Cranberry Jam with Ginger and Orange

After a long break from blogging it´s time to come back to my favorite hobby. Until recently, I was still in the Christmas mood. It's hard to get over your favorite holiday and time of the year, but I was longing for the peace and relaxation I got. I guess I still wanted to relax and take things slowly. Lazy days be gone!

A while ago I bought a big bag of cranberries, and I had many ideas on how to use them, but I kept postponing all of them. Well the cranberries were not getting any fresher and the best option was to make some good jam with them. After all, nothing beats the taste of homemade jam or jelly.

The recipe is straight forward and really good. It is both tangy and sweet with the beautiful aromas of ginger and jam. The jam is perfect to smear on fresh bread, especially if it´s a sourdough bread, for breakfast or as a quick snack or dessert.

Let´s go to the recipe
The batch I made was enough to fill 3 medium sized jars. You will need:

• 450 g fresh or frozen cranberries
• 250 g sugar
• 100 g orange juice 
• 100 g water
• 3 strips of orange peel
• 20 g finely chopped or grated ginger

Combine all ingredients in a heavy bottom pan, mix well and let the jam cook for at least an hour on a very gentle heat.

The cranberries will burst then melt as they bubble away. After an hour, fill your sterilized jars with the hot jam and seal well. Let them cool completely before you put them in the fridge.

Now you are ready to spread this beautiful burgundy jam on your bread or brioche or to use it as a filling in cakes or cookies.

A Halloween Special: Bloody Cake!

When the fall season setts in, I try to make good use of its wonderful products. Pumpkins and squashes become a staple of mine during this time of the year. I also like to share a recipe or two that feature pumpkins purée as main ingredient. This healthy fruit never ceases to amaze me with its complex flavor that goes so well in both sweet and savory dishes. 

In recent years, the use of pumpkins was popularized with the spread of Halloween celebrations to almost all parts of the world. Now, as a foodie, pumpkins are definitely not mere decoration for me, but they are the front and center of my Halloween  gory cake. Now I call it "gory" as I drew inspiration for the cake's decoration from the traditional "goriness" that surrounds Halloween celebrations and to satisfy "The Walking Dead" fan in me. If you are a fan of the series too and you have seen the season's premiere, you would understand my choice better. Irrespective of how you will decorate the cake, if you follow my recipe you will really love the cake's flavor and texture. 

Besides pumpkin, the other main ingredient of the cake was cranberries. I was not sure of how well these two flavors will combine, but they did and they did so beautifully. The cake was moist, largely due to the use of pumpkin purée, with spicy notes and bound together by the touch of tartness cranberries add. Of course, cranberries put the "bloody" in this special Halloween cake!

Now, it's time to do some baking.

For the cake (6 to 8 persons) you need :

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 100 g brown sugar
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 150 melted butter 
• 8 g baking powder
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 210 g cake flour
• 220 pumpkin purée (bought or homemade)
• 100 g frozen or fresh cranberries
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp mixed spices (cloves, star anise, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg)
• dash of salt
• zest of half an orange
• 1/2 tsp of cointreau (optional)

Start by combining the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.

In your mixing bowl, beat the eggs on a high speed and add the sugar gradually. When the mixture triples in volume, becomes pale and thicker, add the butter at low speed and mix until combined.

With a spatula add the pumpkin purée, mix again, add the orange zest and cointreau and mix. Lastly, fold in the flour mixture and the cranberries.

Pour the batter in three 15 cm pre-prepared pans (or in two 23 cm) and bake in a preheated oven (180 C) for 25 minutes. Remember that the baking time might vary so check on the cake after 20 minutes.

For the frosting you need:

• 250 g soft butter
• 250 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 220 g powdered sugar
• Flavoring: 1/4 tsp mixed spices and few drops of vanilla extract.

Combine all ingredients and beat for about 5 min until creamy and fluffy.

For the cranberry sauce:

• 100 g cranberries, fresh or frozen 
• 75 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 strip of orange zest

Combine all ingredients and cook over  a gentle heat for few minutes. Pass the mixture through a sieve to get rid of the pits and skin. Let it cool down.

Assembly:

Smear some frosting on your cake tray or stand. Put the first cake layer and pipe a generous amount of frosting, and splatter a teaspoon or two of the cranberry sauce. Add the second layer and repeat. 

Cover the last layer with the frosting. Now all you need is to splatter the rest of the cranberry sauce over the cake and to add some pine nuts that will mimic the appearance of maggots for that extra touch of goriness!

Happy Halloween!

(For extra recipes featuring pumpkins, click here and here.)

Zebra Berry Cheesecake!

Last week my friend asked me to bake something for her boyfriend´s birthday. We discussed all the options focusing on a cake with chocolate or one with fruits. Finally, we went for a cake featuring berries. This was a logical option now that the berry season started all over Spain and all sort of fresh berries are readily available. Moreover, I love the taste of berries in cakes and my friend couldn't agree more! 

Instead of a regular cake, like a sponge flavored with a filling of berries, I suggested to my friend to make cheesecake. A cold and creamy cheesecake would be perfect now that summer has officially arrived in Spain and Madrid is slowly heating up. 

