CRANBERRY APPLE AND ALMOND FLOWER

My baking mania is on. After baking Cranberry Cashew Loaf. I was left with half a pack of dried Cranberries. Kids have been popping them every time they open the cabinet. Before the cranberries disappeared completely, I decided to use them in baking. My recipe hunt led me here. I got the basic idea of baking cranberry almond apple stuffed clusters from here

I knew that my kids would love this bake, but still, I wanted to give it an interesting shape. I decided to bake the clusters in the shape of a flower. Kids loved the look as well as the taste.

Super soft, wispy, yeasty sweet crumb!

The treasure inside!

My daughter called it a “treasure hunt”. First bite into the super soft, delicate, wispy melt in the mouth sweet crumb and then reach the chewy filling!

This recipe is worth giving a try. The sticky dough does give jitters in the beginning but gets manageable when shaped with floured hands.

CRANBERRY APPLE AND ALMOND FLOWER

Ingredients

Dough (You can see the recipe of the dough here. I have halved the recipe)

4 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

½ cup canola oil (any neutral oil will do)

½ cup sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast

¾ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon baking powder (heaped)

½ teaspoon baking soda (scant)

Method

In a large, deep and thick bottom vessel mix milk and sugar. Add canola oil. Turn on the heat. When the mixture just begins to boil, turn off the heat. Leave it to cool.

Sprinkle yeast on the mixture when it becomes lukewarm. Mix and cover the vessel. Leave it for 5 minutes.

Add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Mix well till the flour is well blended into the mixture. Cover and let it rise for one hour.

Add the remaining ½ cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to mix well. The dough seems quite unmanageable at this point as it begins to rise   and overflow. Keep punching down the dough. The dough is very sticky. To make it manageable you can keep it in the fridge for an hour. It hardens a bit and is easier to work with. (You can even keep it in the fridge overnight or even for a day or two)

Filling

Ingredients

2 medium size apples

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped almonds

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons lime juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method

Peel the apples. Chop them into small pieces.

Add chopped almonds, brown sugar, cranberries and lime juice. Toss. Add cinnamon powder.

Method to make clusters

The dough is very very sticky. Use a lot of flour while shaping the clusters. Pull out a small ball of the dough. Flatten the ball in the center of your palm. Put a teaspoon of the mixture in the center of the dough. Pinch the edges to seal the ball.

Grease an 8 inch round cake tin. Place the first ball with the sealed side down in the center and arrange other balls around it.  

Grease another 8 inch round cake tin and arrange the balls with filling in the similar way (for the second round, I used a 9x5 inch rectangular loaf pan)

Cover the tin and leave it to rise for an hour or till doubled. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or till the clusters turn golden brown. Slide in a foil and cover the clusters if they begin to become brown from top.

Remove from the oven; remove from the tin after 5 minutes. Transfer to the rack.

Brush the tops of the clusters with some butter.

Sending to the food event - YEASTSPOTTING