Tag Archives: cranberry

Cranberry Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Bites

cranberry cream cheese puff pastry bites

cranberry cream cheese puff pastry bites

On New Year’s Eve, I love to spend the day snacking on appetizers and small bites. Many are savory but, of course, I need to satisfy my sweet tooth, too.

Puff pastry is the perfect vehicle for bite-sized morsels, sweet or savory. For my holiday celebration, I fill the pastry with a combination of sweetened cream cheese and barely-sweetened homemade jam. The tart and sweet flavors play well against each other. They are also pretty tasty when followed with a sip of champagne or bubbly mocktail.

Until next time, Happy New Year and happy baking!

cranberry cream cheese puff pastry bites
Print Recipe

Cranberry Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Bites

On New Year’s Eve, I love to spend the day snacking on appetizers and small bites. Many are savory but, of course, I need to satisfy my sweet tooth, too. Puff pastry is the perfect vehicle for bite-sized morsels, sweet or savory.
Course: Snack
Cuisine: Vegan
Keyword: Baking, cream cheese, New Year's Eve, puff pastry, Recipe
Servings: 18 bites
Author: The Decadent Vegan Baker

Equipment

  • 2 12-cup muffin tins
  • Rolling Pin

Ingredients

  • ⅓ cup blueberry-pomegranate juice or other berry juice
  • 1 ½ cup fresh cranberries
  • ¼ teaspoon lemon peel
  • 1 tablespoon agave syrup
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla
  • 6 ounces vegan cream cheese at room temperature
  • ⅓ cup vegan vanilla yogurt
  • 1 pear
  • 2 sheets puff pastry thawed (a 17.3 oz box)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 18 cups of muffin tins very well with cooking spray.
  • Place the juice, cranberries, and lemon peel in a small pot over medium-low heat. When you hear the cranberries popping, remove the pot from the stove. Mash the berries with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Add the agave and vanilla and stir to combine.
  • Put the cream cheese and yogurt in a medium bowl and stir with a spoon to combine.
  • Slice the pear into thin, bite-sized shapes. (You won’t use an entire pear.)
  • Unfold thawed puff pastry sheets onto a lightly floured board. Gently roll each sheet with a rolling pin to remove the creases. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut each sheet into 9 even squares. (You should have a total of 18 squares cut out).
  • Place one square of pastry into each muffin cup, pushing down slightly to form a cupped shape. Place a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture onto each pastry, then follow with a heaping teaspoon of cranberry mixture and a piece of pear.
  • Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges of the pastry are golden brown. Let the muffin tins cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then gently remove each pastry bite to a wire rack to cool further.
  • These are best when freshly baked baked, but you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Notes

You can use store-bought jam if you don’t want to make the cranberry mixture. I used seedless blackberry jam for some of mine.

Cranberry Orange Shortbread with Hibiscus Glaze + gluten-free option

cranberry orange shortbread - gluten free option
cranberry orange shortbread with hibiscus glaze

This time of year adds more parties to my calendar, and that means cookies! I love to bring cookies along because they are tasty and easy to snack on while chatting with other guests. And they can be made in quantity without much extra effort.

With several events scheduled this season that included gluten-free attendees, I scoured my files for vegan and gluten-free treats. I discovered a book in my collection with a cookie recipe that fit the bill. To allow for all foodie types to enjoy my offering, I decided to bake a batch gluten-free, as listed in the cookbook, but also one with regular flour. It was a fun and interesting experiment, and it tasted great, too. You can find the gluten-free substitution at the end of the recipe.

To amp up the holiday taste I added orange zest to the dough. I also borrowed a red cookie glaze from a Food Network recipe. The shortbread turned out colorful and festive, and they combined my favorite holiday flavors.

Vegan Cranberry Orange Shortbread with Hibiscus Glaze inspired by Gluten-Free and Vegan Holidays and The Food Network

for cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
for glaze
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup (17 grams) dried hibiscus
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease the sides and removable bottom of a 4” x 14” tart pan. If you prefer wedge-shaped cookies, then use a 9” round tart pan. Set aside.

Put the flour, salt, cinnamon, and orange zest in a medium bowl. Whisk until combined.

Add the coconut oil and maple syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream until combined. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until it comes together.

Add the walnuts and cranberries and mix on low speed to just incorporate. The dough should be a bit stiff, but if the mixture is too crumbly you can beat in a small amount of water until it just holds together.

Press the dough into the prepared tart pan, smoothing the surface with a spatula or the bottom of a measuring cup.

Bake for 20 – 22 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Place the pan on a heat-safe surface and cut the shortbread into squares or wedges while still warm. Leave the cookies in the tart pan and move the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Remove them only once they have fully cooled.

While the cookies cool, start the glaze by bringing the water and hibiscus to a boil in a small pot. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and steep for 5 minutes. Strain, pressing to remove all liquid, then discard the hibiscus. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and add the warm hibiscus water a bit at a time, mixing as you go, until you reach your desired consistency. Let it sit until fully cooled. (Note: You may not use all of the hibiscus water.)

Dip half of each cooled cookie in the cooled glaze and place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Place cookies in the fridge to allow the glaze to set. If you prefer a darker shade of glaze, you can dip the cookies again and place them back in the fridge to set. (Note: you may have leftover glaze depending on how much you apply to your cookies.)

