Chocolate Cranberry Bread with Chocolate Chunks

I've done the fairly healthy cranberry bread. Twice. Now it's time for something a little more adventurous. A little more decadent.

One of my first blog posts was for Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Bread from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum. I looked for a different recipe to use this time around - not because I didn't love Rose's, but for the sake of comparison - but couldn't seem to find anything else...

You can get away with eating this bread for breakfast - as I did this morning - but it also makes a lovely, somewhat rustic dessert. You could top it with a chocolate sauce, a coulis, whipped cream or ice cream. If you don't have fresh cranberries, dried would work, as would other fruits; pears, raspberries, blackberries... it is infinitely adaptable. What about a swirl of dulce de leche in place of the fruit? Or peanut butter? Oh my, I'm getting a little carried away! But I can't help it. This bread is so good that you'll want to try every combination imaginable so you have an excuse to make it again.

Chocolate Cranberry Bread with Chocolate Chunks

adapted from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder + more for dusting

3 tablespoons boiling water

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups (4.5 oz) cake flour or 4.5 oz unbleached white flour

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (4.5 oz)

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

x13 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into small, not fine, pieces

1 cup fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan. Make a paste of cocoa powder and boiling water. When it is cool, add vanilla and eggs, and whisk until smooth. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, stir to combine. Add butter and 1/2 of chocolate mixture to dry ingredients. Mix on low until all dry ingredients are moistened, then turn up to medium speed and mix for 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add 1/2 of remaining chocolate mixture, beat for 20 seconds. Repeat with second 1/2. Scrape down sides of bowl. Stir in chopped chocolate and cranberries. Pour into prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Bake for about an hour, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a rack to cool completely before slicing. Dust with cocoa powder, slice and serve!

TWD: All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake

I really need a new bundt pan. First, my devil's food cake got stuck, and now this one... The cake came out came out of the pan easily, but it was so ugly! The ridges on my bundt pan aren't very deep, and it gave me a cake that just looked lumpy. I was going to get a new pan and then bake this cake again for next week, which would mean I would have had to wake up early this morning to make, bake and shoot the molasses cookies before work. Well, thinking a little harder about this plan, it didn't seem very sound. I realized I could just slice my bundt and shoot the slices, and that seemed much easier so I went with it.

Unfortunately, it is a dark and rainy morning here in Asheville...

I made this cake yesterday to take to a family lunch. I didn't make too many changes; I didn't have 1 1/4 cups of pumpkin puree in the can I had opened, so I added some mashed banana to make up the difference - it was less than 1 banana, and the flavor didn't come through, which is what I was hoping for. I used 2 medium sized apples, and I used palm sugar instead of refined & brown. I actually didn't have enough palm sugar, either, so I just used what I had - which was a little less than a cup. The cake was plenty sweet.

I was a little nervous about this one when I read the recipe, it just seemed like too many things thrown in together. However, it worked really well. It was a moist, spicy cake, and I loved all of the add-ins. The cake had so many different textures from the pecans, cranberries and apples making it very satisfying to eat.

The pumpkin flavor was not terribly dominant, though that was probably because I used less than a cup of it. I actually liked it that way. It was more of a background hint of pumpkin.

Thanks to Britin of The Nitty Britty for picking this recipe. We're allowed to bake & post all TWD selections out of order this week, so Britin won't have the recipe posted on her blog until later this month.

SMS: Pear Cranberry Muffins with Ginger-Molasses Crumble

So, I know that I just posted a cranberry bread yesterday, but here is another one! I'm quite happy to be baking it, too, because I have about 8 pounds of cranberries that need to be used! You'll be seeing many cranberry recipes in the coming days and weeks.

While I loved the cranberry bread I posted yesterday, my son and husband weren't crazy for it. Unlike me, they don't love overly sour things. Or at least they don't love cranberries - my son will eat pickles by the jar, and frequently requests sauerkraut juice to drink. So, since the cranberries weren't a huge hit, I used half of the batter to bake pear muffins and the other half to make a loaf of pear-cranberry bread.

The Sweet Melissa Baking Book has a basic sweet muffin recipe that we have used once before, when we made Fresh Peach Muffins back in August. Or in my case, Raspberry-Peach muffins. The main complaint from most people about those muffins was that they were very dense. I didn't find mine terribly dense, but they were on the dry side. So this time around, I made a few changes to try to avoid either problem.

I used 1/4 cup less flour than the recipe calls for, and I used part whole wheat - 1 cup to be exact. I also used all milk instead of part milk and part cream, and used an extra 1/4 cup for a total of 1 cup. I used about twice as much diced pear as the recipe calls for, about 1 1/2 cups, and used about 1/2 cup cranberries for the half of the batter I put them in, doubling the cranberries called for. I had some molasses cookie dough in the fridge, so I baked that off to use in the crumble, and added extra ginger to the mixture. So, I didn't really follow the recipe much at all, did I? Oh, and I also used palm sugar in place of the granulated and brown sugars in the recipe.

