Homemade Weekends

   Hey look it's a food post!  I haven't had much time for cooking lately, and when I have I haven't been remembering to document the process.  Ooops.  So to make up for it I have lots of pictures for you tonight.
   Recently I had some apples and cranberries that I needed to use before they went bad.  And I was craving crumble.  The solution seemed pretty obvious to me.  Hence Cranberry Apple Raisin Crumble was made.  Why raisins too?  I had them, they're tasty, and they give a little sweetness to the counter-act the tart from the apple and cranberry. 
   I started by making a compote with the fruit.

  Compotes are easy.  Basically just simmer the fruit with a little bit of sugar, I used half a cup, and liquid, no real measurement here but probably about 3/4 to 1 cup, until the fruit is tender and the liquid has thickened.  You may need to add a bit of cornstarch slurry to fully thicken the liquid.  Instead of water, I used a spiced cranberry cider for my liquid component and also to make the cornstarch slurry.  This also added just the right amount of spice flavor.  Once cooked, about 30 minutes or so, let cool for a little while then pour into an 8x8 baking pan.

   While I was waiting for the compote to cool enough to pour into my glass pan, to avoid cracking the pan, I made the crumble topping.  Again, a really easy thing to make.  I used this recipe for streusel topping, doubled, but you can use any type of crumb topping you'd like.  I'm just a big fan of streusel on desserts.  Dump all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and prepare to get your hands dirty.  The best way to combine the ingredients and create multiple sizes of crumbs is with your hands.  I recommend removing all jewelry before doing this.  And make sure your butter is softened.  Now some before and after photos of the topping.

   Once the compote is in the baking pan, cover with an even layer of the crumb topping.

 

   Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes.  Or until the topping is golden brown and the compote is bubbling up on the edges.  As a precaution, I place the dish on a foil lined cookie sheet in the oven to catch any potential spill over.  I don't know about you, but personally I don't want to clean baked on fruit goo out of my oven.

   Once the crumble is finished baking, let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.  This is to prevent scalding your mouth with the napalm like filling straight out of the oven.  To serve, scoop into a bowl...

   Top with vanilla ice cream.  Or cinnamon ice cream if you prefer/have it...

   And enjoy.  The possibilities of combinations for the fruit filling are almost endless.  Use what you like and is in season.  You can even make the compote whenever your favorite fruit is in season and can or freeze it for use on a cold winter day.

Homemade Weekends

   OMG, I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week already.  I am very glad I am not doing the main cooking.  Hubby and I will be going to his parents' house as they live about an hour away.  I will however be bringing some of the orange date bread I blogged about here.  I will also be trying out a new recipe for nutty sweet potato biscuits. 
   Why am I making the date bread again already?  Because my store manager requested it as my contribution to the pot luck at work on Friday.  Since the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is the busiest shopping day of the year and we're all working long shifts without enough time to go get food on breaks, my store has a pot luck every year so there's food in the back whenever anyone has 5 seconds to shove something in our mouths.  Was that a long enough run on sentence for you?  And the bread is really good.  But since the recipe makes two loaves, I figured I'd take one to Thanksgiving and one to work.
  Last week I started looking through my cook books and magazines and the internet to start working out my Holiday baking plan for gifts.  I came across several shortbread recipes as I was looking.  I don't know about you, but I LOVE shortbread.  The recipe I decided to try first was Martha Stewart's Icebox Shortbread, which can be found here.  This is a very simple recipe with endless flavor options.  I decided to make half plain, to try just the base recipe, and half flavored with marcona almonds and orange flavored cranberries.  If you've never tried marcona almonds, you need to.  They taste like a cross between a standard almond and a macadamia nut.  Soooo tasty.
   How easy is this recipe?  I think it took me maybe 10-15 minutes to make the dough, roll it into logs, wrap in wax paper, and get it in the fridge.  Then it has to chill for 1 to 1.5 hrs at least before slicing and baking for about 20 minutes.  Now for the picture spam.

Plain Dough

Almonds and Cranberries

On Top and Mixed In

 

Rolled into Log

 

Baked Cookies

   I was very happy with the way these turned out.  I do highly recommend adding mix-ins to the dough.  Otherwise your cookies will either be very small or you will not get many cookies per batch.  The almond cranberry combo was very good.  Next time I think I might try chocolate chips, or cocoa nibs if I can find any.  Because of the chill time, this is a great recipe to mix up real quick before work, toss in the fridge to chill while you're at work,  and then bake when you get home.  You can also freeze the logs for later use.