Cranberry-Walnut Squares
Image by djwtwo
Another week, another batch of fresh cranberries in the farm share to dispatch. Decided to go the cookie-ish route this time, and make these cranberry-walnut squares. They came out very good (it’s taking all my self-control to not just park myself on the couch with a glass of milk and eat the whole batch), but I’m saving them for the kids to snack on. Yeah, the kids. Saving ’em for the kids. That’s the ticket…
Just shot these in the light coming into the living room window this morning, with a white card out of frame to the right. I intentionally left the white balance a little on the blue side, which I think looks more natural here than when I corrected for shade.
This recipe started life as my stock whole-berry cranberry sauce recipe and my raspberry bar recipe, which my notes don’t state explicitly but which I’m almost positive is based on the one from the Cooks Illustrated folks. I haven’t converted this one from volume to weights yet, meaning it’s from the older part of the repertoire.
Ingredients
for the cranberry sauce
2 c. fresh cranberries, picked over to get rid of leaves and twigs
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. orange juice
pinch of salt
for the squares
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 3/4 c. rolled oats
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
3/4 c. finely chopped walnuts
18 tbl. unsalted butter, soft but still a little cold
1 recipe of cranberry sauce
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored, and cut into small dice
Directions
Make the cranberry sauce: combine the berries, salt, and orange juice in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Once most of the berries have popped, add the sugar, and continue boiling for a few minutes for the liquid to start thickening. Remove from the heat.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Prepare a 13"x9" pan by spraying it with cooking spray and lining the bottom and sides either with parchment or a double-layer of foil, leaving the ends free to help de-pan the baked squares later.
Combine the flour, oats, walnuts, salt, baking powder, and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and combine at low speed. Keeping the mixer at low speed, add the butter 1 tbl. at a time, pausing a few seconds between each addition. Mix until you have a coarse, sandy consistency, 2 to 3 minutes.
Pour 2/3 of the mixture into the prepared pan, and press into an even layer with your fingers. Bake for 20 minutes, until browning around the edges.
Stir the diced apple into the cranberry sauce. Spread the cranberry-apple mixture on top of the baked base with a spoon or rubber spatula, then sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of the flour-butter mixture on top of the berries. Don’t press this in, you want it to be sandy. Return to the oven for 30 minutes, until the topping is a light golden brown. Remove from the oven, set on a rack, and allow to cool completely, 90 minutes to 2 hours.
Once cool, remove from the pan (lift the parchment or foil you lined the pan with) and cut into approximately 2" squares with a serrated knife. Yields about 24 pieces.
