Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

It's that time of year again. Fall, crisp cool mornings, sweaters and hoodies, and all things pumpkin and spice. While in Walmart a few weeks ago, I saw a bag for Pumpkin Spice Morsels. What the heck is this, I thought. I don't know what I'm going to use these in, but I just knew I had to have them. Then I came across this recipe that I saved last year to try for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. I altered the recipe just a bit and made it my own. I much prefer cranberries over cherries, and I used the morsels I had found at Walmart. I love all of the spices in this cookies too. I got really positive feedback at work when I took these in, so I decided to share it with you!

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter; softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz white chocolate chips

6 oz pumpkin spice chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt in medium bowl.

 

Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until light and fluffy.

Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract; mix well.

 

Add flour mixture; combine until all ingredients are incorporated.

 

Fold in white chocolate chips and cranberries.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 11-14 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned at the edges. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Cranberry Pound Cake

This recipe is a left over from my cranberry craze this winter. I discovered how amazing cranberries are fresh in baked goods, and let me tell you, they are amazing. A little tart, but with the right amount of sugar they are just a bit sweet. It's just an amazing combination. This recipe was based loosely on a recipe I found on Pinterest for Mixed Berry Poundcake with Cinnamon Streusel. I added a glaze to it, and I got a lot of good feedback from this one from my coworkers. The texture is amazing, the sweet glaze with the tart cranberries... you've got to give this a try!

2½ cups all-purpose flour
2½ tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, cubed
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup whole milk (or buttermilk)
4 cups cranberries

12 ounces white chocolate chips

For the Cinnamon Streusel:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter or margarine, cubed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash, drain, and dry cranberries. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. Use about 2 Tbsps of the flour mixture to toss cranberries - this helps them from settling in the cake.

Make the streusel by whisking together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. You can use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the sugar until the mixture forms pea-sized crumbs. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. 

 

In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.

 

Add in eggs, one at a time, followed by extract, sour cream, and milk, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Gradually add in the flour mixture until just moistened. Fold 3/4 of the cranberries and white chocolate into the batter.

Place half of the batter into a well buttered/greased 10-inch bundt or spring-form pan.

Sprinkle with streusel and remaining berries.

Spread the rest of the batter on top of the berries. The batter will be thick.

 

Bake for 1 hour or so, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is set and golden. Allow the cake to cool completely, and then remove from pan. Mix together about a cup of powdered sugar, several tsps of lemon juice and almond extract until mixture is the thickness you prefer. I tend toward a thicker glaze.

 

Slice and serve! This will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 5 days.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

I have become a cranberry convert this past year. I love cranberries. I also love oatmeal in cookies - oatmeal raisin, no bake chocolate oatmeal, etc. I also love white chocolate, and I've been fascinated with using cinnamon chips. Soooo... why don't we combine all of that together into a cookie? Can there be anything wrong with that? Well, I'm here to tell you that there is in fact nothing at all wrong with that. These cookies are freaking awesome! I start them the same as the old Quaker Oatmeal Raisin recipe, and then I take a hard left. 

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, heaping
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 1/2 cups dried sweetened cranberries
12 ounces white chocolate chips
6 ounces cinnamon chips (half a bag)

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk together. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla extract, and blend until combined.

Add flour mixture, and blend until incorporated. Mix in the oatmeal, cranberries, white chocolate chips, and cinnamon chips.

Heap by rounded teaspoon full, or medium cookie scoop if you have one, onto parchment lined cookie baking sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 9-12 minutes until cookies begin to turn golden brown. Cookies will continue to cook and set after being removed from the oven, so do not overcook. Allow cookies to rest on the pan for 3-5 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to completely cool.

Cranberry, Orange, Pecan White Cake

Another cranberry recipe for you lovely folks. I found this recipe for Cranberry Layer Cake on Pinterest, and while I loved the flavor ideas of the cake, I was not about to buy boxed mixes so I went in search of a solid white cake recipe that I could use for this and for any other needs. This search led me to this blog for White Cake Taste Test. I decided to go with the butter version, and oh my gosh, it was delicious. 

Adding the cranberries, orange and pecans from the original recipe makes for one mouth-watering cake. Slather it in cream cheese icing with orange zest and this cake becomes out of this world. The only other changes I made were making this cake three layers instead of two, which required more icing - definitely not a bad thing, right?

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
2 tsps almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp table salt
12 Tbsps unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I didn't toast mine)
1 Tbsp finely shredded orange peel

For icing

3/4 cup butter, softened (or 1 1/2 sticks)

12 oz cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1.5-2 lbs confectioner sugar

1-2 tsp orange zest

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two (or three) 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. 

Either use a food process to lightly chop cranberries or use a knife. Unfortunately, my knife skills are not that good, so I went with the  food processor.

Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.

Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed.

Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining. 

Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes.

Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer. 

Add cranberries, orange zest and pecans and fold into batter.

Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops.

 

Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23-25 minutes (18-20 mins if you use three cake pans). Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes.

Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours.

To make the icing, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add extracts. Gradually blend in confectioner sugar until icing is creamy and the desired consistency. Add orange zest.

 

Frost each layer of the cake carefully, and then smooth frosting.

Enjoy this delicious creation!

Cranberry Breakfast Cake

Cranberries, cranberries, cranberries! I may have possibly been going a little overboard with cranberries the past five weeks. See, here's the deal. Back over the summer, I had found a cranberry citrus sorbet recipe that I wanted to make for my daughter. So I went in search of cranberries. While I didn't expect to find fresh ones, I couldn't even seem to find frozen cranberries. Publix was not even able to order any frozen cranberries. 

So what's a mom to do? Well, when those bad boys come in season, a good mom buys dozens of bags and freezes them, right? Well, that 's what I did anyway. In all, I think I've bought about 30 bags of cranberries since right before Thanksgiving. I froze 15-20 bags, but I've been on the hunt for all kinds of fresh cranberries recipes, and I've been very lucky in the recipes I've found. They have all been really good. This one included. I found it on Pinterest as Cranberry Christmas Cake, but since I didn't make this for Christmas and since it is a light slightly sweet cake without icing, I decided to call it a breakfast cake instead. The addition of almond extract and cinnamon extract raises this cake to a new level that you must try!

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon extract (or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
2 cups flour
12 oz fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray, then line with parchment paper. Lightly spray the parchment as well. This will keep the cake baking more evenly and make for very easy removal.

With a mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until slightly thickened and light in color, about 5-7 minutes. The mixture should almost double in size. The eggs work as your leavening agent in this recipe, so do not skip this step. This mixture should form a ribbon when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.

Add the butter, vanilla and almond extracts; mix two more minutes. Stir in the flour and cinnamon until just combined.

Add the cranberries and stir to mix throughout. Spread in a prepared 9x13 pan. Lightly sprinkle with 1-1.5 Tbsps of sugar.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting into small slices.