I never got the right understanding about cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. We never connected well. Come on it’s a berry, although I never would put a raw cranberry in my mouth (never again, I learned it the hard way) I consider a cranberry as something sweet or at least in the category for sweet stuff. And don’t get me started with another Thanksgiving variation: sweet potatoes, which I adore and eat at least once a week but topped with marshmallows, no thanks, I’ll pass. Yes that’s me saying this and I am the one who loves baked camembert with lingonberry jam. This lady is full of contradictions. Maybe not even a lady, maybe I just get tangled up in contradictions.

Anyway I am sucker for fresh and seasonal food and get excited about most of the farmers market finds and that includes cranberries too. These days you can find them everywhere, tempting bright red and yet tart. They are a great source of vitamin C and fiber and a lot more good stuff. Hence cranberries are very healthy and not just beautiful in a sauce. Today they come in company with just a few sour apple pieces, together they are a nice tart contrary to the buttery of the crust and sweetness of the streusel. If you don’t have any apples on hand, don’t bother, just skip them.

 

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Caribbean pear coconut cake

“On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A partridge in a pear tree”

Most of you know this old Christmas song, I know it’s not yet the time for it. Though I had my last dinner in a restaurant while listening to jingle bells, odd enough. Some days ago my true love went to Germany and Spain and back home he gave me German cooking magazines. One of them is dedicated and packed with mouth watering recipes for apples and pears. No partridge in a pear tree but I would love to have such a tree and bake all the nice treats in this magazine.

That’s not all Mr. F brought home from his recent trip to Europe. He also arrived with an over a week long jet-lag. Which was the cause for: “are you still asleep?” at night times. What kind of question is that anyway? At 3 am? I don’t wanna sound like a sissy, but not enough sleep makes me sluggish and I don’t even want to mention the other side-effects. Spending one week overtired and exhausted was let’s say challenging. Concluding I have to say this bunch of cooking magazines came with a high price tag for my well-being,  but totally worth in view of bringing some Caribbean treats into our autumn days. And I am able to share this cake with my true love and two great friends who are coming all the way from Kansas City to visit us!

One of my favorite German cooking magazines is Lust auf Genuss unfortunately not available here in the US (or not that I know of). My mum is collecting all issues for me and every time someone makes the way over the ocean, I get a stack of magazines. It’s not that we are traveling every week to Europe so I get most of the issues when they are out of season. Autumn arrives some weeks later here in mid south and that’s the reason why 09/12  “Äpfel & Birnen” (apples and pears) is just in time and it’s one of the best issues to far. I had been slobbering all over the pictures and finally decides it has to be the Caribbean pear cake. I don’t own a 26 cm springform pan and just ‘downsized’ the recipe to fit in my 24 cm pan. I also swapped starch from the original recipe for whole wheat flour, which made the texture more rustic.

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gingered coconut oatmeal cookies

Sometimes people surprise me. Yes I know: don’t judge a book by it’s cover. But we all do that, don’t we? Just yesterday I chatted with a young guy about politics and he impressed me with his knowledge about laws, statistics and history, he knew more about this than I ever will in my whole life. But at first I looked at him and thought all he might think about is NFL and I twisted my mind searching for anything I would knew about football, that wasn’t much either…

Lately another person in my life impressed me – my mum. I am in a long-distance relationship with my family and it sucks but video calling on skype is a great help. We are spending many hours talking and drinking tea or wine together. For a long time every call started with “I can’t hear you Mama” while she had been searching for how to turn on her microphone. Needless to say she had some difficulties and I had to be very patient. Finally her crappy notebook is dying and we talked her into getting an ipad. Phew! What a relief on both counts. Surprisingly this little tablet tent to stick to her hand like a sixth finger. My mum never was one of those geeks (we have that in common) on fact most of the time she had no clue how to handle her notebook. But suddenly she has her own email address, buys books online, added me as a friend on facebook and even calls me with facetime. She learns fast and it is only a matter of time before she will find out how google translator works and she will read my little food blog. It is high time to post one of her recipes before I get caught by her. I “borrowed” this one on my last visit. I use to have a batch of cookies around in case of… well I need one and beside cantuccini this is one of my favorite.

Gingered coconut oatmeal cookies might never win a beauty contest but you know: true beauty comes from within. Packed with fiber from whole wheat flour and oatmeal they are not the worst choice for a treat. Crystallized ginger pieces provide a little zing and it seams unpredictable how spicy the next bite will be or not at all. After all the dough is whipped up on a whim and never let me down.

gingered coconut oatmeal cookies

makes about 40 cookies

ingredients:

150 g /  10 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

175 g / 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

180 g / 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

100g / 1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

100 g / 3.5 oz. crystallized ginger, cut into small pieces

80 g / 3/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

instructions:

Preheat your oven to 175 C / 350 F and grease or line your baking sheet.

In a large bowl mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until creamy.

