Page 12 – The Hungry Pinner

Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast

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December 13, 2022

Making a turkey breast for Thanksgiving dinner this year was so easy and delicious that I decided to do it again for Christmas dinner. It’s just the two of us, so the smaller portion worked nicely. We love cranberry sauce, so this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast worked on several levels. Easy turkey breast plus built-in cranberry sauce, plus it promises to be incredibly juicy. What’s not to like?

You can find my 2022 Christmas Dinner Menu as a free downloadable Google Doc. It includes a schedule, a shopping list, and an equipment list. The checkboxes on the lists are interactive and cross off each item when you click them. You may also print it or save it and make any changes you like.

This cranberry glazed turkey breast recipe is so good that I make it several times a year … I’ve perfected this recipe to the point where a turkey breast comes out of the oven so juicy, so moist that it’s hard to believe that super lean turkey breast meat can be like that.

Recipe Author: Victor at Craving Tasty
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The Ingredients

There are only nine ingredients in this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast recipe, and two of those are salt and pepper. The rest are almost as easy to find. I had the chicken broth, dried thyme, honey, and apple cider vinegar on hand.

That left me to shop for turkey breast, butter, and cranberries. They were all easy to find at my regular grocery store. I found fresh cranberries, but I loved that frozen were an option. I can find those year-round.

Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast Ingredients — Turkey breast, apple cider vinegar, honey, dried thyme, chicken broth, fresh cranberries, butter, salt, and black pepper

The Process

The first part of this Cranberry Glazed Turkey Breast recipe is making the cranberry glaze. It was quick and easy to do. I just added the ingredients to a saucepan, brought them to a boil, and let them simmer for about 5 minutes.

I prepped the turkey breast while the glaze simmered. The one I found had the rib bones, but they weren’t too difficult to remove thanks to my boning knife. I saved the ribs to make Turkey Stock, but you can discard them.

Once the ribs were removed I mixed up the salt, pepper, and thyme to season the meat. I rubbed it on both sides, lifting the skin to get it underneath. Then I tucked the loose bits of meat underneath and moved the extra skin to cover a bare spot and prevent it from drying out.

Seasoning, folding, and glazing the turkey breast in a baking dish

The cranberry glaze was ready while I was prepping the turkey, so I set it aside until I was ready for it. Then I used a wooden spoon to press it through a mesh strainer placed over a small mixing bowl. The glaze was very thick and stuck to the sieve, so I had to scrape a lot off the underside.

I spooned the newly made cranberry glaze over the turkey breast, put in the meat thermometer, and added the chicken broth and butter to the baking dish. The recipe says about 45 minutes, but mine took longer—closer to an hour.

I let it rest for about 5 minutes, then I sliced it for a few photos and it was dinner time. I have to say I wish I had let it rest for longer because a lot of the juices ended up on the platter. Unfortunately, the sun was setting and I was running out of light for the photos. Otherwise, I was well pleased with this recipe.

By the way, the juices ended up burning to the bottom of the pan, so I wouldn’t count on being able to make gravy with them as the recipe mentions.

Timing

This recipe lists times of 20 minutes to prep, 45 minutes to cook, and 1 hour and 5 minutes total. Mine went a little over that, but it was thanks to my meat thermometer. I’m counting that as a good thing—no one wants rare turkey! Here’s how it went:

18 minutes to prep
58 minutes to cook
5 minutes to rest
1 hour 12 minutes total

Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake

The Hungry Pinner

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December 8, 2022

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I decided to try an easier Thanksgiving menu this year, and I’m continuing that theme with my 2022 Christmas dinner menu. Things have been extra hectic around here lately, and I could use a break. I had originally planned to make a cheesecake topped with cranberries, but it just seemed a little too complicated right now. Instead, I decided to go with this Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake. A spiced cake is perfect for the Christmas season, and this one is also topped with cranberries. However, it’s a single-layer cake with no frosting, and it sounds much simpler than a cheesecake. Let’s find out if it is!

