Saturday, November 24, 2012

Cranberries Redux

Because SubWife has requested it, I am sharing the recipe for my cranberry muffins (featured at my latest Bunko extravaganza).  No dairy!  No eggs!  Tastes great!


Cranberry Bread/Muffins
(makes 4 loaves/48 muffins)

Santa loves me
Step 1: Buy a KitchenAid Mixer.  No, seriously, I went 19 years without one, all while having to make our baked goods from scratch due to my oldest's dairy allergy.  19 years of baking without the aid of simple technology -- that was all I knew, people.  That changed 2 years ago, however, when Larry surprised me with a stand mixer for Christmas.  I had never dreamed of receiving such an expensive and useful gift, not least because Larry's familiarity with kitchen tools extends only to his little pizzelle maker.   Turns out a friend of mine heard me talking about my penchant for entering the numerous online raffles for a KitchenAid; and, shocked that I had gone all those years without one, she told Larry he had to buy it for me.  She even got the color right.

Best. Christmas. Ever.


Step 2: Gather your ingredients:

4 cups white flour
4 cups whole wheat PASTRY flour (can also be white, if you so desire)
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

1 cup oil (or butter, if you wish)
2 cups liquid (milk/soy milk/water or any combination thereof)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract


Step 3: Combine all the above.  Really, it's that simple.


Step 4: Fold in 2 bags of cranberries (preferably frozen, so they don't get mashed). This is the part that used to make me cry when I was doing it by hand.  I guess I should work on my upper body strength more.


Step 5: Pour batter into greased loaf pans and/or lined muffin tins.  Remember to let the children fight over which color muffin papers to put in which tins.  Rituals are important.


See?  It works.
Step 6: Place in preheated (oops - forgot to tell you to do that) 350-degree oven for about an hour (bread) or 20-25 minutes (muffins).


Step 7: Neglect to set timer and spend the next hour obsessively checking with a toothpick to see if the bread/muffins are done.


You're welcome.  You can halve the recipe, of course; but we use the extra loaves as Christmas gifts for our long-suffering neighbors who have put up with the myriad inconveniences inflicted on them by our family for the past 15 years. 

[Mixer image: Everything Kitchens]

9 comments:

  1. My kids and Rainman surprised me with a Kitchen Aid last Christmas. They actually found a used/almost new one on Craigslist. Love, love, love. They still tease me about my screaming/crying reaction on Christmas morning! Thanks for the recipe. I actually have like 8 bags of frozen cranberries in my freezer just looking for a muffin to die in.

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  2. How many loaves or muffins does this make? My go-to cranberry read recipe is the one printed right on the package of cranberries. It is very similar to this except it does use eggs. And it calls for chopping up the cranberries - which is rather a pain, but DH thinks unchopped wouldn't be as good. I may have to do a comparison loaf...

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    1. 4 loaves/48 muffins -- but you just failed the reading comprehension portion of this blog post. DO NOT chop up the cranberries - there is no need to do that whatsoever. Most of them burst in the cooking.

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  3. That looks delicious! And yeah, there are a lot of things I would give up before I would give up our kitchen aid.

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  4. These look really good! I want to try them.
    ~FringeGirl

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  5. I love step one! 48 muffins! That's awesome. I like recipes that make plenty.

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  6. I failed before step one, but I might try this recipe by hand...

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  7. I will make this for sure. I inherited my Mom's Kitchenaid stand mixer and you are right--everyone that bakes NEEDS one.

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    1. I love how I can put away ingredients while it is mixing for me. And it doesn't ever whine or fight for a turn!

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