Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

Forget the ham or the mac and cheese or the mashed potatoes. This Christmas, all anyone cared about was this amazing dip. It's savory and refreshing and delicious. Both my mom and mother-in-law insisted on taking some home and my husband made me go out and buy some more crackers so he could finish off our leftovers. If only cranberries were available year round, I would make this dip throughout the year.

Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
1 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and dried
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons lemon juice
dash of salt
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened (I used low fat)

Crackers for serving. We used butter crackers, but my mother-in-law also ate the dip with tortilla chips.

Directions:
Finely dice cranberries. You can do this in your food processor (which is what I did) or dice them by hand. In a large bowl, combine diced cranberries, green onion, cilantro, pepper, sugar, cumin, lemon juice, and salt. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours (and let mine sit over night). This allows the sugar to dissolve and be absorbed by the cranberries.

Before serving, spread the cream cheese evenly on your serving plate. Pour on cranberry mixture over the cream cheese. Serve with crackers.

Cream Cheese

Cranberry dip, molasses chews, cinnamon sugar chips, ginger truffles

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Appetizer Recipes:
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Jalapeno Popper Wontons 
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Spinach Balls with a Spicy Tomato Dipping Sauce  
Parmesan Veggie Crisps 
Cheese Puffs for Cheese Lovers!
Cheesy Twisty Straws

Homemade Dried Cranberries

Homemade craisins (dried cranberries) are so incredibly easy to make--they just occupy your oven for a day. I go a little cranberry crazy in the winter and I've already used them to make a cranberry brie grilled cheese sandwich (seriously, sooo good!) and Cranberry Bliss Bars. I chased Eric away from them before he devoured them all, and I'm contemplating making a chicken breast stuffed with ricotta, spinach and cranberries.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
Wash cranberries then place them in a sauce pot. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil in a second pot then pour boiling water over cranberries. Let the cranberries soak for about 10 minutes. They will pop (split open) during this time.

Drain the cranberries and gentle dry them. Check to make sure all the cranberries popped. If any of them did not, pierce them with a paring knife.

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved to make a simple syrup. Add cranberries to the simple syrup and stir until all the cranberries are well coated (you can skip this step, but your craisins will be very, very tart).

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread the cranberries out on the cookie sheet in a single layer and place in the oven.

Bake cranberries for 6 to 8 hours. Since cranberries come in different sizes, the smaller one will dry out quicker than the larger ones so at about 5 or 6 hours, I start checking on the cranberries every hour and removing the ones that are shrivelled but are still somewhat soft.

Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cranberry Recipes:
Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied 
Spiced Cranberry Juice
Michigan Cranberry Brownies 
Sugared Cranberries
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries
Dark Chocolate-Covered Cranberries 

White Chocolate Covered Cranberries

Last winter I went on a cranberry craze. Well, I'm back at it this year! I've been craving dark chocolate-covered cranberries all year. As soon as cranberries showed up at the grocery store, I bought a bag and made chocolate-covered cranberries. Well, I happened to have some left over white chocolate from making a batch of homemade hot chocolate mix so I decided why not try white chocolate covered cranberries. Just add it to the list of cranberry recipes I love.

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and dried
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:
Line cookie pan with waxed paper.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave on high. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat as needed until chocolate is melted.

Pour the cranberries into the melted chocolate and gentle stir with a spatula until all the cranberries are covered in chocolate. With a fork, transfer the cranberries one by one to the cookie sheet. Place into the refrigerator until chocolate hardens.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cranberry Recipes:
Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied 
Spiced Cranberry Juice
Michigan Cranberry Brownies 
Sugared Cranberries
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries

Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied

I may have mentioned once or twice how cranberry crazed I've been this winter season. Well, I'm not the only one. For Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house and my mom made two different types of cranberry sauces--orange (at my prompting, I love the cranberry-orange combination) and brandied. Both were phenomenal and of course I had to ask for the recipes. Then for Christmas I made traditional cranberry sauce with the recipe found on the back of the bag of fresh cranberries.

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, rinsed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold water

Directions:
In a medium sauce pan, bring water and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries. Bring the mixture back to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until sauce has thicken and the majority of cranberries have popped, approximately 10 minutes.

Serve warm or cold.

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.
Ingredients:
1 12-ounce bag of cranberries, rinsed
1/4 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed is best)
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Directions:
Combine orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and water in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries and bring mixture back to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sauce thickens and most of the cranberries pop, about 10 minutes.

