Pastries filled with fresh cranberries, candied orange peel and crystallized ginger, slightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and sugar cookie topped with streusel. Our Christmas Cranberry buckle is perfect to serve for Thanksgiving, Christmas or new year's Special holiday breakfast or brunch!
Buckle Cranberry Christmas has become a tradition in our House as I always bake a special cake streusel coffee cake for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving to enjoy through the holiday weekend and to kick off the Christmas season. It makes the day we cut down our Christmas tree farm trees a little more special.
Ingredients :
For the Spiked Candied Fruit
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) orange liqueur
- 3 tablespoons (34 g) finely chopped candied orange peel
- 3 tablespoons (34 g) finely chopped crystallized ginger
For the Sugar Cookie Streusel
- 6 tablespoons (75 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (98 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) salted butter, cut into bits
For the Cake
- ¾ teaspoon (3.6 g) fine-grain sea salt
- ½ teaspoon (1.25 g) ground cinnamon
- 1½ cups (195 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for cake pan
- 1½ teaspoons (7 g) baking powder
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) grated lemon zest, from 1 medium lemon
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon (.65 g) freshly grated whole nutmeg
- 10 tablespoons (about 141 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs (mine weighted 112 g w/o shells), room temperature
- 3½ cups (14 oz or about 350 g) fresh cranberries, rinsed & dried
- Shortening or favorite cooking oil, for greasing cake pan
For the Sugar Topping
- 1½ to 2 teaspoons (6 to 8 g) granulated sugar
Special Equipment
- One 9-inch (23 cm) round nonstick springform pan
- Two insulated cake strips, such as Wilton® Small Bake Even Strips (Set of 2)
- Cake Lifter, helpful but not necessary
Direction :
- Prepare spiked candied fruit: in a small bowl, combine candied orange peel, crystallized ginger and orange liqueur. Cover and let stand for a few hours or overnight at room temperature.
- Prepare sugar Cookie Streusel: in a large bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside.
- Set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch (23 cm) round nonstick springform pan with shortening and dust with flour, knocking out excess. The use of insulated cake strips, do not forget to prepare pot per manufacturer's directions except use two (as shown in the article above). Set aside.
- Prepare the cake: in a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and spices until well mixed. Using an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a hand-held mixer and a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the lemon zest and vanilla; Whisk until combined.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition on medium speed scraping the sides and bottom of the Bowl as needed. (The mixture may look slightly apart. Don't worry about it. It will be interesting together with the addition of flour.) Add flour gradually while mixing on low speed until the mixture is just blended. Do not overmix. (The batter will be very thick and heavy.) Caution using a rubber spatula, fold in the spiked candied fruits and cranberries until evenly distributed.
- Using a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pan. With a spatula, spread the batter evenly into the pans edges and smooth the top. Use the hand squeezing a clump of streusel portion and use fingers to sprinkle streusel tiny BLOB evenly on top of batter. Repeat the process with the remaining streusel.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the Center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack wire. Immediately, sprinkle the sugar over the cake and run a thin metal icing spatula around edge of Pan to loosen cake from side of pan. This will prevent the cranberries stick to the sides of the Pan and will make it easier to remove. Cool for 15 minutes.
- To Unmold the cake: If using, remove the insulated cake strips. Unmold the cake by removing side of pan. Cool until just warm or to room temperature, about 1 hour. Slice the slices and serve.
- Yield: makes one 9-inch (23 cm) pie, serving 8-10.