White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Biscotti

December 7, 2012 by 5 Comments

There are two things you don’t know about me.  1) I’ve never had biscotti.  2) I’ve never made biscotti.

I know.  I’m weird.  I mean, for a girl who drinks so much coffee you’d think that I’d have biscotti all the time.  Nope.  I guess it’s probably because the only biscotti I’ve ever really seen is full of nuts.  And well, I’m allergic to nuts.

This season though, I’ve been seeing all kinds of recipes pops up for biscotti that didn’t include nuts.  Cinnamon sugar, gingerbread (in the picture above), chocolate peppermint and this one… White chocolate dipped cranberry biscotti.

The recipe I’m using is inspired by a recipe I found on What Gaby’s Cooking.  She uses dried cranberries, but since I only had fresh berries, I used those.

Dipped in the white chocolate, this biscotti is a perfect treat to go with my coffee!

I also made Gingerbread Biscotti and have two more delicious flavors planned to make in the coming days!

Enjoy!

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White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Biscotti

Ingredients

    Cranberries
  • 250g fresh cranberries
  • 1/4 cup cranberry juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
    • Biscotti
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup cranberry mixture
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • Sugar in the Raw
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted for dipping

Instructions

    Cranberries
  1. In a medium pot over med-high heat, combine the cranberries, sugar and juice.
  2. Heat until simmering. The berries will begin to pop and split. Stir occasionally.
  3. Reduce to med-low heat and continue to cook until the berries have just begun to reduce. You want the berries to reduce by about a 1/3 with most of the berries still whole.
  4. Remove from heat, strain out as much juice as you can and allow to cool.
    5. Biscotti
  5. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  6. Sift together the 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.
  7. In the bowl of your stand mixer, press the lemon zest into the sugar... releasing the oils of the lemon into the sugar. Press the zest until the sugar becomes fluffy and fragrant.
  8. Add the butter and cream together for about 3-4 minutes.
  9. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until just combined.
  10. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until all the flour has been absorbed. Do not over mix.
  11. Fold in the strained cranberries and additional 1/4 cup flour. Mixture will be VERY sticky... the additional 1/4 cup of flour should help with this.
  12. Form the dough into a long rectangle, approximately 10 inches long and about 4 inches wide. I used an offset spatula to help spread and shape the dough. (Really, shape it as wide and as long as you like. I wanted long cookies, so I made mine wider.)
  13. Sprinkle Sugar in the Raw over the top of the dough.
  14. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until top and bottom are golden brown. Remove, transfer to wire rack and allow to cool about 15 minutes. (If the bottom isn't too brown, you could leave it on the cookie sheet to cool. Remove it if it's already brown.)
  15. Transfer to a cutting board and slice into 1/2" slices. Lay each slice on it's side and place back on the cookie sheet.
  16. Bake for 15-20 more minutes or until golden.
  17. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
  18. Melt the white chocolate and spread it on the bottom of each cookie using an offset spatula or knife. Set on wax paper to until hard.
  19. Serve with coffee to your friends or give as gifts!
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Filed Under: biscotti, biscotti, cookies, cranberries, holiday, recipes, white chocolate

White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

November 30, 2012 by 1 Comment

I never knew before this year how much I loved cranberries.  In years past, I equated them to that canned jellied cranberry sauce that got served with Thanksgiving dinner.  Yuck.  So, you can see how I thought that all cranberry would be equally as disgusting.

That was until I made cranberry sauce from scratch for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Oh Em Gee.  SO GOOD.  I just about fell out of my chair when I tasted it.

This passed weekend my husband and I stopped at two more Starbucks in Germany… Mannheim and Heidelberg.  When in Heidelberg, I ordered their white chocolate cranberry muffin and was amazed at how delicious it was.  The pairing of the white chocolate and cranberry went perfectly together and I decided right then that I needed to make them at home!

I started these muffins with a variation on my cranberry sauce.  I didn’t make quite as much as I made when I used it for Thanksgiving and I didn’t cook it as long.  Just enough to begin to break down the berries and extract the juices.  I still wanted chunks of cranberry floating through my muffins… just not whole, bitter berries.

Enjoy!

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White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 16 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients

    Muffins
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup reduced cranberries (see recipe below)
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks
    • Cranberries
  • 250g (about 2 1/4 cups) fresh cranberries
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup (not pancake syrup - can substitute this with 2 Tbsp more sugar if you don't have it)
  • 1/4 cup cranberry juice (or any other juice you have - apple, orange, lemon)

Instructions

    Cranberries
  1. In a large pan, combine the berries, sugar, syrup and juice and bring to a light boil over medium high heat.
  2. Just as it begins to boil, reduce to simmering.
  3. Cook about 10 minutes or until the cranberries have broken down with about half still in tact and a nice thick syrup made from the remaining berries. You will hear a popping sound, have no fear! That's just the berries popping open in the heat... like popcorn!
  4. Cook until it becomes thick. Remove to cool while preparing the batter.
    5. Muffins
  5. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.
  6. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
  7. Add eggs one at a time and mix until just combined.
  8. Mix in the vanilla.
  9. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
  10. With the mixer on low, add the flour in three parts. Between each addition of flour, add half the buttermilk.
  11. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix just about 80% of the dry mixture has been combined.
  12. Fold in the cranberry sauce and the white chocolate chips.
  13. Fill muffin liners 2/3 full. Bake about 16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  14. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Filed Under: cranberries, muffins, recipes, white chocolate

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

November 21, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of canned cranberries… I guess maybe because I’m a purist.  If I can make it myself with fresh ingredients, I’ll do it!  Thanksgiving cranberry sauce is no exception.