Serve warm or chilled.

Brandied cranberry sauce

Brandy Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup brandy

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Pour cranberries into a 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the berries evenly with the sugar. Bake for 1 hours, stirring the berries halfway through.

Add brandy to the baking dish and stir until well combined. Serve warm or chilled.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cranberry Recipes:
Chocolate Cover Cranberries
Cranberry Brownies
Sugared Cranberries

Sugared Cranberries

Merry Christmas!

So back in November I told you that I was obsessed with cranberries. Well, the craze continues with these sugared cranberries. So sparkly and pretty, they are the perfect garnish for cakes, pies, cupcakes, or in my case mini cheesecakes. They're also not bad to snack on. I made yet another batch of chocolate covered cherries which I'm hoping make to Christmas--since I'm hosting my first one (yikes!)--without me eating them all. I also recently came across a recipe for drunken cranberries--cranberries soaked in alcohol. I cannot wait to try them out too! I don't have time to prepare them for Christmas but maybe for New Years Eve? I told you, I'm cranberry obsessed!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 cups fresh cranberries, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (for rolling)

Directions:
Place sugar and water into a sauce pan and heat over medium high heat, stirring. Bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat. Pour in the cranberries. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, make sure the cranberries are well coated in the simple syrup.

With a slotted spoon, place the cranberries on a wire rack or onto waxed paper and allow to dry for 45 minutes to an hour. Make sure the cranberries are separated to avoid clumps of the syrup on the berries.

Pour the remaining sugar in a shallow dish and roll cranberries in the sugar, coating completely. Place sugared cranberries on a clean wire rack or piece of waxed paper. Allow to dry for an hour. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Christmas 2013 Baking List
Dark Chocolate Cover Cranberries
Michigan Cranberry Brownies
Honey Cake
Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies 
Christmas Kiss Cookies 
Gingerbread House 2013
Three Chocolate Truffles: Mint, Rum, and Orange
Cherry Snowball Cookies 
The Best Sugar Cookies 
Stained Glass Cookies

Dark Chocolate Covered Cranberries

A Winter Thanksgiving

I have totally become addicted to these little things! You put them in your mouth and you have the sweetness of the chocolate, then you bite into them and you get this burst of tartness. I meant to bring a bunch of these to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, but instead they only got a small tasting because I could not stop eating them. Well, I should say my mom got a small tasting. After trying one, she put them aside and said "These are for me." I doubt my dad even got to try them.

I covered mine in dark chocolate, but you could do white chocolate, milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate. 

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and dried
1 cup dark chocolate chips (or any kind of chips you'd like)

Directions:
Line cookie pan with waxed paper.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave on high. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat as needed until chocolate is melted.

Pour the cranberries into the melted chocolate and gentle stir with a spatula until all the cranberries are covered in chocolate. With a fork, transfer the cranberries one by one to the cookie sheet. Place into the refrigerator until chocolate hardens.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Fruit Recipes:
Yogurt-Covered Blueberries
White Chocolate Filled Raspberries
Chocolate Covered Cherries 
Candied Citrus Peels
Baked Apple Chips
Banana Chips

Michigan Cranberry Brownies

Every October I go crazy with the pumpkin recipes. Well, I think from now on November is going to be my month to go cranberry crazy. I have always loved everything cranberry--cranberry juice, homemade cranberry sauce, cranberry jelly from a can . . . This year I'm coming across all kinds of cranberry recipes and I'm loving it--I want to try them all! So I started with this one to bring as dessert to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. These brownies are so sweet and fudgy . . . then you bite into a cranberry and you get this pleasing tart taste that perfectly offsets all the sweetness. I love that I got to use locally grown cranberries too!

Ingredients:
4 ounces Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and dried

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9-inch baking dish with foil, leaving excess foil over the ends of the dish. Grease the foil with cooking spray.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave on high. To ensure you don't burn the chocolate, microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat as needed.

Stir the sugar into the mixture. Add the eggs and vanilla, and with an electric handmixer blend together on low. Add flour and combine. Gentle fold in the cranberries with a spatula or spoon.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with fudgy crumbs.

Allow to cool completely then use foil to remove the brownies from the pan. Cut into squares. Serve or store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Brownie Recipes:
Brownie in a Mug
Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with a Strawberry Sauce
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Skinny Peanut Butter Brownies