All of my changes worked beautifully, because my muffins and bread were incredibly fluffy and moist. I'll definitely stick to my version the next time I want a sweet muffin.

Of the two versions I made, I preferred the muffins (which did not contain cranberries). I thought the bread was really tasty, too, but the cranberries really overpowered the subtle pear flavor. In the muffins, the pear really popped. I could take or leave the crumble. Actually, I'll probably leave it, because it made an enormous mess that I will probably be cleaning up for days...

Both cranberry breads were good but I prefer the one I posted yesterday. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the crumble actually detracted from it for me. It was yummy on its own, but paired with the bread, it just didn't work. Also, the Sweet Melissa recipe includes nutmeg, which normally I love in just about everything, but I'm not sure it really did anything for this bread. The Everyday Food version has no spices, which I was skeptical about at first, but I loved the result. So that will remain my go-to cranberry bread!

This week's recipe was chosen by Jennifer of Maple N' Cornbread, where you can find the recipe.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Bread

As a child, I hated chocolate. Something I simply cannot understand now, but back in the day all I wanted was sour treats. Though my love has shifted entirely to any dark, rich, luscious cacao confection, I still really enjoy things like this cranberry bread.

This is a bread that I discovered (as I do so many things) through Tracey. She sent a loaf of it to Kayte in her Secret Baker box. I'll be posting a round-up of all of everything the Secret Bakers baked next week, when I've received photographs from everyone.

I got a bunch of cranberries yesterday, and I was looking for a treat to make with them. As soon as I saw this bread, I knew what it would be.

This bread is wonderful. Moist, earthy, tart, dense. It doesn't need anything, though I have it on good authority that it is fantastic toasted with butter and honey.

I kind of wish that I would find more recipes that I don't love so that I wouldn't have to figure out when I could bake them again! Thankfully the holidays are coming up, so I'll have the chance to bake bake bake!!! I assure you, this bread will be on the agenda.

I made a few changes to the recipe, here is my version:

Whole Wheat Cranberry Bread

adapted from Everyday Food

4 tablespoons melted butter, plus butter for the pan

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup palm sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

7.5 oz cranberries

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan. In a large bowl, combine flours, palm sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk and egg. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, whisk to combine. Fold in the cranberries. Spoon into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for about an hour, or until loaf is golden brown and tester placed in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Something I've always loved, the coconut macaroon. It is amazing how simple it is, yet how much flavor it has. Plus the flavor possibilities are endless.

These are a little something I included in my Secret Baker box along with a few other treats.

I had never made macaroons, though I had made macaroon topped brownies many times, so I knew how easy they were. Nevertheless, I had a hard time finding a recipe that didn't include sweetened condensed milk. Then I remembered that The Sweet Melissa Baking Book had one! I looked at it, and simplified it a bit, as it called for zest and I had no citrus, and it has chunks of chocolate in the macaroon, and I wanted to dip mine.

Okay, truth time: I'm not entirely sure I'm in love with these. I think the ratio of egg white to coconut is a little off, as the outside of them got crunchier than I typically like in a macaroon. I thought the flavor was great, and I loved the combination of the coconut with the semisweet chocolate I dipped them in, but the texture could use a tad bit of improvement. Maybe it is just that my expectation of them was that they would be very moist, and maybe that is hard to achieve in a macaroon without the sweetened condensed milk. When I knew I would be biting into something with a crunchy exterior and chewy interior, I actually did love them, though I probably shouldn't have to psych myself up for each bite of a sweet treat...

I almost didn't include them in the box, because I didn't want to send a bum treat, but everyone has different tastes, so I'll let my Secret Bakee tell me what she thought of them and report back.

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

adapted liberally from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

14 oz unsweetened shredded coconut

1 cup sugar

3 large egg whites

5 ounces of semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 325. Combine coconut, sugar and egg whites in a bowl and mix with your hands until all of the coconut feels moist. Firmly pack mixture into a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. While cookies are cooling, melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl set over a small pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is melted and cookies are completely cool, hold the rounded part of the cookie and dip it into the melted chocolate, coating the bottom and coming about 1/4 of the way up the side. Place cookie chocolate side down on parchment, and let the chocolate harden. Makes about 40 macaroons.

TWD: Pear Crisp

I got a new camera!!! I'm so excited, but still learning how to use it... Bear with me...

