It’s October, and that means harvest season for apples, pumpkins, and cranberries!
Have you ever watched a cranberry harvest? It is a fun event to witness—but once you see how the cranberries are picked, and have a bag in hand, what should you do with them?!
Here are a couple of recipes that we found on the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association website. Mmm, mmm, mmm—let’s get cookin’!
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Five-Minute Cranberry Sauce (Courtesy of: Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association)
3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
¼ cup water
2 cup sugar
fresh lemon juice (¼ lemon)
1. Gather all ingredients.
2. Place cranberries in a saucepan with ¼ cup of water and cook over low heat until cranberries are soft and begin to pop.
3. Add the sugar and mix well.
4. Let simmer until mixture begins to thicken.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.
6. Place in serving dish, cover with plastic wrap and let cool.
7. Serve cold.
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Cranberry Bread (1 loaf) (Courtesy of: Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association)
½ c. butter
1 tbs. grated orange peel
3 large eggs, beaten
2 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1 c. sugar
1tsp. vanilla
¾ c. buttermilk
¼ tsp. salt
¾ c. chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray bottom only of 9" X 5" loaf pan with cooking spray. Beat butter, sugar, orange peel and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating at low speed just until blended. Fold cranberries and nuts into batter. Turn into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool slightly in pan. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
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Ginger-Cran Leek Glazed Salmon (Courtesy of: Massachusetts Cranberry Harvest Festival Recipes 1997, Second Place; Suzanne Robertson)
2 cups whole cranberries
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh ginger/or ½ teaspoon dried
1 leek, clean well and cut in rings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb. salmon
Gently cook cranberries, sugar, and ginger until cranberries are soft (5 - 10 minutes). Saute leek in oil. Combine leek and cranberries. Ladle over salmon. Broil salmon to your liking (best if cooked medium rare). Serve with rice.
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White Chocolate Cranberry Cake (Courtesy of: Linda Shea, Whitman, Massachusetts)
1 16 oz. can whole cranberry sauce
12 oz. white chocolate
1 ¼ c. butter, room temp.
1 ¼ c. sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
10 eggs, separated, room temp.
1 c. sweetened dried cranberries
1. Place cranberry sauce into a small sauce pan.
2. Cook over medium-low heat while beating until slightly thickened, about 15 – 20 minutes.
3. When thick, put in a small bowl and refrigerate.
4. Melt chocolate slowly in double boiler. Set aside to cool.
5. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add chocolate and beat until it is the consistency of pudding. (If chocolate is too hot when added, it may melt the butter. If this happens, put bowl into freezer for a few minutes. When cool, beat.)
6. Beat egg yolks into butter, sugar, chocolate mixture one at a time. Beat at least one minute after each egg yolk. Set aside.
7. In very clean large bowl with clean beaters, beat the 10 egg whites to stiff peaks.
8. Fold whites into chocolate mixture.
9. Reserve 1/3 of this mixture in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
10. Fold 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries into the remaining cake mixture.
11. Place this mixture into buttered (bottom only) 9-inch springform pan.
12. Bake in pre-heated oven (350F) for 40-50 minutes or until set.
13. When done, cool completely in the pan. Cake will sink in middle.
14. When cool, remove from pan and spread cranberry sauce on top of cake. Then spread reserved cake mixture on top of this. Spread some of this mixture on sides of cake as well.
15. Refrigerate overnight.
Optional decoration:
1. Slowly melt 1 cup white chocolate in double boiler.
2. Add a few semi-sweet chocolate bits. Do not stir.
3. When all is melted, place a large piece of waxed paper on a cool counter, spread chocolate on waxed paper (thin layer) and let set.
4. When chocolate has set, break up into uneven pieces. Place these pieces on edge around top of cake.
5. Sprinkle with a little cocoa and a handful of dried cranberries.
Note: This recipe contains uncooked egg whites, which have been known to carry the pathogenic bacteria Salmonella. As a safety precaution, replace the whipped egg whites with frozen pasteurized egg whites (container must indicate that the whites can be whipped), or prepare an Italian meringue. Italian meringue is prepared with a hot sugar syrup, which will kill any harmful bacteria that may be present.