly a 10 inch circle. (It will be very sticky.) Brush the egg wash over the scone and lastly sprinkle sugar over the top.

Bake the scone about 25 - 30 minutes until it is nicely golden and firm to the touch. Let the scone cool 10 -15 minutes and then bring to the table and either let everyone break off a piece or cut a piece. This is a fun thing to have when you have friends over for coffee in the late morning or early afternoon!

Deep Fried Apple Oatmeal

Ok, so it's not really deep fried. Nor is it as unhealthy as it sounds! But this spur of the moment concoction was as delicious as any deep fried dish should be!


Ingredients:

*Oats, enough for 4 servings, about 2 cups
*Water, 3 1/2 cups plus 4 Tbs
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
6 tbs of brown sugar
3 tbs. butter
2 crisp apples such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady
1 handful of raisins
1 handful of cranberries

* Be sure to follow the cooking directions as listed on your particular oats box.

We had just gotten back from Maine. The kids were hungry. They did not want cereal. Christopher requested oatmeal with apples. I would have to somehow divvy up the one apple to serve four. I rummaged through my Well Stocked Pantry to find the oatmeal and brown sugar. I had one lone apple (that I did not eat on the car ride home.)

I cut up my crunchy and delicious Pink Lady into thin slices. I then Tossed them into my non-stick Calphalon pan with about 2 tbs. of butter, 4 tbs. of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

I let the butter melt then I added the sugar and cinnamon and mixed well. Then I added approximately 4 tbs. of water and tossed in the apples and let them simmer in the sugary, buttery goodness.




In a pan I measured enough water for 4 servings of oatmeal. I used Quaker Oats, NOT the quick cook variety. When the water came to a boil I tossed in the oats, a generous handful of raisins and a generous handful of dried cranberries and let it all cook. I am a stirrer. For fear of sticky oatmeal I stir the pot constantly. After about 7 minutes or so (it does take longer when you double the portion) I added 2 more tbs. of brown sugar into the oats, turned the heat up until the water evaporated.

When the oats were done I removed the pan from the heat and set it aside.

Back to the apples. When they were done --the burnt (caramelized) ones were the best -- I removed them from the pan and set them aside. I then poured the oatmeal in to the sugary buttery deliciousness and mixed it up so that the oatmeal and the sugar mixture were well blended. I placed the apples on top.

This was a HUGE hit and one that will be made on many a school morning! Next time I will be sure to use more apples!

I can'tstopeatingthisAMAZING Granola!

I like granola, granola bars and oatmeal raisin cookies, especially the thick chewy kind you get in a bakery. My mother had a recipe for it that I liked as a kid. Of course I can never leave well enough alone and decided to doctor it up a little and what resulted was a crunchy, chewy, sweet treat I can not (nor can anyone else around here!) stop eating!

I made this for my breakfast fussy daughter as well as the boys who love cereal. This is fabulous sprinkled over vanilla ice cream or stirred in to some vanilla yogurt. Personally, I think it is perfect plain, all by itself! Although quite high in sugar, (I use honey as well as brown sugar in this variety) this recipe has a lot of wonderful nutrients from the oats, dried fruit and flax seed.

Preheat oven to 275

Ingredients:

26 oz. oats, uncooked, NOT quick cooking

1/3 Cup flax seeds (whole seed)

2/3 Cup sliced almonds -- optional and other nuts may be substituted

1/3 Cup sunflower seeds

1 Tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spices

1/2 Cup Canola oil

1/2 Cup dark brown sugar

1/2 Cup honey

2 cups of dried fruit such as raisins, dried cranberries... you can mix different fruits

Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add honey, brown sugar, spices and oil and mix really well. (This is great fun for the kids to do and, provided they have washed their hands really well can mix with their bare hands!)

When all is well mixed placed in a parchment lined rimmed cookie sheet or Jelly Roll pan and spread out evenly. (A non-stick cooking spray may be used instead of the parchment paper.)

Bake for 1 hour

Let cool about 20 minutes, then break up and crumble into bite sized pieces, add fruit toss... enjoy right out of the bowl!

Cranberry Raisin Cake

I told my friend Beth I would watch her kids this afternoon (my kids love her kids) so that she could pack for her family trip to the Outter Banks. I was more than happy to offer to do so. Suddenly I panicked that I had nothing for the kids to snack on. Her son is highly allergic to peanuts and I was terrified of serving anything potentially dangerous, anything that might contain traces of peanuts -- heck, even anything that might contain traces of traces of peanuts. I thought the best thing to do was to bake something from scratch so that I could have control over all of the ingredients.

I wanted to bake my Blueberry Cake but had neither the blueberries nor the orange juice that the recipe called for. I decided to improvise. I found some raisins and some cranberries. I substituted the orange juice for milk and added a bit more. The result was incredible. So much so that I have less than a quarter of the cake left! I gave a slice to Don, and after his first bite he said "Go get a camera. You need to put this on your blog!" And so here it is.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of all purpose flour
slightly less than 2 cups of sugar, plus
*5 Tbs of sugar mixed with
1 Tbs of ground cinnamon
1 cup of salad oil
1/3 cup of low fat milk
4 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup of dried cranberries (Use 1 + cup of fresh cranberries if you can!)
1 cup of raisins

-- Place all ingredients in a bowl except the ground cinnamon and sugar mixture, put those in a small bowl separately.

-- Mix all the mixing bowl ingredients together until all is well blended.

-- Grease a bundt pan well with butter and flour or Pam

-- in the small bowl mix the Cinnamon sugar mixture

-- pour batter by large spoonfuls (creating at least 2 layers) with the batter

-- in between each layer spoon generous amounts of Cinnamon sugar mixture, covering the layer completely.

-- spoon in remaining batter and repeat (as necessary) with the Cinnamon sugar to create Cinnamon swirls.


-- Cook in a preheated oven for 1.5 hours

-- Let pan cool completely before trying to remove cake. (Otherwise it will crack and split. It will still be delicious but not as beautiful!)

I have a silicone bundt pan that I adore. This cake comes out beautifully in it. And removing the silicone bundt pan is much easier than removing a regular bundt pan from a cake!

The Perfect Scone

(In all honesty this is just a scone, a very mediocre scone at best... it is from the bakery section at the grocery store...

I just needed a picture to illustrate my recipe!)

This is a foolproof recipe and I get perfect scones every time. I have not made it in ages. I wanted to this morning but ran out of time. I am posting this recipe for everyone, but mostly Marie, who asked for it and has been waiting very patiently for me to tear through boxes and boxes and flip through cookbook after cookbook until I came across a piece of paper all tattered and torn. I have no idea where the recipe originated, but I got it from my sister in law.

Ingredients:

2 Cups of flour

3 Tbs dark brown sugar

2 Tsp baking powder

1/2 Tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 Cup of butter

1 8 oz, container of *sour cream

1 beaten egg yolk

1 slightly beaten egg white

1/2 - 1 Cup of dried fruit such as raisins, cranberries, dried cherries, apricots, etc...

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour and brown sugar, baking powder, baking sugar and salt.

Cut butter in to mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the egg yolk and the sour cream. Stir or mix until well combined.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, then flatten and add your dried fruit and knead about 10 times to really incorporate fruit.

Pat out in to a circle, about 7 inches, and cut into 12 wedges, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Or...

Roll into a wire log and cut into 1 and 1/2 inch - 2 inch slices.

Bake at 400 degrees or until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

* I now use light or fat free sour cream with the same results. Vanilla yogurt, or plain yogurt work well as a sour cream substitute.