Gluten Free option: use an equal amount of buckwheat flour in place of the all purpose flour. You may need to add extra maple syrup and/or water because buckwheat flour is thirstier with a bolder flavor than all purpose flour.

Note on the photograph: the darker cookies are gluten-free and the lighter dipped cookies are made with all purpose flour.

Until next time, happy baking!

Cranberry Orange Almond Cookies

cranberry orange almond cookies
cranberry orange almond cookies

As I was adding cranberries and cinnamon to my fall oatmeal this morning, my thoughts went to holiday cookies. These two ingredients would make good additions to a cookie, along with orange to round out the flavor profile. The downside was that I was feeling lazy, but finding an easy recipe would make it a simpler task.

My search pulled up a quick cookie recipe, one that was already vegan. It had no leaveners so high altitude would not be an issue. The changes I made began with giving a nod to the holidays. My goal was to include my taste trio of cranberries, orange, and cinnamon. Upon adding those, I adjusted for the extra moisture and bulk. The result was a burst of seasonal goodness, wrapped up as a refined-sugar-free and gluten-free treat.

Cranberry Orange Almond Cookies adapted from The Easiest Almond Flour Cookies

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon organic orange zest
2.5 tablespoons organic orange juice
1.5 cups + 1 tablespoon fine almond flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
pinch fine sea salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Place chopped dried cranberries in a small bowl with the orange zest. Cover with orange juice and stir to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes so the juice can soak into the cranberries.

Place the almond flour, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk. Add maple syrup and vanilla and stir. Add the cranberries and any juice from the small bowl, and stir to combine well. The dough will be shaggy but slightly sticky. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes to absorb fluid.

chopped cranberries for holiday cookies
chopped cranberries for holiday cookies

Scoop up 16 walnut-sized balls of dough and place on the baking sheet. The cookies will not really spread, so they can be placed fairly close together. Flatten the balls of dough using the bottom of a glass keeping a small piece of parchment paper in between to prevent sticking. Cookies should be about ¼-inch thick and 2 ½-inches in diameter.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the edges and bottoms of cookies are golden brown. Place the baking sheet with cookies on a wire rack until the cookies cool completely. Store fully cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.

Until next time, happy baking!

Cranberry-Studded Pumpkin Breads with Streusel

cranberry pumpkin breads with streusel
Cranberry-Studded Pumpkin Breads with Streusel

‘Tis the season for pumpkin and pumpkin spice. But, to be honest, I’m only a fan of pumpkin spice when it’s in pumpkin bread. To get on board with the seasonal flavor, I had to make pumpkin bread soon. In order to make things more interesting, I added dried cranberries inside the bread and streusel on top. Now that’s a bread combination that would make anyone a fan.

The pumpkin bread recipe is an adaptation of a vegan cake recipe I found. To make it high altitude friendly, I reduced the baking powder and oil, and split it into smaller loaves, all of which created beautifully domed breads. The added sweet streusel topping and tart cranberries played nicely off of each other, but didn’t overpower the pumpkin and spice flavors. These tasty mini breads would look great on any fall holiday table.

Cranberry-Studded Pumpkin Breads with Streusel adapted from Pumpkin Spice Cake

Topping
2 1/2 TBS vegan butter (such as Flora Plant Butter)
1/2 cup vegan sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup sweetened roasted almonds, chopped (such as Monk Crunch Cinnamon)
Mini Breads
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp powdered ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 TBS vegetable oil
1 cup pumkin purée
1/2 cup + 1 tsp almond milk
1 cup dried diced cranberries (such as Patience Fruit & Company’s with no added sugar)

Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly spray 3 mini loaf pans with cooking spray. To prepare the topping, melt the butter in a pan over low heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt, flour, cinnamon, and almonds. Stir in the melted butter, making sure to leave some streusel clumps. Set the topping aside while you prepare the bread batter.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Whisk in brown sugar. In a medium bowl, whisk together vanilla, oil, pumpkin purée, and almond milk. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until evenly moistened. Mix in the dried cranberries. Transfer the batter to prepared pans and spread the topping over all loaves.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack. Tip out of loaf pans, trying not to lose the topping. To store leftovers, cool completely and wrap well. Will keep at room temperature for several days, or in the freezer for longer storage.

Until next time, happy baking!

Choosing the almond flavor for the streusel
Choosing an almond flavor for the streusel

Cranberry-Studded Pumpkin Muffins

Cranberry Studded Pumpkin Muffins

Cranberry Studded Pumpkin Muffins

It’s a few days until American Thanksgiving, and I thought I would do an homage to some of the holiday’s traditional flavors. Pumpkin and cranberry are common tastes found at a Thanksgiving table, so I dug up a recipe combining the two. This muffin would make a wonderful pre-feast breakfast to get you in the mood.

I reduced the baking soda to account for high altitude concerns. Next, I made a chia egg (from chia and water) and swapped nonfat milk with almond milk to make it vegan. These not-to-sweet muffins offer lots to be thankful for with the burst of cranberries in every bite.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberry-Studded Pumpkin Muffins adapted from Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
1 Tbs chia seeds
3 Tbs warm water
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup organic sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Combine chia seeds and water in a small bowl, and set aside to gel. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Combine pumpkin, chia gel, oil and almond milk in a medium bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the pumpkin mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in cranberries. Fill 12-14 muffin cups and bake for 24-26 minutes.

Until next time, happy baking!