A simple spiced cake with mascarpone cheese, tart cranberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange.

Recipe Author: Kayla at The Original Dish
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The Ingredients

This Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake recipe has a lot of the typical cake ingredients: sugar, flour, baking powder, etc. I had all of those on hand as well as a few other ingredients like spices, vanilla, and powdered sugar. A quick check of the fridge and I found butter and eggs too.

I had to shop for everything else and didn’t anticipate it being a problem at my regular grocery store. I had found everything I needed before and expected them to have it all this time. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

The one thing I couldn’t find was a tub of mascarpone cheese. I couldn’t believe it! I guess everyone is making cheesecake this time of the year, and the store had sold out. A quick search on my phone told me creme fraiche was a good substitute for mascarpone.

My usual grocery store never has creme fraiche. I almost didn’t bother to look, but I decided to take a lap past the dairy case, and there it was. Maybe they decided to stock it after they remodeled the store. I grabbed a container, did a happy dance, and calmly made my way to the checkout like nothing happened LOL!

Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake Ingredientts — Fresh cranberries, creme fraiche (substituted for mascarpone cheese), orange juice and zest, eggs, granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, cinnamon stick, butter, powdered sugar, baking powder, and kosher salt

The Process

Making this Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake went pretty smoothly, but I did switch the order of the first 2 steps. Tip: Start things off by moving the oven rack to the bottom and preheating before you begin the cranberry topping. Otherwise, the oven might not be ready when the cake is ready to bake.

The actual cooking started off with making the cranberry topping. It was just like making cranberry sauce but with less liquid. I added the ingredients to a saucepan and stirred while it heated to a boil. Then I let the cranberry mixture simmer while I prepared the batter.

The Cake Batter

My stand mixer did most of the work for the batter. I followed the instructions and it mixed together in a few minutes with no problems at all.

While I spooned it into a greased 8-inch cake pan I noticed the batter was rather thick, but I didn’t think much of it. Then I realized it was a good thing when I spooned on the cranberry mixture. The thick batter kept the cranberry sauce-like mixture in place.

The thick cake batter kept the cranberry topping from sinking in

Next, I popped the pan into the oven and let it bake on the bottom rack for 35 minutes. But when I opened the door to cover the cake with foil I noticed the cake had overflowed the pan. It had a muffin top! Tip: A 9-inch cake pan or a deeper springform pan would have been a better choice for this cake.

There was nothing I could do, so I covered the cake with foil and let it bake for another 20 minutes. I hoped it would fall, but it didn’t. All I could do was continue, though, so I let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

The batter puffing up distorted the cranberry topping and made it a little difficult to get out of the pan. I managed, though, and placed it onto my cake stand and topped it with some powdered sugar. I was a little disappointed, but it looked fine once I sliced the cake into pieces.

My Spiced Mascarpone Cranberry Cake overflowed the pan and had a muffin top

The Timing

This recipe doesn’t list times, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take. I’m happy to say it didn’t feel like it took long at all since most of the time was inactive. Here’s how my time was spent:

25 minutes to prep*
55 minutes to bake
15 minutes to cool in the pan
30 minutes to cool completely
2 hours 5 minutes total

*The prep time includes making the cranberry topping and batter, assembly, covering with foil, removal from the pan, and topping with powdered sugar.

Apple Pomegranate Salad

The Hungry Pinner

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December 6, 2022

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I always crave something light and healthy after all the indulging during Thanksgiving. Sometimes it’s a smoothie full of fruit, a vegan dish full of vegetables, or a salad full of both. Salads are so versatile, and I love the challenge of mixing flavors and textures to create a good one. That’s why I decided to give this Apple Pomegranate Salad a try. It’s full of fruit, vegetables, and nuts with a balsamic dressing. Plus there’s feta, one of my favorite cheeses. It looks colorful in the photo, and I’m hoping I can recreate this lovely dish. Let’s find out!

