Recipe: Orange Cardamom Loaves

Guess what time it is?! It's Fall Baking Time. Yes, those vanity capitals are on purpose. I love it when the chill in the air "forces" me to start baking. It's too warm for a fire in the wood stove, but too cold to not want it warmed up just a little bit.

Plus the plethora of fall baking ingredients: fresh pears, pumpkin and all of the other "fall" stand-bys. I picked up a baking magazine the other day, an overpriced one that cost about the same as a trade paperback book *winces*, because I wanted to make just about every recipe in it.

The first recipe I attempted was Orange Cardamom Bread for a bake sale fundraiser. The recipe makes 2 loaves: one for me, one for the sale ;) While I liked it a lot, I could not taste the cardamom. So I fiddled with the levels a bit and found a balance between spicy and orange-y. The real sneaky part about this bread is that because cardamom enhances the orange flavor, you really aren't going to get much straight flavor except as an end note. 

Recipe: Cranberry-Orange Sauce

This is an oldie, but goodie. I really love the way the orange mellows the cranberry flavor. My family won't use any other recipe but this one. And forget about that canned stuff. This is super easy to make and tastes great on leftover T-day sandwiches, too. This one is from Pillsbury, although you can find variations just about everywhere. (Pardon last year's photo. I hope to have a more appealing one after this year's holiday!)




1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice or orange flavored liqueur

In nonreactive 4-qt saucepan, mix cranberries, sugar, orange peel, water and lemon juice. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until juices start to flow and sugar is dissolved.

Increase heat to medium; simmer 6 to 8 minutes longer, stirring occasionally, until cranberries pop. Stir in liqueur. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until completely cooled.