Baking, Lately

I love this time of year for so many reasons; one of which is the excuse to bake, even more so than usual.  I thought I'd share our favorite recipe for baking, as well as some other yummy things we've been gorging on lately. 

Our holiday essentials always include cranberry orange bread.  It's a recipe that my husband's grandmother used to make and is very similar to this one, although I wouldn't touch margarine with a ten foot pole and we use walnuts.

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Cranberry Orange Bread

• 1 cup walnuts (about 4oz)
• 1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.  Place nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until very lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes.  Leave oven on; coarsely chop nuts and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a hand held mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg.  Beat 1 minute.  Gradually beat in juice.  Add flour, baking powder, orange zest and salt.  Mix until just blended. Stir in cranberries and toasted walnuts.  Spread batter into pan.

Bake until top of loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean,  50-55 minutes.  Let stand in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack and let cool completely.



I vary this bark recipe (use different chocolates, fruits, nuts, sea salt, etc), and it makes for great little gifts in a cellophane bag with a nice bow and tag, or in a cute holiday mug.  Now that I'm looking at the cranberry bread recipe above, I'm thinking of trying white chocolate with cranberries and a little orange zest for the bark...

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And these are sooooooooo good, from For the Love of Cooking: pumpkin cookies with browned butter icing.

I like to have this one with my coffee, I'm actually eating some right now...  It's an old Cooking Light recipe: autumn apple cake.



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Now I just have to tackle the other 200+ recipes of sweet nothings I have on Pinterest...  Tried any of these?  Any must have recipe to share?  I'm itching to try this and this soon!