The whole family will love this amazing pomegranate salad! Made with crisp apple slices, crunchy + sweet pomegranate seeds, and lots of greens paired with a simple balsamic dressing.

Recipe Author: Bethany Kramer at A Simple Palate
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The Ingredients

I had all the ingredients for the balsamic dressing, but I had to shop for the salad ingredients. That was not a problem—my usual grocery store had everything.

This recipe’s ingredients list is full of options (and I do love a flexible recipe). I went with feta and pecans for the toppings. Tip: Pecan pieces usually cost less than pecan halves, and no chopping is necessary.

My husband doesn’t like raw kale, so I chose spring greens with a couple of handfuls of leftover baby spinach leaves. I made Italian Skillet Chicken and had some extra spinach. This was a great way to use up the extra.

Apple Pomegranate Salad Ingredients — Chopped pecans, pomegranate seeds, garlic powder, balsamic vinegar, honey, crumbled feta cheese, Honeycrisp apple, black pepper, salt, and olive oil

The Process

Once in a while, I can find pomegranate seeds, but all I could find on this shopping trip was a whole pomegranate. That meant I had to seed it before I could make my Apple Pomegranate Salad.

I seeded the pomegranate a couple of days before I made my salad. It took me 6 minutes, and 1 pomegranate gave me all the seeds I need with a little extra. Seeding a pomegranate isn’t difficult, but it is messy. I highly recommend doing it in your kitchen sink.

When I was ready to make my salad, I was delighted to find it was very easy. Buying pre-washed greens, crumbled feta, and pecan pieces took out a lot of work. I did have to thinly slice the apples, but my apple corer/slicer tool helped a lot. I managed to get 3-4 slices from each wedge.

To get the look in the photo I did not mix the ingredients. I added the greens and then placed the sliced apples around the bowl. Then I sprinkled on the toppings and about half the pomegranate seeds.

One cup of pomegranate seeds is a lot! They would have covered everything else, so I kept them on the side for photos. I added them in when I mixed the salad right before we ate.

The final step was to add the dressing ingredients to a bottle, shake, and pour over the salad. I poured some of it over the salad and mixed it. The bottle was placed on the table when I served it so more could be added if desired. Everyone did because it was so good!

The salad potion took me 8 minutes. That’s over the 5-minutes total listed, but I have to admit I took my time slicing the apples so they looked good for photos. I’m sure it will go faster next time I make it.

Pecan Pie Baked Oatmeal

Miscellaneous

The Hungry Pinner

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November 29, 2022

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‘Tis the season for pecan pie! If you didn’t get enough (or, perish the thought, any) at Thanksgiving dinner fear not for I have the next best thing: Pecan Pie Baked Oatmeal. It promises to be a quick and easy recipe for a healthy breakfast reminiscent of that Autumn dessert favorite. I know, I know, pecan pie and healthy are a bit of a contradiction. I’m calling this one an ironic fusion recipe and giving it a go since I didn’t get any pecan pie at Thanksgiving (don’t worry—there was plenty of pumpkin pie!).

This delicious pecan pie baked oatmeal recipe can be made ahead and enjoyed all week for an easy, healthy fall breakfast that tastes like dessert!

Recipe Author: Kaleigh at Lively Table
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The Ingredients

I must admit I’m an instant oatmeal person. For me, making oatmeal means emptying a packet into a bowl, adding water, and microwaving for a minute. This Pecan Pie Baked Oatmeal was a little more involved.

First, this recipe uses the real deal oats and not the instant freeze-dried (or whatever they do with them) stuff. There were several more items that I happened to mostly have. My pantry was stocked with brown sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt. I even hand some golden flaxseed stored in my refrigerator (it’s great in smoothies).

I had to buy the rest of the items, but they were all easily found at my regular grocery store. The recipe gives the option of coconut oil or butter. I opted for butter since it seemed more pecan-pie-like.

