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?