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cranberry-rific

On impulse, I bought a huge bag of cranberries at Costco last weekend. (I love cranberries.) And, of course, now that I have all these cranberries, I need to use them.

My first effort: a New England cranberry duff, using an Everyday Food recipe. It’s basically a cranberry upside-down cake, but with less cake. (It actually works as a good compromise for Rob and I: He’s not a big fan of cake-like things, but the cranberries in this are dominant enough that it balances out what cake there is.)

The recipe:

½ cup unsalted butter, (1 stick), softened
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/3 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup plus ½ cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter bottom and halfway up sides of an 8-inch square glass baking dish using 2 tablespoons butter. Spread cranberries evenly over bottom of dish. Sprinkle pecans on top, then sprinkle with 1/3 cup sugar; set aside.

2. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat; set aside. Put egg and the remaining ½ cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and thick, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low; gradually beat in flour, and then salt. Pour in melted butter in a slow, steady stream, beating until smooth.

3. Slowly pour batter into pan to cover cranberries. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge to loosen, and invert to unmold onto a serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I’d say that this is best served warm — better to complement the tartness of the cranberries.

The one thing I would do differently next time is to adjust the amount of sugar that’s sprinkled over the cranberries in step 1: 1/3 cup seemed like just a bit too much. I might try ¼ next time.

Next up, I might try cranberry scones, cranberry, orange and dark chocolate chip cookies or cranberry trail bars.There’s also a cranberry nutbread that I like to make around the holidays; need to dig up the recipe for that. (Cranberry sorbet? Not so much.)

Anyone have any other favorite cranberry dishes / recipes to suggest? I have a lot of cranberries to use up. :)