Pecan Pie Baked Oatmeal Ingredients — Pecan halved, eggs, brown sugar, milk, maple syrup, cinnamon, rolled oats, vanilla extract, sea salt, butter, and ground flaxseed

The Process

Baking oatmeal is new for me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This recipe says it can be done in 30 minutes, which I consider quick.

I started off by preheating the oven and greasing a 1.5-quart oval baking dish. Then I combined the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Once I mixed them together I poured them into the prepared baking dish and baked the oatmeal for 10 minutes.

Dry ingredients in a mixing bowl — Rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground flaxseed, and sea salt

Meanwhile, I prepared the topping in a saucepan on the stove. It’s basically candied pecans. All I had to do was mix and boil everything but the pecans, then add them and stir well to coat.

The oatmeal was done at almost the same time as the pecans. The next step was to pour the pecan topping over the halfway-baked oatmeal and then let it finish baking. The smell was to die for, but I gave the Pecan Pie Baked Oatmeal a few minutes to cool before serving it warm.

6 minutes to prep
10 minutes to bake
- 8 minutes to make the topping (done during baking)
15 additional minutes to bake
31 minutes total

Only 1 minute more than the time listed. Wonderful!

Thanksgiving Leftovers Galette

Meat & Poultry

The Hungry Pinner

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November 24, 2022

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Today is just a quick post with a recipe for some of those delicious Thanksgiving leftovers we all love. I normally just use the leftovers for sandwiches and dinner for a few days after the big dinner. And let’s face it, Thanksgiving dinner is a lot for one person to cook even when you keep it simple and spread it over a few days as I did. But this year the dinner doesn’t stop with dessert. No, I have one more recipe to make after Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Leftovers Galette. It’s all the Thanksgiving dinner goodness surrounded by a flaky pastry crust, and it looks divine.

If you plan ahead and are making pies for Thanksgiving, then just make extra pie dough for the galette! Just refrigerate the dough and use it later for the galette.

Recipe Author: Todd & Diane at White on Rice Couple
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The Ingredients

I love recipes that use leftovers! Using what you have and reinventing it to make another meal is convenient and efficient. And tasty. Mostly that last part!

When I was putting away my Thanksgiving dinner leftovers I set aside the filling for this recipe. The ingredients for the crust were all things I had on hand like flour, butter, and kosher salt. That made this a zero shopping necessary recipe.

Tip: The recipes for the galette fillings can be found in my post for Thanksgiving Stuffed Porchetta-Style Turkey Breast. There is also a downloadable menu that includes a shopping list, equipment list, and schedule.

Assembling the Thanksgiving Leftovers Galette

The Process

Making this Thanksgiving Leftovers Galette was so quick and easy! I made the dough for the crust during my Thanksgiving dinner prep, and I loved the new method.

Most pie crusts are blended with a food processor or with a pastry cutter. I have even read that you can use 2 forks, but I have never tried that method. This galette’s instructions said to blend the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingers.

It sounded counterintuitive because the butter for pastry crusts needs to be cold, but it worked. Not only that, but I had the crust made in a mere 6 minutes. That’s about half the time it takes me with a pastry cutter or the same as a food processor. The bonus here is I didn’t have to wash the food processor blade and bowl after.

I made the galette a couple of days after Thanksgiving dinner. I have to admit I wanted a night off of cooking after all that work! But putting this together was crazy easy. I just rolled out the dough and layered in the leftovers. I think the order from bottom to top was:

mashed potatoes
shredded turkey
stuffing
Brussels sprouts
gravy
cranberry sauce

The instructions don’t say this but I halved the sprouts because the filling was piling up. It helped keep it thin and spread the Brussels sprouts out better. Once that was done I pinched the edges closed, brushed them with egg wash, and baked the galette for 50 minutes. The results were spectacular!

