wigs, finally made your Sour Cream Cranberry cake last night. Definitely a keeper.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
Now this is where I walk the Walk of Shame. The frozen cranberries were possibly...I'm not exactly sure...could be but don't hold my feet to the fire...from November 2014.

I didn't even think to look at the package...they were in the freezer and they were available so I used them. I always buy a bag of fresh cranberries during the T-Day food bacchanalia, but in 2014 I ended up buying the entire prepped meal from Publix. So I don't recall using them then.

Of course I might have....think it's feasible...am leaning towards the possibility that I used a newer bag from 2015. But I had T-Day with Angie and Co and now can't recall actually buying cranberries for that year end.

Then there's the sour cream. I DEFINITELY bought that in Nov 2015 because it was BOGO and wigs posted this in early December.. But the holidays came/went and the memory to make this cake came/went with it.

But Monday night I actually had to BEND DOWN to reach something at the back of the refrigerator and THERE were the two unopened, still-sealed sour cream containers. Their use-buy date is Jan 31, 2016 so I'm kissing this one up to God.

Also I pulled out the ground (not chopped) pecans (quantity unknown) from the freezer that were left over from early December cookie-swap fest and used that with double the brown sugar instead of chopping fresh whole because waste not, want not. Or in my current dieting situation: "waist not, eat not."

I despise getting into all of the crevices of a Bundt pan (because I NEVER get all of them) and this was for work sharing, so I baked it in a 9x13 pan. Perfect in 55 minutes. Might recommend putting a bit more that half the batter on the bottom because my double amount of pecan crumbs seemed to weight it down and compress it more than the top layer of batter. Also, with this pan, you don't have to worry about the brown sugar messing up the presentation.

And regardless of all THAT, it was still very moist, tart and tasty, with just a tinge of pink.

Cause I'm a girl.

Thanks for sharing, wigs!

http://eat.at/swap/forum1/245964_Sour_Cream_Cranberry_Coffeecake_RECThis_is_good__Just_made_it_yesterday

 
I'm so glad 2 hear you liked the cake. I thought the crumbs were delicious--since I 1st baked it 4

a catering client who'd given me the recipe, all I had to sample were some the crumbs that had stuck to my Bundt pan after I flipped it out. AAMOF, I have yet to sample a real slice. ha!

And Marilyn, you need NEVER cower in shame with this girl whenever using supposed past-their-date ingredients. As I keep telling my DH, I go by the taste & appearance and NOT by the somewhat arbitrarily stamped-on expiration date. For example, buttermilk keeps WELL beyond its stamped date. I made my mother's homemade Buttermilk Pancake recipe last weekend, and they were delicious. Now if my husband had noticed the buttermilk carton had a Dec 5 date stamped on it, he wouldn't have eaten any of those pancakes--I kid you NOT. And the man would have seriously accused me of poisoning him if he'd only known the true date was actually Dec. 5, of 2014!!!!! But the buttermilk tasted and looked and smelled fine so I'm with you as you so aptly say: Waste not, want not!

Goodness, we never used to even have those dates appearing on food items. As long as I can still smell, taste and see, I'm going with what my senses tell me.

BTW, the shelf life of sour cream can be extended if--after opening a carton--you cover the top of the carton with plastic wrap and put a rubber band over the Saran (around the opening of the carton). Then put the lid back on and flip it over to store your sour cream container upside down in the refrigerator. I typically also set my upside-down container in a bowl just in case there is any leakage. This was from a "Hints to Heloise" newspaper column way back in the day. It works. (Heloise just said to turn the opened sour cream container over before storing in the refrigerator, but I quickly learned to add the Saran and the rubber band and the bowl to save on any possible messes.)

http://lifehacker.com/store-sour-cream-or-cottage-cheese-upside-down-for-long-1477794791

http://lifehacker.com/store-sour-cream-or-cottage-cheese-upside-down-for-long-1477794791

 
We liked it and in fact I'm making it again tomorrow. I'm not going

to use the wheat germ though so do I need to compensate for it? Should I add 1/4 cup flour?

 
I agree w/ M, but there are 5 different substitutes that I found for wheat germ on the Internet &

you can read about them at the link below. I knew wheat germ has a nutty taste and since I had ground flax seed on hand, I went with that as my substitute, but maybe one of the others listed will be more readily available in your pantry. Note that for a flour sub, the recommendation at this link is for whole wheat flour.:

http://www.med-health.net/Substitute-For-Wheat-Germ.html

http://www.med-health.net/Substitute-For-Wheat-Germ.html

 
Well, I don't have whole wheat flour so I'll taste the flax seed and

see what we think. I use them both in a PW granola bar recipe and they both are fine but the wheat germ in this cake just seemed to take over and we just found it overwhelming and we both love wheat germ. Go figure....

 
O, since my pecans were ground, the subtle bit of ground flax blended well.

I just love the tartness of the cranberries.

 
We love bites of the nuts in these cakes so I won't grind them but

I'll try the flax this time. And by the way, I always have several bags of cranberries in the freezer. They last a very long time and we love, love, love anything cranberry! The sweet/tart is such a great taste together.

 
Curious1, I'm elated to have saved U the price of a bottle of buttermilk! If it should clump up at

all, just give the container a few shakes--U might see a small clump or two as you pour, but that won't hurt a thing.

Aside: I almost didn't mention (in prior post) anything about the long shelf life of buttermilk because I thought folks here might think I was such a skin flint that I cooked with rancid ingredients, but au contraire. Foods will "tell" you when they are past their prime so simply run them through the "taste, look, smell & feel" tests before you pitch 'em. My DH is a city kid while I was raised on a farm so I guess therein lies the reason for our different approaches when it comes to judging how long to keep items on hand. My mom and 2 grandmothers never wasted ANYTHING! PS: Eggs are another thing that will keep long past that arbitrary date stamped on the carton. And for some things like hard boiling--old eggs are far superior to using newer eggs!

 
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