Cranberry Crumb Bars With Mulling Spices. New Song From Killing Fields Of Ontario.

Cranberry Crumb Bars With Mulling Spices.

Just saying the title of these fabulous bars makes me happy. Autumn personified in crumb bar form.

This has to be one of the best recipes I have tried recently. Bright red and deliciously tart cranberries sandwiched between buttery crumbs flavored like spiced cider. A perfect little portable pie. Fantastic.

I also highly recommend the cookbook that the recipe came from. The Smitten Kitchen is blogger Deb Perelman’s first book and what a fun one, at that. She has a knack for storytelling and knows her way around a kitchen. I wish she was my friend in real life, because I totally felt like she is my friend in the book.

Cranberry Crumb Bars With Mulling Spices

Ingredients for the crumb:

16 tablespoons (225 grams) unsalted butter, chilled
3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg

Ingredients for the filling:

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
3 cups (340 grams or 12-ounce bag) fresh cranberries
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Line the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, and grease the sides and the parchment.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices. With a pastry blender or fork, work the chilled butter and the egg into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.(I did all of this in a food processor)

4. Pat half the crumb base into the bottom of prepared pan; it will be thin.

5. In the bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse the filling ingredients until the berries are coarsely chopped. Spread the filling over the crumb base. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs evenly over the cranberry mixture.

6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until lightly brown on top. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Yield: 36 small bars

Recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

This is a new song from Killing Fields Of Ontario. Their new album, ‘How The World Ends’, comes out on October 28th.

I can’t put my finger on what ‘Our Place To Drown’ reminds me of (U2 or Okkervil River, maybe?), especially the chorus, but I’m really liking what I hear.