The assembled galette brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with pepper

Fall Sangria

The Hungry Pinner

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November 22, 2022

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Every Thanksgiving dinner needs a cocktail, and my 2022 Thanksgiving menu has Fall Sangria. It’s loaded with fruit with cinnamon, maple syrup, and bourbon. But what struck me was this sangria is white wine based. I cook with it all the time, but I’m not a big white wine drinker. That made me a little hesitant, but I decided to take a risk because it sounded so perfect for my menu. It promises to be quick and easy and makes up a whole batch of drinks at once. This sounds like it’s made for parties and get together, so let’s find out if it lives up to its name!

You can find my 2022 Thanksgiving Menu as a free downloadable Google Doc. It includes a schedule, a shopping list, and an equipment list. The checkboxes on the lists are interactive and cross off each item when you click them. You may also print it or save it and make any changes you like.

This Fall Sangria with apple cider, bourbon, and wine is loaded with fresh apples, pears, and plums for a gorgeous fall beverage!

Recipe Author: Courtney at NeighborFood
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The Ingredients

I tend to keep bourbon and club soda stocked, and usually maple syrup. The real thing–it’s worth the extra expense, trust me. The rest I had to shop for.

Most of the ingredients were easy to find at my usual grocery store except the plums. I searched at least three stores and never found them. Fortunately, this recipe does invite customization, so I used red pears instead.

Fall Sangria Ingredients — Fuji apples, pinot Grigio, cinnamon sticks, maple syrup, Bosc pears, bourbon, Anjou pears, and club soda

The Process

Sangria is easy to make, and this recipe was no exception. Just chop the fruit, add it to a pitcher with a few other flavorings plus the liquor, and stir well. But things didn’t go exactly as planned.

I used my largest ‘pretty’ pitcher, and the chopped fruit alone filled it almost to the top. It had just enough room to add the wine, bourbon, maple syrup, and cinnamon sticks, but not enough for the apple cider and club soda.

Coring and slicing a pear — My apple corer/slices also worked for the pears

I had a mild panic moment until I remembered I wasn’t using my iced tea maker’s pitcher. It’s 3+ quarts, and it held everything with room to stir. Tip: The fruit and liquids filled the pitcher to the 2-quart mark (64 ounces). It wasn’t as pretty as the pitcher I originally chose, but it did the job. All I had to do was cover it with plastic wrap and let it infuse overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day I stirred in the club soda and transferred the sangria to a prettier pitcher to serve. I was able to fit about half the fruit into that pitcher with the sangria, so I held the rest to garnish each glass of sangria. And yes, the sangria-infused fruit was delicious too!

Salted Caramel Apple Galette

The Hungry Pinner

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November 17, 2022

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I wanted my Thanksgiving dessert to be easy to make and store this year. I know cheesecake is very popular this time of the year, but it was a little more work than I wanted to put in. My next choice was pie, but it had to be a single crust. I wasn’t in the mood to attempt latticework. Then I came across this Salted Caramel Apple Galette, and I knew my search was over. This rustic deconstructed pie was the answer! Apples and cinnamon are perfect for this holiday, and it doesn’t even need a pie pan. My Thanksgiving dinners are pretty informal, so this galette recipe fits right in. Let’s give it a try!

You can find my 2022 Thanksgiving Menu as a free downloadable Google Doc. It includes a schedule, a shopping list, and an equipment list. The checkboxes on the lists are interactive and cross off each item when you click them. You may also print it or save it and make any changes you like.

From scratch salted caramel apple galette is as delicious and impressive as pie, but half the work! This easy fall dessert is complete with homemade pie crust and a drizzle of salted caramel. Serve with a scoop of ice cream for the ultimate indulgence!

Recipe Author: Sally McKenney at Sally’s Baking Addiction
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The Ingredients

The ingredients for this Salted Caramel Apple Galette were the same as your typical apple pie with a few extras for the sauce. There is a link included for homemade salted caramel sauce. I know I could have bought it, but I made the caramel sauce because it’s so easy.