In a medium bowl add flour, oats, ginger, coconut, ground ginger and salt. Stir well.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Using a cookie scoop (1 Tbsp) or a tablespoon, scoop little balls on your baking sheet. Flatten those balls with a fork or the bottom of a glass and bake 12 to 15 minutes.

Let cool completely before storing.

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coconut biscotti

Every once in a while  it has to be bacon and eggs and the whole works for breakfast, I am talking about the full treatment. I am also able and love to start the day with yesterday’s cold pizza, some of you think it’s gross (but I know some will nod and agree, come on). I might have an extra (large) durable stomach and like to take full advantage of it. Not often but every other day especially when I have a sweet tooth, I can take my breakfast the Italian way: espresso and biscotti.

The good thing about this crunchy cookies? They stay delizioso for weeks compared to standard cookies which has to be eaten within a few days.  At least once a month I like to fill up my cookie jar with biscotti and place them right beside the coffee machine. At the end isn’t it sad to look at an empty cookie jar? And cookies should be available all day long every day.

I really love dipping biscotti into my coffee but I have an aversion for the muddy crumbs at the bottom of my cup. The solution to avoid that is simple: just don’t put cookies in your cup. A deluxe alternative is spooning some nutella or melt chocolate in a small bowl and mix it with some cream for a more liquid sauce. So I can sip my coffee in peace and indulge biscotti goodness with dipping sauce and make a mess on my shirt, but that’s a different story…

coconut biscotti

I don’t really care for the large coconut flakes, they are too big and I just don’t like to chew on them, so smaller flakes are the key. If you can’t find them: give the large flakes some rounds in the food processor or use the spice grinder (coffee grinder) for smaller batches. Some of you might prefer to toast the coconut flakes in the microwave, do so if you like.

ingredients:

150 g / 5.3 oz unsweetened coconut flakes

250 g / 8.8 oz all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

200 g / 7.05 oz. / 1 cup sugar

25 g/ 0.88 oz coconut oil

1 Tbsp coconut rum (optional)

instructions:

Preheat your oven to 120 C / 250 F. Spread coconut flakes evenly on a parchment paper layered baking sheet and roast/toast for about 5 minutes. You should keep an eye on them, they go from golden brown to black in a minute. Remove from oven and let cool.

Increase the oven temperature to 175 C / 350 F.

In a small bowl measure flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a mixing bowl add eggs and sugar and mix until creamy for about 1 minutes. Add coconut oil and mix just until combined.

Add the flour mix all at once and mix until everything is well combined but don’t over mix. Then add the coconut flakes and coconut rum (if using) and mix shortly. Drop everything on the baking sheet and form a log: use the parchment paper to keep your hands clean, lift one side, fold over and press the dough into log shape, roll and form until you got a approx. 8-9 cm x 28 cm / 3 x 11 inch size. It’s  like forming compound butter.

Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and let cool at least 20 minutes. Cooling is important to avoid crumbly slicing or breaking.

Reduce oven to 160 C / 325 F.

Cut log into approx.  1 cm / 0.5 inch slices, place biscotti upright on baking sheet and bake for another 20 minutes.

Let cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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power balls

The week before Thanksgiving is a very busy time especially for cooks and hosts, there are cookbooks to study, recipes to choose, shopping lists to write and someone has to go to the grocery to buy all the ingredients. A lot of work but totally worth. Let’s be honest for me as a German these days just don’t have the same meaning like for the majority of the USA but I am willing to participate any possible celebration and won’t pass up an opportunity to party. Traveling and to wine and dine are my favorite hobby.
It seams like everyone is going to visit his family over the holidays and this is why it’s the worst busiest time of the year for traveling. My last years airport nightmare still haunts me in my dreams. This year I can avoid to hop on a plane but I am afraid to stuck in traffic jams around Chicago where we are visiting our friends.

Although I am aware of spending some time on the interstate I wanna prepare myself and escape the fear of starving while squeezed in between two trucks somewhere on a highway around Chicago.

Whenever I am on the road, I make some sandwiches and although I can make some darn good ones, it happens that I bring them home without being touched. They just doesn’t look very appealing after being shacked for hours, I guess that just works for martinis.

Something healthy with a lot of energy, sweet but no sugar, easy to grab and eat while driving, with a lot of flavor… here we go this balls are simply great, easy to make and good for you. Travel safe and have a happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

power balls

15 balls if you use a 15 ml, 1 tablespoon cookie scoop

70 g / 10 dried pitted dates
80 g / 1/2 cup golden raisins
60 g / 1/2 cup dried cranberries
60 g / 1/2 cup shelled pistachio nuts
4 tbsp unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon orange juice

Place everything but 2 tablespoons shredded coconut (save the other 2 tablespoons for later) into your food processor and use the pulse button to chop the ingredients.

Form small balls and roll in the remaining coconut. Portioning the balls is a little sticky but very easy with a cookie scoop.

Can be stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for several days.

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