My two favorite recipes are a Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake and a Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread.
Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake
1 12 oz. bag fresh cranberries – picked over
1-1/3 cups sugar – plus 2 Tablespoons
2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature – cut into 8 pieces
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs – at room temperature
1 pint sour cream – at room temperature
In a medium nonreactive saucepan, combine the cranberries and 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil over moderate heat and boil, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst and the mixture reduces to 1 1/4 cups, about 12 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/3 cup of the sugar until dissolved. Strain the mixture through a coarse sieve and let the puree cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 275°. Butter and flour a 9x2-3/4" springform pan. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar and the vanilla at low speed until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until just blended. Stir in the sour cream.
Spoon half of the cream cheese mixture into the prepared pan. Drop 8 or 9 rounded teaspoons of the cranberry puree randomly over the top. Spoon half of the remaining cheesecake mixture even over the first layer, and dot with half of the remaining puree. Repeat with the remaining cheesecake mixture and puree. (Avoid dropping puree in the center of more than 1 layer.) With a blunt knife, cut through the batter in a swirling motion to distribute the cranberry puree.
Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake in the lower part of the oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in for 1 hour longer (NO peeking!!!). Transfer the cake to a rack and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving.
Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup cranberries – chopped
In large bowl, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. In small mixer bowl, beat eggs. Beat in sugar, oil, and pumpkin. Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients; stir with wooden spoon just until moistened. Stir in cranberries. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x4-inch loaf pans (or 4 mini-loaf pans). Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 60 minutes (or 45 minutes for smaller loaves), or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely.
