3 Cranberry recipes from Leslie Cerier’s cookbook
Going Wild in the Kitchen
The Fresh and Sassy Tastes of Vegetarian Cooking
Available in bookstores everywhere
For your AUTOGRAPHED COOKBOOK, please click back to my website, Lesliecerier.com for ordering info, or see info at the bottom of these easy recipes.
Many thanks and happy holidays!
Tis the season to give thanks for the great harvest of organic fruits, vegetables and wild foods. Cranberries are a delicious wild berry harvested in Cape Cod, MA.
Cranberries are a rich source of fiber and vitamin C. They also contain a significant amount of vitamin A and potassium.
Cranberry Scones
If you love cranberries, you will go nuts for these scones, which you can whip up in just twenty-five minutes. Emjoy for a spontaneous brunch or snack.
Yield: 18 scones
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup raisins
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a cookie sheet and set aside.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Add the apple juice, honey, oil, cranberries, and raisins, and stir to form a moist dough.
3. [With floured hands?] Shape the dough in your hands into 2 1/2 inch rounds about 3/4 inch high. Place them on the cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
5. Transfer to a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then serve.
For a Change . . .
• For an exotic grain variation, replace the whole wheat pastry flour with a combination of 2 1/2 cups spelt flour and 1/2 cup teff flour.
• Instead of apple juice, use vanilla soymilk.
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Include this wonderful sweet and tart cranberry orange sauce at your next Thanksgiving feast. It is also a wonderful accompaniment to the Goat Cheese Mushroom Strudel on page xx.
Makes 2 cups
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
3 tablespoons maple syrup or to taste
1. Put cranberries, orange juice, and orange zest in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring the ingredients to a boil and reduce heat to a medium low. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the cranberries are soft.
2. Turn off the heat and stir in the maple syrup.
3. Adjust the seasonings, and add more maple syrup if desired.
Maple Cranberry Pecan Cake
If you haven’t baked with maple sugar, it is time. When making a fruitcake, maple sugar is the perfect sweetener to give pastries a distinctive flavor and fragrance without adding more moisture. Also, if you want to convert a maple syrup sweetened cake recipe from whole wheat flour to spelt flour, simply use maple sugar; all the other measurements remain the same.
Serves 6-8
2 tablespoons flax seeds
3/4 cup cranberry nectar or apple juice
1/4 cup orange or tangelo juice
(Fresh squeezed if possible from 1 orange or tangelo)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon canola oil
2 cups spelt flour
2/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup maple sugar granules or 1/2 cup sugar
Topping
1/2 cup pecans
1 tablespoon maple sugar granules or sugar to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put flax seeds in a blender. Grind into a powder. Add cranberry juice and orange juice, and 1/4-cup oil and blend.
3. Put the spelt flour, baking powder, salt, maple sugar granules, cranberries, blended juices with flax seeds in a large mixing bowl, and mix well.
4. Oil one loaf pan with 1 teaspoon oil.
5. Pour batter into 9-inch cake pan.
6. Make the crumb topping: Grind pecans in the work bowl of a food processor. Add maple sugar to taste.
7. Sprinkle maple pecan crumbs on top of cake.
8. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Cool for 30 minutes, and serve.
Variations
Substitute some chocolate chips for some or all of the berries.
Substitute blackberries or blueberries for cranberries.
Replace pecans with walnuts.
Change the juices to 2/3 cup orange juice and 1/3-cup apple juice.
To buy a copy of Going Wild in the Kitchen, simply send a check for $20 for your autographed copy. Please send your mailing address to Leslie Cerier, 58 Schoolhouse Rd, amherst, MA 01002. Special discount for multiply copies. Email Leslie@lesliecerier.com for discount.
