Claudina's Kitchen

Pumpkin Bread with Fresh Cranberries

This is my favorite fall quick bread -- while the perfect berries for this season are cranberries, this bread is also wonderful with other dried fruit such as cherries or gooseberries.   In addition to the nutritional value of pumpkin and berries, this bread is also very low in sugar and saturated fat, and high in fiber from the whole grains and flax seed...but still tastes great and makes for a wonderful breakfast alternative or afternoon snack.

Ingredients

#1 Ingredients
1 ½-2 cups pumpkin – fresh and pureed OR canned (less pumpkin makes it more bread-like, more makes it moister and more pumpkin-y)
1 egg
½ cup milk
½ cup sugar
1 c. fresh, coarsely chopped cranberries (or 1/2 c. dried cranberries or other dried berries)
1 t. vanilla

#2 Ingredients
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (if unavailable, substitute 1 1/2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour)
½ cup flax seed meal (can also use wheat germ, oat bran, or substitute another ½ cup whole wheat flour)
2 T baking powder
1 ½ t. cinnamon
½ t. ginger
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
½ t. salt

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Mix together wet (#1) and dry (#2) ingredients in separate bowls.
• Combine all ingredients, mixing until just combined (do not overmix).
• Place in oven on center rack. Check crust at 30-35 minutes -- if getting dark, cover with aluminum foil to keep from burning.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes (45-50 minutes in total).
• Bread is ready when a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Related Posts: Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares with Chocolate Ganache

This delicious recipe is perfect for that extra-special autumn dessert theme...

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie wafers
¼ c. pecans
3 T. butter
½ t. cinnamon

1 cup pumpkin puree – either fresh sugar pie pumpkin (seeded, cooked and pureed), or canned pumpkin
16 oz neufchatel or cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ t. cloves

7 oz. dark chocolate
1/4 c. heavy cream

Preparation

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line 9” x 9” pan with foil with 4-5” at each end that hang over the sides. Oil pan.
•  Grind cookie wafers, pecans, and cinnamon in food processor. When reduced to crumbs add butter and pulse until well-mixed and begins to clump together. Pour into pan and press down evenly along bottom. Bake for 10 minutes.
• Mix cream cheese and sugar in mixing bowl until thoroughly blended. Add in pumpkin, ¼ cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each. Add vanilla and spices. Pour mixture into pan.
• Bake in water bath for 45 minutes until set (should still jiggle slightly in center when removed from oven).
• Cover and place in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, until fully cooled.
• Chop chocolate into small pieces. Heat cream until simmering. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes and then stir until ganache is fully incorporated with no lumps.
• Pour ganache over cheesecake in pan. Cover and allow to cool again in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour, until set. Once fully set cut into squares, rectangles or diamond shapes.

Related Posts: Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Muhammara (Roasted Pepper, Walnut & Pomegranate Dip)

I recently discovered Muhammara at a friend's house -- she had a tub of it and I checked out the ingredients and liked what I saw -- walnuts (a great source of Omega-3s and mono-unsaturated fats - I am always looking for new ways to incorporate them into my diet) and pomegranates (great source of anti-oxidants and I love new uses for this fruit when it is in season!).   I re-engineered the dip at home and below is my version. This is one of those easy recipes to throw together from ingredients that you probably usually have in your fridge and can easily store in your pantry (and are all available at Trader Joes).  This dip is originally from Syria and is traditionally served with bread but can also be used with kebabs, grilled meat or fish.

Muhammara Dip from Claudina's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 c. walnuts, toasted
• 1- 11oz. jar roasted peppers or 2 medium red, orange, or yellow bell peppers freshly roasted, seeded and peeled
• 1 piece of whole wheat bread, shredded or 1/2 c. bread crumbs
• juice of one lemon
• 2-3 t. pomegranate extract (NOTE: extract not available at TJ's but you can use 3-4 T. pomegranate juice instead and omit the water and 1 T. of the oil)
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 T. water
  
• 1 t. cumin
• 1/2 t. crushed red pepper
• 1/2-3/4 t. kosher salt to taste

Instructions

• If using jarred peppers, rinse and dry.
• Lightly toast walnuts
• Pulse garlic in food processor until minced. 
• Add peppers, walnuts,  1 T. pomegranate extract or 2-3T. juice, bread pieces/crumbs, cumin, 1/4 t. red pepper, 1/2 t. kosher salt.  Process to a smooth dip. 
• Add additional pomegranate, red pepper, and salt to taste.  Add addition water or olive oil to desired thickness.

Serve with warmed pita bread/pita crackers and veggies (carrots, peppers, cucumbers, cauliflower are all nice with this dip). 

Trader Joes Fan Club

Most of my friends will tell you that I am a self-appointed, unofficial, and unacknowledged promoter of Trader Joe's.  It is one of my absolute favorite places to grocery shop.  To me, it offers the best combination of quality, value, healthy orientation, interesting and new gourmet offerings, and a local sensibility.

Many of the TJs-brand offerings are private-labeled products sourced from local manufacturers, and many others are private label versions of high-quality, well-known brands that are identical to what you might find at a Whole Foods but for significantly less $$.  Just last week I learned that TJ's new European-Style Thick and Creamy organic yogurt is actually from Straus Family Creamery -- an employee told me that it's actually delivered in cardboard cases with the Straus Creamery logo.  I let out my not-infrequent exclamation of: "I love this store!", at which the TJs employee only smiled (I bet he hears it not-infrequently). 

Over my many years of shopping at Trader Joes I have also learned to trust the "healthiness" of TJ's offerings -- I don't need to scrutinize labels for ingredients such as hydrogenated fat and high-fructose corn syrup, and am always thrilled at the latest delicious, healthy, and unique ingredients that are difficult or impossible to find elsewhere, from organic whole-wheat & corn tortillas to sprouted-wheat papardelle to frozen green garbanzos.

And in a better way than Walmart, Trader Joe's is bringing organic to the masses -- nowhere else can you find the consistent range of organic offerings, often local, seasonal, and environmentally-conscious, at anywhere near their price points.  I do have friends who complain occasionally about the quality of TJ's produce -- if you've read this far you already realize that I am slightly cult-like about this store so don't take too kindly to such criticism -- my answer is simply that (1) I rarely encounter this issue and I grocery shop, at TJs and elsewhere, a great deal, (2) just as you would when buying produce anywhere else you still need to inspect it closely before throwing the package in your cart -- and this is still fairly easy to do even through the packaging, and (3) on the few occasions I have complained about spoiled produce, whether I had the food item or packaging with me or not, TJ's has gladly given me a full refund. 

There is one area of criticism that I think is valid -- the comment that "you can't find everything on your grocery list at Trader Joe's".  I do also supplement with trips to other stores when I have the time, but I can (and have on many occasions) made a weeks' worth of interesting meals (adult and kid-oriented), from scratch, almost exclusively from Trader Joe's fresh ingredients.  On that note , whenever I make this statement I have friends ask me to document a series of "Trader Joes recipes" for them -- quick and easy recipes (not pre-prepared packaged meals) that are made from only Trader Joes ingredients.  So, to finally come to a conclusion for this entry -- the TJ Recipes section of this site will definitely have a large representation of these and will be flagged accordingly.  Stay tuned, once I get started I might not be able to stop...