Cranberry Nut bread

Cranberry Nut Bread

This my family's favorite holiday treat, when i was little we left cranberry nut bread out for Santa, instead of cookies. Dad said Santa would be sick of cookies and loved having something a little different at our house. We make this every Thanksgiving and every Christmas. The extended family fully expects us to bring some with us to our family gatherings. As soon as we get to Grandma's house everyone swoops in to get some before its gone. This is the very best cranberry bread there is. Nothing says its Christmas to me more than Cranberry Nut Bread.

Place the frozen cranberries into the food processor.

Chop them pretty fine.

Put them in a bowl.

Add the sugar.

Mix thoroughly. The sugar will turn into a syrup. Do not skip this step, if you don't add sugar to the cranberries it is a disaster, a friend of my moms skipped this step once, it wasn't pretty, bad things happen. You don't even want to know....

See how pretty that is?

Grate some orange rind. I like to use my micro plane, but if you don't have one a cheese grater will work too.

In another bowl add all your dry ingredients.

Flour.

Baking powder. This recipe calls for A LOT of baking powder, I promise it is not a misprint, you really need 9 tsp. of baking powder for 2 loaves.

Salt.

Grated orange rinds.

Mix together.

Add the sugar.

Mix again.

Melt your butter.

take the pan off the heat and add the milk.

In another bowl (lots of dishes in this one ) beat 2 eggs.

Add to the milk and butter mixture.

Bring the wet ingredients and dry together, it's what they really want.

Look how syrupy and lovely that is.

Add the cranberries to the batter.

Fold them in gently, but don't over mix.

All mixed in, see how it's got some lumps? That's just right.

Add your favorite nut. The original calls for walnut, but I'm not a fan, so we use pecans.

Grease 2 bread pans.

Split the batter between them.

I am so excited!

Mmmmm, the house smells wonderful.

You probably should let the bread cool for a little bit. Don't burn yourself!

However, I like it all hot and steamy. The better to melt your butter dear...

Slightly sweet, a little tart and oh so yummy. Please do yourself a favor, if you like cranberries, try this bread. It's amazing!.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen cranberries

1/2 cup sugar

grind cranberries and mix with sugar. Set aside.

2 cups sugar

6 cups flour

9 tsp. baking powder

6 tbs grated orange rind

2 cups milk

6 tbs melted butter

2 eggs slightly beaten

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add orange rind. Mix in the sugar. Melt your butter take off the heat and add milk, then the eggs. Add to dry ingredients. Stir just enough to moisten. Fold in sweetened cranberries, then nuts. Split between 2 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour.

Chocolate chip cookies

This is seriously the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever eaten. This is not a family recipe, in fact I only started making these in the last 4 months or so. This recipe is adapted from the one on savory sweet life I made a couple of small changes. I only ever use unsalted butter, I use a little less chocolate chips (I prefer more cookie in my chocolate chip cookies), and I use a little more vanilla than she does. OMFG these are AWESOME! She totally deserves bragging rights, and you all should run over and give her awesome props for posting this. I just had to share this with the world as well.

Start with room temperature butter.

Cream until glossy.

Add brown sugar.

Then white sugar.

In another bowl mix your dry ingredients.

Flour.

Baking soda.

Baking Powder.

Now pretend there is a picture of me adding the sea salt...

Whisk together.

(This is my shortcut for sifting, I still don't have a sifter. Bad, bad blogger)

This is what the butter and sugar mixture should look like. Make sure you let this beat together for at least 3 minutes! Otherwise you will have flat sad cookies.

Never add eggs this way, its a bad plan, leads to egg shells in your batter.

If I was a great chef I would have cracked my eggs into a small bowl and then added them, but I was being lazy....

Now comes the vanilla. So wonderful.

I always use more than recipes call for, because I LOVE vanilla.

Beat for another 2 minutes.

It's ready to add the dry ingredients.

Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, until it is all mixed together.

I say add a lot.... add add add.

Now for the chocolate chips!

1 bag is the perfect amount to me, but if you want more, please, use more.

Mix until combined.

Catch your husband with his fingers in the cookie dough!

Bad Duck!

Decide that he gets to do the dishes.

I love this thing, its a little 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop. I use it so my cookies all come out about the same. If you don't have one, 2 tbsp of dough is about the same.

Pull the cookies from the oven and try to wait.

then place them on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

I could eat the whole batch! Well maybe not, but I wanna try!

You really wanna make these cookies. Do it!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
12 Oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, about 1 bag
DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes on medium speed). Add eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Add chocolate chips and mix until combined. Use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Move them to a cooling rack.