For several years, I've been making homemade cranberry sauce (ever since my girlfriend showed me how easy it was). The recipe is pretty similar to the one Andrew posted a few days ago: simmer fresh cranberries in orange juice with sugar and a little dried ginger until they begin to pop and stew. The February 2003 issue of Gourmet has a great recipe for Cranberry Coffeecake and I've found that this leftover cranberry sauce works great as a filling. The Gourmet recipe suggests pulsing fresh or frozen cranberries in a food processor with sugar. I've done it both ways, and if you have the leftover cranberry sauce, by all means, use that. You may have to drain off some of the excess liquid first, however.
The cake always comes out delicious, but I can never get my layers of cranberry sauce as seperate and pretty as the ones pictured here in Gourmet. I guess that's why they're Gourmet.
12-13-2005 @11:07PM Mike said... Getting the sauce separated from the batter always looks best if you only have to find one good slice from a dozen loaves.
That being said, you can get the best separation by draining the cranberries really well. Instead of just straining them, put them in a piece of cheesecloth and squeeze (without mashing them) to get as much juice out as possible. You'll lose much of the sugar this way so the cranberry swirl won't be as sweet - but it won't stain as much of the batter red either.
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