cranberry

Cranberry and Hazelnut Muffins

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Trapped at home on rainy miserable Saturday with a shitty cold I wanted something sweet but couldn’t face going out and having change out of my oodie (if don’t have one yet, get one they are fantastic in cold weather (I’m not advertising, but if any oodie makers would like to send me one I wouldn’t say no).

Anyway, after raiding the cupboards this is  what I came up with and they were delicious. I used Greek yoghurt because I has some that needed to be used up but could also use milk instead.  If you’re lactose intolerant you could swap the dairy for the same volume of stewed apple or mashed banana.  I’d also recommend toasting the hazelnuts in a dry pan first.  Its not mission critical if you’re pushed for time (or just can’t be arsed) but it does make them even tastier.

Makes 12

Ingredients

200 Grams Self raising flour (or 200 Grams of plain flour qnd 2 teaspoons of bsking powder if you don’t have self raising flour)

100 Grams Sugar

2 Eggs

200 Grams Yoghurt

50 Grams Hazelnuts

50 Grams Dried cranberries

100mil Oil or Melted butter

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tin with muffin cases
  • Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl
  • Mix all the wet ingredients together and mix well until fully combined
  • Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well making sure that the fruit and nuts are evenly distributed throughout the batter
  • If you have one of those fancy ice cream scoops you can use it to evenly distribute the batter into the muffin cases.  I dont have one. So I just used 2 dessert spoons to scoop and then scrape the batter in the cases.
  • Bske for 20-25 minutes and allow to cool.

Cranberry and Orange Shortbread Cookies

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I love baking at Christmas, something about the smell of delicious things coming out of the oven adds to my Christmas spirit.  It’s also brilliant way to keep little hands busy if you have kids at home.

Fresh out of the oven and cooling on a wire wrack.  Your kitchen will smell fabulous!!!

Shortbread can be fiddly to cut out, but these cookies just need slicing into rounds.  What’s even better, you can make the shortbread dough up to 72 hours in advance and let it chill in the fridge and then take the log of dough out to slice and bake them just before you need them.  They can be stored in airtight box for up 3 days (they won’t last that long).

Shortbread dough rolled into a sausage ready to be chilled

I used a food processor to make these, which makes them super quick and easy.  If you don’t have one, you can chop the cranberries and mix the butter and flour together using the rubbing in method.

You can also dip or drizzle with dark chocolate if you’re feeling particularly indulgent. However they are still delicious just as they are.

If like me you can’t be trusted to moderate your consumption of these, they also make great gifts.

Makes around 30 cookies

Recipes

70 Grams Dried cranberries

100 Grams Sugar

230 Grams Butter (chilled and cut into cubes)

340 Grams Plain flour

1 Orange (zest and juice)

100 Grams Dark chocolate (optional)

Method

  1. Add the cranberries and about a third of the sugar into a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds, until the cranberries have started to break up (the shouldn’t be too finely sliced)
  2. Transfer the sugar and cranberry mix to a bowl.  Add butter and flour to the food processor and pulse until they look like fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Add the butter and flour mix to the cranberry mix with the rest of the sugar and the orange zest and mix well
  4. Start adding the juice of the orange a little at a time (how much you will need will depend on your flour). Get your hands in the bowl and start pressing the mix together to form a dough
  5. Turn out onto a large sheet of cling film and squeeze into a sausage shape about 4-5cm in diameter.  Wrap tightly in the cling film, you can also give it a little roll to help it look a little neater
  6. Chill for at least 30 minutes (but the dough can live in your fridge for 2-3 days if you want to make ahead of time
  7. When you are ready to bake, pre heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a cookie sheet with baking parchment. Remove the cling film from the dough and cut into 1cm thick slices and put on the baking parchment (they will spread a little, so allow some space between them)
  8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, and allow to cool
  9. If you want to dip or drizzle the cookies in chocolate, make sure they are cool. Break the chocolate into small pieces into a microwave proof bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted and then either dip the cookies or drizzle with a spoon