I come from a family of photographers - my great-grandfather was a very well-known one in the '20s, '30s and '40s, and pretty much any historical photos of the Asheville area were taken by him. He had a studio called Plateau Studio, which his son, my grandfather took over when he passed away at a relatively early age.

Under my grandfather's ownership, it evolved into a camera store called Ball Photo which is still around today, though my grandfather (Papa) has been gone for over 8 years. I grew up in his store. I worked there every summer and winter vacation from the time I was 12. Before that, when I would visit, Papa would lift me up onto the showcases where I would sit and chat with his customers whom he introduced me to as Sarah Lydia Ball Photo Easterling. For a long time I believed Ball Photo was actually part of my name.

I fell in love with photography at an early age, and I used to do a lot of it. I was a bit of a snob about it - I wouldn't touch a camera unless it was fully manual, and I did all of my own darkroom work. It was such fun. Eventually, I gave in to having a camera the could be fully manual or automatic, and how I loved that camera. It was a Canon Elan 2E and it went everywhere with me.

Then the summer before my senior year of college, my grandfather passed away. He had come to Syracuse, NY - where I was in college - to see me in a play. He was 80 years old, still worked 7 days a week, drove too fast, flew alone. Nothing could stop him. Or so we thought. The flight from Asheville to Syracuse caused an aneurysm to rupture in his brain, and several hours after his plane landed, he was in the ICU. About a month later he was gone. He never saw my play. The first opening night of mine he ever missed in my 10+ years of acting up to that point.

After he passed away, I didn't work in Ball Photo again, and I started using a point and shoot. It wasn't until I started this blog that I started to get excited about photography again. I'm a bit rusty, but it feels good to be getting back into it.

All of this has nothing to do with a pear crisp. I bought my camera at Ball Photo yesterday, and it is still hard after 8 years to walk in there and not see Papa peering over his desk. I was raised by a single mom and spent more time with my grandfather than my dad growing up. I still can't drive up the street our family home was on, I can't think about him without crying. I'm crying as I write this. I'm incredibly fortunate to have had someone like him in my life, even though he left sooner than I would have liked. I wish he could have met my kids, I wish I could have shared all of my treats with him, I wish he could have seen that play, and the ones that followed. He would have been so happy that I moved back to Asheville...

Anyway, Papa really loved apple pie with vanilla ice cream, but I think this pear crisp is something he would have loved too. I left out the sugar in the filling, used palm sugar instead of refined sugar, and added some fresh nutmeg to the topping, and it was delicious. My son had 3 helpings of it while it was still warm from the oven! If that isn't high praise for a dish, I don't know what is.

This recipe was chosen by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef, though the recipe won't be on her blog until next Tuesday. We're allowed to bake out of order this month do to Thanksgiving. So, thanks to Em for a really tasty pick!

Apple Upside Down Cake

Okay, first off; photo apologies. As you may know, my camera was stolen several weeks ago. I've been borrowing my moms, but it decided to die on me. So I took this photo with my uncle's camera at a family brunch in poor lighting. I did what I could with it... I'll be getting a new camera very soon, and I can't wait!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about this cake, shall we?

I saw this cake for the first time a couple months back on The Pioneer Woman's blog. I immediately knew I wanted to make it. As soon as we made a trip to the local orchard, I whipped one up. It was devoured within approximately 47 seconds after coming out of the oven, so no photos. I knew it would be the perfect thing to take to an early birthday brunch for my aunt, so I made another one.

Let me tell you how difficult it was to keep from eating a slice (or three) while it sat on my counter, but I didn't think my aunt would appreciate a half-eaten cake. Of course, we are talking about the same aunt who once ate 3/4 of my uncle's cake one year and blamed it on her cat when she brought it out for the celebration... Oh yes, she did.

So, here is my version of the Pioneer Woman's cake.

Apple Upside Down Cake

2 large apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced- use whatever you like as long as it is firm and on the tart side - I like Fujis

3/4 stick of butter

3/4 cup palm sugar

1 stick butter, softened

2/3 cup palm sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. In a 9-10 inch skillet melt 3/4 cup of butter over low heat. Add 3/4 cup palm sugar. Stir occasionally, allowing mixture to cook while you prepare the batter. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in small bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the remaining stick of butter and 2/3 cup palm sugar. Beat for about 2 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Add buttermilk and mix well. Add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. At this point, remove skillet from heat and arrange apple slices over the bottom of it, making sure that they are close, but not overlapping. You should use about 1 apple, maybe a little more. Whatever you have left, chop into small pieces and add to batter and stir them in. Pour batter into skillet, smoothing it with a rubber spatula. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack for 5 minutes. Place cake plate upside down over skillet and using oven mitts, invert cake onto plate. Replace any pieces that may have come off during the transfer.