I know, I know… the canned, jellied stuff is a time honored tradition in many homes, but really… once you’ve made this sauce you’ll never go back to the canned stuff!

This sauce is very simple in the ingredients.  If you don’t have cranberry with lime juice, you could use apple or orange juice.  You could even use the zest of lemon or lime!  Really, the possibilities are endless!

ENJOY!

Recipe inspired by: The Pioneer Woman

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Homemade Cranberry Sauce

51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: Approx. 3 1/2 cups

Sweet, tart, fresh cranberry sauce perfect for Thanksgiving and turkey!

Ingredients

  • 500g (about 17.5oz) of fresh cranberries
  • 1 1/3 cup cranberry with lime juice
  • 12oz maple syrup (not pancake syrup, the real stuff!)
  • 1 large orange, zested and juiced
  • 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp corn starch

Instructions

  1. Rinse the cranberries and remove any that are bruised or damaged.
  2. In a large pot, combine the berries, cranberry juice, syrup, orange zest & juice, and the salt.
  3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring gently.
  4. Once it boils, reduce to medium and simmer until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the corn starch and gently stir in. NOTE: Do not over stir, you want the cranberries to break down on their own and some remain whole... over stirring will break the berries down into mush.
  5. Allow to cool completely and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
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Filed Under: appetizers, cranberries, recipes, seasonal, Thanksgiving

CitrusLove BlogHop: Clementine Cranberry Scones

December 26, 2011 by 25 Comments

I used fresh cranberries for the first time in my Mandarin Orange & Cranberry cookies last week.  And let me tell you… I must be a crazy woman for not ever using these before!

This morning, the Cake Duchess posted a recipe for scones that featured these beautiful little berries and I knew I just had to whip up a batch with the rest of my cranberries!

The scones turned out SO GOOD.  Seriously.  Warm, fresh from the oven with a little butter on them.  Almost too good to eat! They are tart, yet sweet… full of beautiful color and flavor with a crispy sugar crust.

I will definitely be making these again!

Clementine Cranberry Scones
makes 6 large scones

Supplies:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 3 Clementine oranges, about 2-3 tsp

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

1 cup chopped fresh cranberries

1 tsp vanilla extract
8-10 tbsp milk, divided

1 tbsp sugar (use turbinado if you have it)

cookie sheet
parchment paper
cooking spray

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, lightly spray with cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, orange zest, and salt
  3. Add cubed butter to flour mixture.  Using a fork, press butter into the flour mixture against the side of the bowl.  The goal here is to create a very dry dough where the butter is in small pieces, not chunks… coarse like.
  4. Add the cranberries and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
  5. In a small measuring cup, mix together 5 tbsp of the milk and the vanilla together.   Add milk to the flour mixture and combine.
  6. Add 3-5 more tbsp of milk at a time until the mixture forms a dough and no dry ingredients remain.
  7. Move the dough to your cookie sheet and flatten into a round circle about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Cut it into 6 equal triangles with a sharp knife, and space evenly across sheet.
  8. Brush the scones with a tablespoon of milk and sprinkle generously with sugar.
  9. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until tops of scones brown.  Watch carefully you don’t want them to burn!
  10. Remove to a wire rack to cool… or you could smear them with butter and eat warm! YUM!

Recipe adapted from: Cake Duchess 

Filed Under: blog hop, bread and pretzels, cranberries, featured, recipes, scones, scones

Mandarin Orange & Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

December 18, 2011 by 2 Comments

I’ve got this yummy box of mandarin oranges just sitting on my counter.  I don’t know what it is… but I think my family might be all mandarin oranged out.  I think this might be our third box this season… so yeah, it was about time to do something with them before they went bad.

But what?  Oh… duh, COOKIES!  haha  It’s that time of year and I’ve been doing nothing but baking cookies lately.  So, why not mandarin orange cookies?  But hmmm…. what goes with orange in cookies… hmmmmm??? CRANBERRIES!  Oh and WHITE CHOCOLATE!

I took a basic brown sugar cookie cookie dough recipe and transformed it into a super amazing Mandarin Orange & Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie!

Now, I used fresh cranberries and fresh oranges, but I’m sure if all you had was canned or jarred that would be okay too.  I just love the idea of big chunks of fresh fruit in these cookies!

I’ve seen some with a glaze on top, but I didn’t want to hide the chunks of fruit inside of them, so I just topped them dough with sugar before baking.  I think they’re pretty much PERFECT!

Mandarin Orange & Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp orange extract
3 tbsp orange juice
Zest of one Mandarin orange

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup halved fresh Mandarin orange slices (about 4 Mandarin oranges)
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks (I used a mix of both cause that’s what I had on hand)

1/4 cup sugar, for dusting

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.
  3. Add the egg, extract, zest and orange juice.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix on high for 3-4 minutes or until the dough is light and fluffy.
  4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
  5. Add the flour to the butter/sugar and mix on low until just combined.
  6. Fold in the halved orange slices, chopped cranberries and white chocolate.
  7. Drop 1 tbsp of dough onto the cookie sheet, 1-2 inches apart.  Do not place more than 12 on a sheet, the cookies spread and need room!
  8. Dust each mound of dough with sugar.
  9. Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown.  Do not overbake!
  10. Remove and let cook on sheet for about 1 minute.  Remove to a wire rack to cool complete.
Filed Under: cookies, cranberries, featured, fruit, fruity cookies, mandarin orange, orange, recipes