Slow Cooker Cranberry Apple Butter

The Magical Slow Cooker has a great recipe for cranberry apple butter that you need to try! Perfect for fall!

Ingredients

2 lbs. apples peeled cored and sliced (I used granny smith, about 6 cups total after being cut

12 oz bag fresh cranberries

½ tsp. ground cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

1 cup orange juice

½ cup brown sugar-add this at the end, to taste

Instructions

Add the sliced and peeled apples to the slow cooker, note don't worry about using the exact amount of apples as me, somewhere close is fine. 

Add the cranberries, clove, cinnamon sticks and orange juice.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 hours or low for 8, without opening the lid during the cooking time.

When the cooking time is done, remove cinnamon sticks and discard. Ladle everything into a blender, add the sugar. (I used a half cup of packed brown sugar and that was good for my taste. Use less if you don't like things too sweet, you can always add more.)

Blend everything together until smooth.

I think this tastes better after being refrigerated overnight. Great on biscuits or croissants.

 

Christmas Jam

 

Thank you, A Family Feast for our new FAVORITE jam!! This is an amazing blend of flavors and looks beautiful! I did one batch where I added an orange to the food processor and that was a great addition, too! Super easy to make and made for a great gift with some homemade bread!

INGREDIENTS

2 packages (20 ounces each) frozen whole strawberries (fresh strawberries may also be substituted)

1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries

5 pounds sugar (This is not a typo – 5 pounds is the correct amount. Some readers have told us that they successfully used less sugar when making this jam.)

2 pouches (3-ounces each) liquid fruit pectin

INSTRUCTIONS

In a food processor, pulse the strawberries and cranberries – you can process them to a finely chopped texture for a completely smooth jam, or leave some fruit partially chopped for a chunkier jam.

Pour the processed fruit into a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add sugar and over medium high heat, bring the fruit and sugar mixture to a full rolling boil.

Boil for 1 minute.

Remove the pot from the heat and add the pectin, stirring to mix completely.

Allow the jam to cool for 5 minutes, then skim off the foam on the top.

Ladle the hot jam mixture into sterile half-pint jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims clean, cover with hot lids and screw on the jar bands.

Process the jars for 10 minutes in a water bath. 

Makes about 14 half-pint jars. Recipe may be halved.

Chocolate Waffles & Strawberry Sauce

My friend sent me this recipe and it was delish! I actually tried it out the day after she sent it, but kept forgetting to get it on here. You should definitely give this one a try! Even if you just tried the strawberry sauce, that alone would be amazing over regular waffles, pancakes, ice cream, etc!

1-1/4 C. flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
6 Tbsp. Sugar
1/3 C. Cocoa Powder
1 C. Milk
2 Eggs, separated
1/4 C. Vegetable Oil
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
*Beat egg whites until soft peaks for, set aside. Sift all dry ingredients together
(or whisk them together). Beat egg yolk in another bowl for 1 minute, then
mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients with the milk
mixture. Stir only until blended. Fold in egg whites.
*Cook in waffle iron. This will make 4 Belgian waffles.

Strawberry Sauce

1 Pint Strawberries
1/3 C. White Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (or Almond Extract, if you prefer)
*Wash Strawberries and remove stems.
*Combine berries, sugar and extract in a medium saucepan and bring to a
simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking
strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.

*After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have
a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool
enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is
reached.
**I have also used frozen berries. Just add about 1/3 C. Water to the pan,
so the sugar won’t burn in the pan.

Clean Eating Berry-Banana "Ice Cream"

Found this awesome little recipe over at The Gracious Pantry and we all really liked it! I am excited to try different variations to it, too. And just FYI, I cut the recipe in half and it was plenty for my family of 5. Also, it stays very soft in the freezer if you need to save some for later. :)

• 4 cups sliced, frozen bananas
• 2 cups frozen, unsweetened strawberries (I used frozen mixed berries)
• 1/2 cup rice, almond, light coconut or regular milk (any milk will work)

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a food processor and blend until you have a “soft serve” consistency in your ice cream.

Note: You will have to take the lid off and scrape/move things around with a spatula several times through this process. It WILL get smooth, so don’t give up. Just keep blending and scraping.

Berry Crisp

This is awesome! It isn't super sweet and you can mix up the berries--use one kind, two kinds, or all three!
1-1/2 c. fresh blackberries
1-1/2 c. fresh raspberries
1-1/2 c. fresh blueberries
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 c. flour
2 c. rolled oats
1-1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1-1/2 c. butter

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*In a large bowl, gently toss berries and sugar; set aside.
*In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of the mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.
*Bake for 30-40 minutes or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm with cool whip or vanilla ice cream!

Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

I went to my friend, Lindsey's house yesterday and she made these for us. They were so good I made them last night for our company. Delish!
1-3/4 c. flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 c. milk

Topping:
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

*In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, oil, egg and milk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

*Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full; place 1 teaspoon of jam on top. Cover jam with enough batter to fill cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1" from the edge comes out clean.

*Make topping---place melted butter in a small bowl; combine sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Immediately after removing muffins from the oven, dip tops in butter, then in cinnamon/sugar mix. Yield: 12 muffins

Berry-Lemon Muffins

We wanted homemade muffins for breakfast today, and I found this delicious recipe on the Sister's Cafe blog. So yummy! The recipe on their blog is for blueberry-lemon muffins, but we actually used raspberries instead.
2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

zest of one lemon

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup shortening/butter

1 cup frozen blueberries (I used raspberries)

Topping:

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 Tb lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

*Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Beat egg, milk and shortening/butter. Stir in blueberries. Add dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

*Make topping--combine butter and lemon juice in one bowl and put the sugar in another. While the muffins are still warm, dip the tops in the butter and lemon juice, then dip in sugar. Yield: 14 muffins