The only question I had while making my shopping list was shat type of apples to use. Thankfully the recipe lists a few suggestions. I chose to use a mix of Granny Smith and Fuji apples.

The Granny Smith apples are tart and crisp while the Fuju apples are sweet and have a softer texture. My favorite apple pie recipe uses both, so I did that here too. Using both gives a nice mix of flavor and texture.

Salted Caramel Apple Galette Ingredients — Granny Smith and Fuji apples, light brown sugar, heavy cream, salted butter, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, milk, egg, salt, sugar, and lemon juice

The Process

There were a few parts to making this Salted Caramel Apple Galette: salted caramel sauce, crust, filling, and baking. I started on it the day before I planned to make the galette. I’m not the greatest baker, but it was pretty easy to make.

Homemade Salted Caramel

I made the salted caramel sauce the day before making the galette. It only has 4 ingredients, so prep work was a quick 3 minutes of gathering and measuring them out.

Things started off with melting the sugar in a saucepan. The recipe says to avoid nonstick but not why. I’m guessing it’s so you can see the color of the sugar as it melts. I do the same thing when making browned butter. Perhaps it’s because a dark nonstick pan makes it hard to see the color and easier to burn.

I stirred the sugar for 5-6 minutes before it began clumping and melting. It felt like forever, but things moved fast once the sugar melted. Once the sugar completely melted and turned an amber color I added the salted butter. I noticed some clumps and followed the instructions to remove them, but no joy.

I kept going, though, and slowly poured in the heavy cream. The mixture bubbled a little more than it did when I added the butter, but it wasn’t bad. There was no popping or spattering.

After letting the mixture boil for another minute I removed the pan from the heat and added the salt. It still had clumps in it, so I used a mesh strainer to remove them while transferring the sauce to a storage container. I left the sauce on the counter to cool before putting the lid on and refrigerating.

Making homemade salted caramel sauce — The Homemade Salted Caramel had lumps in it that had to be strained out

Making the Crust

The next step in this recipe was making the dough. I did this the next day. Galette crust is the same as pie crust—mostly flour and cold butter. Some call for a food processor, but this one was mixed by hand.

The recipe says to use a pastry cutter or 2 forks to work the butter into the dry ingredients. I have a pastry cutter so that’s what I used. The dough was a bit dry and I did add the extra 1 tablespoon of cold water mentioned in the instructions. Otherwise, the crust came together perfectly. I had it made into a disk and wrapped in plastic in just a few minutes.

Making the Apple Filling

The filling took about the same amount of time to make as the crust. I started out by peeling the apples with a vegetable peeler. Then I cored them with an apple corer/slicer. If you happen to have a hand-cranked apple peeler/corer/slicer you can do everything at once. I do but I kind of forgot about it LOL!

The wedges needed to be cut into thinner pieces, so I used a chef’s knife to cut each wedge lengthways into 3-4 thin pieces. Once that was done all I had to do was mix the slices with the rest of the filling ingredients and chill for an hour.

Assembled Salted Caramel Apple Galette before baking

Assembling & Baking the Salted Caramel Apple Galette

The dough finished chilling a few minutes before the filling giving me time to roll it out and place it onto a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Tip: The dough needs to be rolled into a 12-inch circle. I use a floured 17'x12' cutting board as a work surface so I don’t have to measure.

Once I moved the flattened dough onto the sheet pan I drained the chilled filling using a large colander. Then I placed the pieces of apple onto the galette dough and pinched the sides up to contain them.

A short bake for 35 minutes and my Salted Caramel Apple Galette. I let it cool then wrapped it tightly and stored it in the refrigerator until dinner the next day. Removing it and the salted caramel sauce from the oven about 2 hours before dinner brought them up to room temperature for serving. Of course, you can always reheat it if you wish to serve it warm (the microwave is perfect for this if the oven is tied up).