On A Cranberry Roll

Cranberries are a native American fruit and a favorite seasonal ingredient in traditional holiday recipes. They were also a Native American staple. The berry helped Indians and colonists survive. Every schoolchild learns that the Pilgrims couldn't have survived life in the New World without the help of the Indians. The tribes taught them which crops to plant. They introduced them to corn and other nutritional mainstays. One of these, the American cranberry, is still part of the classic Thanksgiving feast.
The Algonquin, Chippewa, and Cree, among others, gathered wild cranberries where they could find them in what is now Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, and as far west as Oregon and Washington, and as far north as British Columbia and Quebec. The berry was called sassamenesh (by the Algonquin) and ibimi (by the Wampanoag and Lenni-Lenape), which translates literally as "bitter" or "sour berries." Cranberries were used for everything from cooking to textile dyes to medicine.
Native Americans ate cranberries fresh, dried them and formed them into cakes for storage, and made tea from the leaves. The Inuktitut of eastern Canada used the cranberry leaves as a tobacco substitute. The berry also had a range of nonculinary uses. Cree boiled the fruit and used it to dye porcupine quills for clothing and jewelry. Chippewa used cranberries as bait to trap the snowshoe hare.
Cranberries are extremely high in antioxidants and are thought to help prevent heart disease. Iroquois and Chippewa used cranberries for an assortment of medicinal purposes.

Cranberry Trivia

• There are small pockets of air inside cranberries that cause them to bounce. Air also makes the berries float in water.
• There are approximately 440 cranberries in one pound.
• Cranberries are 90 % water.
• Fresh cranberries can be frozen up to one year in an airtight container.
The leading cranberry-producing states are Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon. Wisconsin is the top cranberry producer in the country, accounting for more than half of the nation’s supply
• Cranberries do not grow in water but on low running vines in sandy bogs and marshes.
• Americans consume 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce every Thanksgiving. More than 94% of Thanksgiving dinners include some type of cranberry sauce.

 This week, Ever Ready will be on a Cranberry Roll 

Cranberry Orange Pound Cake
Cook's notes: This moist cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser with bursts of tart cranberries and sweet orange icing. It shines as a brunch side or as a dessert for your holiday gatherings. The original recipe called for it to be baked in 2 large loaf pans, but I used a 13 x 9 pan. Recipe adapted from chefintraining.com

Cake Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon regular cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon  Saigon Cinnamon
• 2-1/2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 cup of softened butter
• 1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 2-1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Orange Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice or fresh juice from an orange
• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon softened butter

Cake Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 pan or 2 loaf pans.
• Mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon. Add in cranberries and coat with cinnamon sugar mixture. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest for 3 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition.
• In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Use a mixer on low speed and add dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/orange zest/egg mixture.
• Fold in sugared/cinnamon cranberries.
• If using a 13 x 9 pan, bake for 25 minutes or until the center comes clean using a wooden skewer and the cranberries have popped. If using loaf pans check at 35 minutes.

Orange Glaze Directions:

• Use a whisk and blend ingredients until smooth.
• Add glaze after the cake is cooled.