Name: How to Make Cranberry Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 2 1/4 cups
Ingredients: 1 12-ounce bag fresh or cranberries (I freeze bags of fresh cranberries, and you can just use them straight from the freezer); 3/4 cup granulated sugar; 1 cup water OR the juice of one large orange plus enough water to make a cup; zest of one orange, optional

How to Make Cranberry Sauce

November 12, 2018

What are your thoughts on cranberry sauce? Do you hate it? Or do you like the log of cranberry sauce that comes out of a can, complete with the lines from the can completely intact? If fresh, homemade cranberry sauce is your Thanksgiving style, then this tutorial on how to make cranberry sauce is perfect for you!

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When I was growing up, my grandmother always made cranberry relish for Thanksgiving dinner. Fresh cranberries, whole oranges, and sugar, all ground up together. No cooking. I liked it okay but the bitterness of the orange pith made it a little much for my young tastebuds.

We really never ate the cranberry sauce that came out of a can, and honestly, I can’t even remember when or where I first tried it. I do remember, though, that when I did try it, I realized that I had been missing out on the deliciousness that is cranberry sauce.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

And then I figured out how to make homemade cranberry sauce. I fell in love, hard, and realized that the canned stuff that you slice is just gateway cranberry sauce. I promise you, canned cranberry sauce in no way compares to homemade cranberry sauce.

Cranberries are a truly amazing little fruit. They have little pockets of air in them, and as you cook them they pop open. Full of their own natural pectin, they thicken their own sauce without the addition of packaged pectin or other thickeners. Literally, all you need to make a delicious cranberry sauce are three ingredients:

Fresh cranberries
Sugar
Water

Cranberry Orange Sauce

I love how the flavor of orange pairs with the flavor of cranberry, so I always use some orange juice and zest to give my homemade cranberry sauce a little zip. But, if you don’t like orange or have another reason not to use it in your sauce, then just leave it out!
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I call myself a cranberry hoarder because the second that cranberries show up in my grocery store, I start throwing a bag or two into my cart every week so that I can have frozen cranberries available all year. That way, I can have homemade cranberry sauce anytime I want it. Which means that year-round I can make my Instant Pot turkey breast and some cranberry sauce and have a Thanksgiving sandwich whenever. I. Want it.

And that, my friends, is a reason to be happy.

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite and The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Mary

Yield: 2 1/4 cups

How to Make Cranberry Sauce

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen , whose recipe is adapted from Ocean Spray .

5 minPrep Time:

15 minCook Time:

20 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 12-ounce bag fresh or cranberries (I freeze bags of fresh cranberries, and you can just use them straight from the freezer)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water OR the juice of one large orange plus enough water to make a cup
zest of one orange, optional

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except orange zest, if using, in a medium saucepan. Set over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened and all berries have burst. I use the spoon to gently mash the berries against the side of the pan to make sure they all burst. This takes 10-15 minutes total.
Stir in the orange zest, if using. Place the sauce into a covered container or jar and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or up to two months in the freezer.

Nutrition

https://chattavore.com/how-to-make-cranberry-sauce/

Blueberry Dump Cake From Scratch

June 13, 2018

Knowing how to make dump cake from scratch is a valuable skill to have. Forgive the name but dump cake literally just requires dumping ingredients in a pan and baking them. This blueberry dump cake from scratch is a delicious, perfect summer recipe, and you probably have all the ingredients you need!

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Dump Cake?

First of all, let me apologize to you for the name of this recipe. I hate the term “dump cake”. I mean, I get that it is called that because you literally dump the ingredients into a pan and bake them, but GAH. It just sounds very unappetizing. Ditto for “dump dinners” (I have seen a cookbook in my favorite local used book store with this name and I. Just. Can’t.).

But alas, when you write a blog you have to give the people what they are looking for, and according to Pinterest and Google, people are looking for dump cakes. Or, if they are like me, they are looking for “dump cake from scratch”.

The dump cakes from my previous experience are absolutely delicious and are made with a few basic ingredients:

Canned pie fillings
Cake mix
Butter
Maybe some other ingredients like canned pineapple, brown sugar, etc., but these are not necessary.

Dump Cake from Scratch!

