Day 64 -- Berry, Berry Good For You! Part 3

One of the most ignored berries of all is the noble cranberry.  It was there at the first Thanksgiving . . . wasn't it?  And cranberries make a wonderful Cosmopolitan, when you add a little vodka.  And who doesn't prefer Craisins to raisins?  Beyond that, cranberries have struggled to gain the kind of popularity that the other berries have achieved.  It's probably because they don't taste very good when eaten plain.  But added to other things, they bring a tartness that you can't achieve with any other fruit.

Cranberries provide more anti-oxidants than every other food, except for blueberries.  In fact, cranberries come from the same genus as blueberries, a genus that also includes lingonberries and huckleberries.  Like blueberries, they grown on dwarf shrubs, but since they're a little bit more durable and they float, they're harvested by flooding the cranberry fields and beating them off the bushes.  They then float on the surface where they're scooped up.

Cranberries contain a powerful cocktail of protective phytonutrients; plant chemicals that contain protective, disease-preventing compounds (flavonoids and phenolic acids) that act as antioxidants in the body.  Cranberry extracts have been shown to inhibit the growth of oral, colon, and prostate cancer cells, in addition to battling breast cancer cells. Phytonutrients in cranberries may also be involved in inhibiting the spread of cancer cells throughout the body.

In addition to its anti-cancer properties, cranberries may also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol, inhibiting LDL oxidation (one of the first steps in the progression of coronary artery disease), lowering blood pressure and inhibiting the formation of blood clots.

This recipe for Apple-Cranberry Strudel Pie came from the Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen blogsite.  Visit that site for great hints on making this recipe!


Apple-Cranberry Strudel Pie

Have all of your ingredients mixed and ready before you remove the phyllo dough from the package. Keep it covered with a barely damp tea towel while you work, and wrap up the leftover dough and refrigerate it immediately when you’ve finished.

12 9×14-inch sheets phyllo dough, thawed if frozen
2 tablespoons walnuts or pecans
2 tablespoons oatmeal
1 1/2 pounds Honeycrisp apples (or other crisp apples), peeled, cored, and diced (about 4 cups or 3-4 apples)
1/2 cup coarse sugar, such as demerara or raw sugar
2 teaspoons unbleached white flour or cornstarch
2 teaspoons molasses
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup cranberries
2-second spray canola oil or non-stick spray
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a rectangular baking dish with oil or non-stick spray.

Place the nuts and oatmeal in a food processor and process until coarsely ground. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, toss together the apples, raw sugar, flour, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cranberries. Mix the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 teaspoons sugar in a small bowl.

Working with two phyllo sheets at a time and keeping the others covered to prevent them from drying out, place two sheets into the dish. (If sheets are too big for the dish, coax the edges into standing upright along the sides of the pan, but don’t stress about it.)

Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the nuts/oatmeal. Repeat this twice, for a total of 6 sheets. Arrange the apple mixture on top of the 6th sheet.

Cover it with 2 sheets of phyllo, tuck the excess edges under, and sprinkle with a tablespoon of nuts/oatmeal. Repeat 2 more times for a total of 6 sheets on top of the apples. Spray the top sheet lightly with canola oil and lightly cut through the top layers of phyllo to form 8 equal pieces.

Sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Bake until the phyllo is golden and the apples are just tender (but not mushy) when pierced with the tip of a knife, 40 to 50 minutes. Allow baking dish to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Serve warm. Reheat leftovers in toaster oven or regular oven, not microwave, to maintain flakiness.