Nov 03, 2012
This was an adventure! First- I was out of AP flour, but since I have been dabbling in gluten free baking I had some rice flour on hand. I subbed that for the AP flour, and it resulted in a lovely dough, but one that did not rise, and also there was no way I was folding it without it cracking. Second- in a strange twist, I had no oranges (when I almost always have them) but I did have Cointreau (when I almost never have liquor)...so I subbed that in for the orange. Those were my only ingredient changes. After a rather comical couple of minutes trying to chop the rollie-pollie cranberries, I put them in my blender to chop them. I was careful to pulse until finely chopped, but not completely mashed. Now I was at a loss as to what to do with my dough. Ultimately, I rolled it into balls, flattened the balls into rounds, then spread some cranberry filling on half the rounds and topped with the remaining rounds. I crimped them together, brushed with an egg wash and baked them. Then I topped them with the frosting, which I added a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to in addition to the vanilla. These turned out incredibly, amazingly good- kind of like a super fancy Pop-Tart! I have every intention of making these again the proper way, but I am so happy I was able to turn what could have been a failure into a delectable success. I do believe when I make this again, I will still sub the Cointreau for the orange- it gives such a lovely depth of flavor. Overall, a must try!!!
—Puck