And you guys know me…I have an insatiable need to make everything from scratch (i.e. without a mix or a can). Mostly because I know that I am always going to have some sort of fresh or frozen fruit, butter, and dry ingredients for a cake in the house. But also because I really do, at least in theory, try to avoid processed food as much as possible (though I have not been as good at this lately. Stress, am I right?).

I did a little poking around the interwebs trying to figure out how to make a dump cake from scratch. I found a recipe on Simply Recipes and riffed on that a bit. My filling follows their formula but my dry cake is actually a divided recipe for yellow cake from the book The Perfect Cake from America’s Test Kitchen, which I somehow miraculously managed to score the Kindle edition of last week for $3.99. A miracle indeed, because ATK books never go on sale!

I used frozen blueberries for mine, but you could definitely use a variety of fruits instead. And while this may not be a literal “dump and go” recipe like the original dump cake, dump cake from scratch is still dead simple and you probably have the ingredients in your house:

fruit
sugar
cornstarch
flour
baking powder
baking soda
butter

Easy, right? And because when I use a bowl for dry ingredients I just wipe it out with a towel and put it back, the only dishes that I dirtied were the pan and the bowl I used to melt the butter. 100% worth it for this delicious dessert that is perfect for summer and that, by the way, I baked in my Breville Smart Oven so I didn’t even have to heat up my kitchen.

Oh yeah – vanilla ice cream is non-negotiable. Don’t even try.

Shared on The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

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This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click the link and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Products used for this recipe:

Mary

Yield: 1 9x13 inch cake

Blueberry Dump Cake From Scratch

This recipe is adapted from Simply Recipes and from the book A Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen.

10 minPrep Time:

45 minCook Time:

55 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

For the filling

3 pounds fresh or frozen fruit (there is no need to thaw frozen fruit)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch salt

For the cake

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375? Fahrenheit.
In a 9x13 inch pan, combine the fruit with the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sprinkle the dry cake ingredients evenly over the fruit mixture.
Use a spoon to drizzle the melted butter evenly over the dry cake mixture.
Bake the cake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake is light golden on top and the fruit is bubbling. Frozen fruit may need to bake slightly longer (my fruit was frozen and I baked my cake for 55 minutes). There may be a few small patches of dry ingredients on top. I just smoothed these with a spoon.
Cool the cake for at least an hour before serving. I know that this is a difficult step but eating the cake too soon will result in unpleasant mouth burns! Vanilla ice cream is non-optional!

Nutrition

https://chattavore.com/blueberry-dump-cake-from-scratch/

Apple Blondies with Walnuts and Whiskey Caramel + Video

September 10, 2017

Apple blondies with walnuts and whiskey caramel are (1) rich; (2) decadent; (3) perfect for Fall; and (4) made in one bowl. ONE BOWL! Scroll down for the video.

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Apples = Fall Food

Apple Blondies? Yep, apple blondies. With walnuts. Maybe I’ve mentioned here a time or two that apples are pretty much a quintessential Fall food for me? One day recently I was struck with the need for a chewy, cinnamon-y bar cookie full of apples. Apple-walnut blondies. And they would be topped with caramel sauce. With salt. And whiskey. Definitely whiskey.

One Bowl Baking

It didn’t take me much digging to find a recipe that was perfect for adapting to make exactly what I needed. Yvonne Ruperti’s book One-Bowl Baking has a whole section devoted to bar cookies, which makes sense because what use is a bar cookie if it isn’t easy? Brownie, blondies, lemon squares, magic bars…they are perfect desserts because they come together quickly and don’t require rotating through cookie sheets over and over and over.

Whiskey Caramel

It took a little playing around to get the recipe right…turns out that when you throw a couple of apples into the batter it adds enough volume to require 15 or 20 more minutes of baking. No biggie, though. That just gives you a little extra time to stir together the caramel, which I promise you won’t want to omit. Though you can leave out the whiskey (I used Chattanooga Whiskey, by the way) if you must. And the salt, though I really have no idea why you would do that.