I played around with my usual cheesecake recipe, and mixed 2 batters to create a beautiful layered or zebra look. The cake was such a hit that I decided  I deserved one just for myself. I did show some restrain and shared few pieces with my close friends. 

The recipe is simple, I baked it in a 15 cm springform pan to get a high result.  You can use an 18 cm pan or even a 23 one if you want a flatter cake. Always adjust the baking time when you change the size of pan that was used for the recipe. 

For this cheesecake you need:

The base:

• 50 g caramel cookies and 50 g digestive cookies 
• 20 g melted butter 
• 1 tsp coconut sugar or brown sugar

To prepare the cookies place them in a zip-lock bag and pass a rolling pin over them as many times as you need until you end up with coarsely textured crumbs.  Add the melted butter, sugar  and  mix well. Place the cookie mixture in a springform pan that is greased and covered with parchment paper. Press the mixture to cover the bottom. You can create a rim at the edge of the pan if you want, though I didn't. Bake in a preheated oven (180 C) for 8 to 10 min.  Set aside and cool.

For the cheesecake mix:

• 600 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 
• 120 g Greek yogurt (or thick yogurt, or sour cream)
• 130 g sugar
• 1 tbsp flour 
• 25 g caramelized biscuits spread (Lotus Biscoff)
• dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to your liking)
• 1/2 tsp of kirsch (optional)
• 3 to 5 tbsp of berry coulis (recipe follows)

In your mixer bowl, add the cheese and mix on a low speed with the paddle attachment for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add the sugar, the Biscoff spread, yogurt, cinnamon and flour and mix again until well blended and no lumps are visible. Add the eggs one by one and keep mixing on a low speed. Finally add the salt, kirsch and vanilla and mix a bit. 

Divide the batter in 2. To one batch, add the berry coulis but don´t add too much or else you will end up with a runny batter. 

To get the zebra effect, add 2 tablespoons of the white batter, then two of the berry batter  and so on. Ever so slightly tap the pan or shake it to flatten the batter.

Bake in a preheated oven (150 to 160 C). 

Usually it's customary to wrap the spring-form pan with aluminum foil and place it in another pan filled with warm water and then bake for the required time that is usually for a pan of this size one hour to one hour and a half (oven-dependent).  This bain-marie method of cooking is needed to bake your cake at a gentler heat to avoid surface cracks.

What I do is different though. I put in the middle layer of the oven a pan and fill it with warm water then place the cheesecake pan over a cookie sheet and put both over the pan. This creates  a steamy environment in my oven and allows the cheesecake to cook all the way through while retaining a smooth creamy texture and most importantly with no surface cracks whatsoever.

After one hour, turn off your oven, shake the tray, make sure the middle is still a bit wiggly and leave the oven door cracked open for another half an hour to an hour. 

Let the cake cool completely before you put it in the fridge overnight. 

For the berry sauce or coulis:

• 300 mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, blackberries and I also used cranberries)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• half vanilla pod or 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and let them simmer for few minutes over a flame until the fruits are soft. Mash them well then and pass them through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

You will have sauce than the cake requires. Use the remaining sauce to cover the top of the cheesecake and decorate as you  wish! 

Now you´re ready to taste a luscious and creamy dessert with the amazing tangy addition of the berries! Everybody will love it, I can guarantee it! 

Check my other cheesecake recipes here and here

Roasted Cranberries Bundt Cake!

The year 2016 is only one day away. Time surely flies by. What an exciting year 2015 was for me! I learned a lot of new recipes, experienced new flavor combinations and new methods of cooking. It is only fitting to say goodbye to this year in baking style!

The last bake of this season had to be beautiful and featuring the season's colors and flavors. It  had to be easy to make too as no one wants to be tied down to the kitchen during these festive times! My answer to all of this was a roasted cranberries cake baked in a beautiful bundt mold.

To make this cake you need to start with its flavor base: the roasted cranberry sauce. The process is really straightforward, you just need to get the ingredients and combine them together. For this you will need:

• 125 fresh cranberries
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 cm of ginger, fresh and grated
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 strips of orange zest

Combine all the ingredients in a pan, and slowly roast them in the oven at 150C for about 20 min. They will be done when your whole house smells like Christmas!
Let the cranberries mix cool down as you prepare the cake mix. 

 For a pine forest mold with 10 cups capacity you will need, :

• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 150 g soft butter
• 220 g white sugar
• the cooled roasted cranberries with their juice
• 220 g cake flour
• 10 g baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150 ml whole milk or cream
• 1 tsp cointreau (optional)

First combine the flour, the salt and the baking powder and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until creamy. Start adding the eggs one by one, making sure the egg combines well with the dough before adding the next one. 
Now add 1/3 of the flour mix, beat until combined then half of the milk and mix again, repeat with another 1/3 of the flour, then the rest of milk and finally the rest of the flour. Finally, gently fold in the cranberries and their juices.

Pour the batter in the greased and floured pan and bake for about 45 to 50 min in a preheated oven (175C).

Leave the cake to cool in the pan for around 5 min and then flip it over a cooling rack.

Dust with some powdered sugar and enjoy the deep flavors of this wintery cake!

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, yet again, and a very happy new year. May it bring you nothing but joy and loads of sweetness!