Monday, October 12, 2009

Fall Recipe Exchange

Amy at My Friend Amy is hosting a Fall Festival Recipe Exchange starting today; you can read about it here and then leave a link to your recipe here.

Thanks to Amy for hosting this fun- and delicious- challenge!


The picture below is last year's giant pumpkin from the Topsfield Fair, one of the country's oldest agricultural fairs. We went last week and saw this year's pumpkin, another 1,000-pound-plus beauty, this time from New Hampshire. I didn't have my camera handy, though!

My recipe is for Cranberry Cornbread, and comes from The Best American Recipes 2004-2005. I make this cornbread at least three or four times during the season. My husband's family has a vacation house on the island of Nantucket, famous for its cranberries, and we usually manage to get a nice batch of fresh Nantucket cranberries to bake with all season long. I'll be using them in everything from the cornbread to muffins to cakes to cranberry-orange pinwheel cookies for Christmas.

The recipe:
Butter or Pam for the pan
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tb baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 Tb unsalted, melted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Cut each cranberry in half, place in a large bowl with the confectioner's sugar and toss to coat. Sift in the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt, and mix together. Warm the milk slightly; in a small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and melted butter. Pour over the cornmeal mixture and fold together gently but thoroughly. Pour the batter in to the prepared pan and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 35 minutes. Cut into squares. Serve warm or cooled.

Now, once your cornbread is ready you'll want a good book- and some fresh cider- to go along with it!

What's your favorite fall treat?

23 comments:

Nicole (Linus's Blanket) said...

A good book and a nice tea or apple cider. Sound heavenly, and a great way to spice up corn bread.

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks said...

I've never thought of adding cranberries to cornbread! I'm bookmarking your recipe, as my baking gets more frequent in the fall/winter (will let you know when I try it).

Can you believe I've never been to the Topsfield Fair?!

bermudaonion said...

Yummy, I'm getting hungry reading all of these recipes. My favorite fall treat is college football. My favorite fall treat, food wise is pomegranates.

Michelle (Red Headed Book Child) said...

Yummy, it sounds like it would go with some chili!

Darlene said...

My goodness that pumpkin is huge! The Cranberry Cornbread sounds so good. I love cranberries and cornbread so I can't see going wrong with this one. I may have to try it out.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I love cranberries and I love cornbread - sounds like a natural combo - sort of like peanut butter and chocolate!

Beth F said...

This sounds like a great treat. How am I going to resist baking this week?

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Cranberries with cornbread...I'd never have thought to put these together. Must give it a try!

Molly said...

I would never thought of combining these two ingredients, yet I love them both. I plan to make the recipe soon!

caite said...

I love cornbread...I love cranberries...so this must be great!

Audrey said...

oh, that sounds good! I would definitely like to try this...and I'd like to go to the Topsfield Fair someday!

Amy said...

This does sound good even though I'm not a huge fan of cornbread. :) Thanks for sharing and that pumpkin is amazing!

Ali said...

What a great recipe idea, I'm going to have to try it. We love cornbread muffins, and cranberries, so I'm sure it'll be a hit.

Katie said...

OMG that pumpkin is huge!!

My favorite fall treat is my mom's pumpkin bread...which she'll be sending me for my birthday in a couple weeks ;) YUM!

Marie said...

Sounds yummy!!

Zibilee said...

This sounds like a great recipe, and I like the fact that it's not loaded with sugar. I am going to print this out and try to make a loaf for my family. I know my husband will love it. Thanks!

Mari said...

I really want to make this cornbread. Sounds so good! :)

Esme said...

Cranberry Cornbread-cranberries are my favorite-I made chicken pot pie and put some in the pie. It is baking as I type. Thank you for stopping by.

Kathleen Gilligan said...

Yum sounds great! I love cranberry bread, but cranberry cornbread sounds even better :)

Heidenkind said...

My dad loves cranberries. I think he would be a big fan of this recipe.

T. Forkner said...

Sounds so good!

Anonymous said...

My husband loved cranberry anything and cornbread made with stone ground cormeal. I'll have to make this for Thanksgiving and surprise him!!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

OMG...look at that sucker of a pumpkin ..LOL