Moderation is Key

Another thing…if you bake these apple blondies in an 8×8 pan you will look at the pan and think to yourself, “Maybe I should just cut nine squares.” Don’t do it. If you do, you will end up with a stomach ache. No one really ever thinks of fruity desserts as rich, but this one, full of butter and white sugar and brown sugar, is, especially when accompanied by homemade caramel and some ice cream (not pictured…it really doesn’t need ice cream at all).

After the 9-bar debacle, I made these again and took them to work, this time cut into 32 pieces. I came home with 4 pieces. I’d call that success. I didn’t share my caramel, because I wanted to hoard it in my fridge for dipping apples and pear slices and spoons into. And that’s exactly what I did.

Apple blondies with walnuts and whiskey caramel are perfect for a get-together or just a fun snack or dessert for your family!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest Fall and Baking boards!

This post contains an affiliate link. This means that if you click the link and make a purchase on Amazon, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate!

Mary

Yield: 9-16 blondies

Apple Blondies with Walnuts and Whiskey Caramel

The blondies are adapted from the book One-Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti. The caramel is adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction .

15 minPrep Time:

40 minCook Time:

55 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

For the Caramel

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
6 tablespoons ((90 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
2 tablespoons whiskey (I used Chattanooga Whiskey)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Blondies

13 tablespoons (185 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cup (330 grams) packed brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup (245 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used MacIntosh)
3/4 cup (85 grams) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Instructions

For the caramel: using a wooden spoon, stir the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and light golden in color. Be sure to stir constantly and don’t let it burn! Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, stirring each until melted before adding the next. Be careful as the sugar will bubble when add the butter and boiling sugar is essentially the same as boiling hot lava. Once all the butter is melted, add the heavy cream and, with the heat turned off, the whiskey. Turn the heat back on and boil for one minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt. Allow to cool until no longer molten before serving.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, use a sturdy spoon to stir together the butter, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir until completely combined.
Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Fold in the apples and walnuts.
Spread the batter in the prepared baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the pan then cut into 9 or 16 pieces. Serve with warm caramel.

Nutrition

https://chattavore.com/apple-blondies-whiskey-caramel/

Print the recipe for apple-walnut blondies!

Apple blondies with walnuts and whiskey caramel are (1) rich; (2) decadent; (3) perfect for Fall; and (4) made in one bowl. ONE BOWL! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Chocolate Chip Banana Beer Bread

August 28, 2017

Banana beer bread with chocolate chips is a delicious and simple to make bread that is just sweet enough for dessert but you can eat it for breakfast too! Scroll down for video.

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Do You Make Banana Bread?

Things I never make:

Banana bread

Weird, right? Banana bread is one of those super-basic things that everyone makes. But I really never do. I mean, until now. Because what else are you going to do when you have four super-ripe bananas about to start attracting flies in your kitchen?

Chocolate Chip Banana Beer Bread

You get your husband to bring a brown ale home from work and you make banana beer bread. Yep. Plus chocolate chips, because in my humble opinion banana bread is always made better by the addition of chocolate.

I was pretty concerned that this banana beer bread would turn out too wet. There is a lot of liquid in there. It turned out perfectly, though – so moist and sweet enough for dessert but wholesome enough for breakfast (because bananas and whole wheat flour). Put your banana beer bread in the fridge, though. I didn’t. It did not end well.

Click here to save this to your Pinterest baking and breakfast boards!

Since I made this banana beer bread, maybe I’ll up the ante on my banana bread making game. Banana bread is one of the few ways that I can get Philip to consume bananas, and if beer is included, even better (the brown ale that I used was Maduro Brown Ale from Cigar City Brewing, and I have also had great luck with Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale).

This recipe was shared on The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Mary

Yield: 1 8 1/2 inch loaf

Chocolate Chip Banana Beer Bread

15 minPrep Time:

1 hrCook Time:

1 hr, 15 Total Time:

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Ingredients

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour - I used white whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 very ripe bananas
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup brown ale
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350?. Spray a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray or grease with butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas then stir in the butter, eggs, brown sugar, and beer.
Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips and stir until no dry spots remain. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake the banana bread for 55 minutes to an hour, rotating the pan halfway through baking. When the bread is done, a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let it cool completely before serving.

