Cranberry Sauce with a Croatian twist

I love making the holidays extra special with my homemade cranberry sauce with a Croatian twist. The depth of flavour will have you adding this cranberry sauce to everything. This past summer while in Croatia I made sure to add Prošek to my list of things to bring back with me. Prošek is a sweet dessert wine that is traditionally from the southern area of Dalmatia, Croatia. It is made using dried wine grapes in the passito method. This method of winemaking is made from grapes that have been dried off the wine to concentrate the juices.

My cranberry sauce is the perfect accompaniment with turkey or lamb.

Ingredients

1/4 sugar or your sugar substitute I used coconut sugar

1/2 cup of Prošek

1 1/2 cups cranberries

1 orange (juice of orange)

Directions

1. Rinse and wash cranberries in a colander.

2. Place the sugar and Prošek in a medium saucepan on high heat and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Add the orange juice

4. Add the cranberries and cook until they burst about 5 -8 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that it doesn’t overbuild or burn. Stirring often.

5. Take off heat and allow to cool (Note: the cranberry sauce will continue to thicken once cooled) If you find it a little thick add a splash of water and mix.

I love cranberry sauce with appetizers as well. Here I took some gluten-free crackers, added Boursin truffle cheese and topped with my cranberry sauce.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

I love Autumn; everything from apple picking at our local orchard to all the great baking in my kitchen. The sights, sounds and smells of the season truly bring me warmth and comfort. I decided to re-create a childhood favourite- Apple Crisp- but made it gluten-free and let me tell you it’s Crolicious. While this recipe is in no way Croatian, it does however remind me of my Mom’s apple baking every Saturday morning.

Our apple orchard haul. Love all the different varieties of apples

You don’t have to completely cover the apples with crumble

Fresh out of the oven

Preheat oven to 350F

FILLING

5 cups of peeled and sliced apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Crumble

2/3 cups almond flour

1/2 cup gluten free oats

1/2 brown sugar (use what brand you love)

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon all spice

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F

1. Grease a 9-inch pie dish

2. Spread the apples in the pie dish, sprinkle cinnamon and allspice on the apples and give them a gentle toss.

3. Crumble topping: in a bowl add the almond flour, oats, and brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice whisk together.

4. Then add melted butter and combine

5. Sprinkle the crumble over the apples and bake for about 35 minutes