cranberry

AppleBerry Oatmeal bake recipe

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Over the weekend I received a request by @Erdbeervogel from Australia on my Pinterest pin for my home-made Apple Blackberry Slice recipe on “What’s for dinner – Home Creations” board. On the Creations bar, you can click on our social media Pinterest icon for a direct link or here.

Keeping my promise to bake and write down the recipe I checked my ingredients and only had frozen strawberries, raspberries left. However, I had a last punnet of fresh cranberries waiting to be used so I substituted these instead for the filling and changed the title to AppleBerry Oatmeal Bake. My photos are not complete while doing the layering I totally forgot to shoot, but the instructions are easy to follow. Apologies for that will upload and add the missing steps with my next bake :).

It seemed more befitting since this base can be filled with any fresh and frozen berries, single or mixed (very nice, especially in the summer), the final bakes always came out right.  So I am adding the recipe for my Cranberry-Orange fruit preserve here according to the featuring photo as shown, which I cooked off the cuff. After preparation, I initially thought it would be too tart but the family and guests were nicely surprised with the end result.

Apple varieties: I used Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cox Orange (autumn harvest), Dutch Golden Reinette (goudreinet), Fuji. But having tried once with a sweet apple berry filling, let’s say it didn’t ignite any spark to repeat again. Grate the apples as last otherwise sprinkle some lemon juice to prevent discolouration.

Serving suggestions: Warm AppleBerry Oatmeal Bake by itself is a treat, for a brunch or dessert you can serve together with vanilla ice-cream, or a dollop of Greek cream (fat) yoghurt to make it special. When cooled down and firmed up nicely, the taste is even better and a light custard sauce or half-whipped cream will go down easily with the crowd.

Note: I stumbled upon the original Slices recipes in Better Homes and Gardens magazine June 2005, a quick bread recipe easy to assemble with cupboard ingredients. Have substituted and experimented with various berries and even adaptation to the flour-oat mixture by adding quinoa and flaxseed recipe variation will follow soon.

[recipe]

Cranberry Orange preserves

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Wanted to make a quick bake with one of my staple frozen berries, I had none in the freezer but I did have a last punnet of fresh cranberries waiting to be used so I started making this ahead.

When you boil the water with sugar and adding the cranberries, you will hear a popping sound just be careful for the splatters do not squash unless you want a smooth variation or turn it into a jam or jelly. I only added one cup of sugar, but depending what you want to do with the final result and taste you can vary between 1-2 cups and add vanilla and/or cinnamon to boost even more flavour. For a Christmas dish, I have added Cointreau liquor to enhance the taste but cranberries and vodka find each other in marriage as well. Since my AppleBerry Oatmeal bake mix already has cinnamon added I choose not to repeat in this Cranberry Orange preserves.

Before I couldn’t tell the difference between jellies, jam and preserves but the secret lie in its appearance apparently:

  • In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
  • In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit (and is less stiff than jelly as a result).
  • In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a syrup or a jam.
  • In compote, whole fruits are cooked in water with sugar and spices. The syrup may be seasoned with vanilla, lemon or orange peel, cinnamon sticks or powder, cloves, ground almonds, grated coconut, candied fruit, or raisins. The compote is served either warm or cold.

So I suppose without adding the flavourings my Cranberry Orange Filling it is a preserve and if I had added the spices it changes into a compote, whad’ya know two preparations in one. I should make it again just to fine tune the recipe, but please share your results so we can make adjustments together for a better fruit filling with multiple purposes.

Note: You might think when tasting the final cranberry orange preserves it is too sour or tart, keep in mind that it combines flavours with the flour oatmeal bake and apples, so do not add more sugar or sweeteners it might be too much for the end result.