Nutrition

https://chattavore.com/banana-beer-bread/

Banana beer bread with chocolate chips is a delicious and simple to make bread that is just sweet enough for dessert but you can eat it for breakfast too! | Recipe from Chattavore.com

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Recommended for this recipe:

Other ways to use your overripe bananas:

Hummingbird Sheet Cake + Video

August 13, 2017

Hummingbird sheet cake transforms a slightly fussy classic Southern cake into something easy and portable yet still SO delicious – and pretty. Scroll down for video!

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Getting the Job Done!

Being a Type A perfectionist and a blogger with a full-time job are things that are sometimes at odds in my life. My time is limited, and sometimes if I know a recipe is good I just want to get it up here to share with you guys. That means that my photos aren’t always perfect, but sometimes I just don’t have the time, energy, or, honestly, desire to retake the photos before I put them up here. I hope you guys will forgive me.

Another thing is that in the frenzy of beautiful images that I am surrounded by every day on blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram I sometimes start to feel like my recipes aren’t enough. Like, if I can’t put lavender or goat cheese in all the things then I probably shouldn’t share them. Or if I can’t make the prettiest deconstructed and perfectly lit bowl meal then I lose👎🏼. Oh boy. We’re our own worst critics, right? Seriously, no one has ever criticized one of my recipes for not being pretty or fancy enough (it’s probably coming now that I’ve put it out there. Oops.).

I listen to a few podcasts for food bloggers and one of the things I’ve heard recently is that we need to blog for our audience, not for other bloggers. That hit me like a splash of cold water in the face. I realized that thinking that everything I post has to be vegan, Paleo, and artfully arranged in a handmade ceramic bowl being held in front of a window by a European hand model was not based on any preference that a single one of my readers has ever expressed to me. It’s based on the things that I think are pretty on Instagram but not the way that I cook, eat, or live or probably the way that the majority of my readers cook, eat, or live (the last handmade ceramic bowl I priced was like 70 smackers. If any of y’all have that kind of dough to spend on dishes, pass some my way).

Hummingbird Sheet Cake

That’s where this hummingbird sheet cake comes from. Hummingbird cake, with pineapple, bananas, and spices baked into a cake coated in a thick layer of cream cheese icing (💯) and toasted pecans, is one of my favorite cakes. But the first version I posted, while tasty and beautiful, was incredibly fussy. It broke while I was taking it out of the pan! While a perfect four-layer cake is what my overbearing perfectionist brain aspires to (and yes, I am perfectly capable of making it), a hummingbird sheet cake is what my tired, full-time job working, rest of the time blogging self finds realistic. And goodness, look at it. Is this hummingbird sheet cake really less pretty than this hummingbird layer cake? Personally, I don’t think so. That could just be because the approachability of Exhibit A is about 10000 times higher than Exhibit B. But I digress. They both taste equally delicious, and that’s really what matters anyway, right?

So if you’re a little short on time (or even just a little lazy, which is just fine with me), hummingbird sheet cake is where it’s at!

Shared on Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love and Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate.

Mary

Yield: one 9x13 cake (about 20 servings)

Hummingbird Sheet Cake

30 minPrep Time:

50 minCook Time:

1 hr, 20 Total Time:

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Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used 1 1/2 teaspoons Alchemy Spice Wake and Bake Blend in place of the cinnamon & nutmeg)
3 eggs
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
8 ounce cans crushed pineapple (with juice)
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4)
2 cups finely chopped pecans (can toast them lightly if you wish)
8 ounces (1 block) cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup unsalted butter-1 stick (softened)
1 lb powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9x13 baking pan and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
In another medium to large bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, and sugar. Stir in the mashed bananas, the pineapple, and one cup of the pecans (I did all of the mixing for this cake by hand...do not use a mixer. I also forgot to put pecans in the batter, and the world did not come to an end).
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (it's fine if you have a couple of lumps of flour in your batter). Pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool briefly in pan then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Make the frosting: using a hand or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and the butter until well incorporated, then beat in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time, making sure that the previous addition is fully incorporated before adding more (going slowly will keep you from making a gigantic mess...like I did). Beat in the vanilla.
To assemble the cake, spread the frosting across over the top of the cake and sprinkle the cake with one cup of toasted pecans.

Nutrition

https://chattavore.com/hummingbird-sheet-cake/