Dare You to Make Fresh Cranberry Jam (with Lavash Crackers)!

The Daring Bakers: Lavash Cracker's Challenge!

Since Fall is in full swing, I added a little autumn-goodness to my Daring Baker challenge this month... Fresh Cranberry Jam. About this time last year I had wanted to make some things with fresh cranberries and found that in early fall you can only find those little guys tucked away in the corner of a gourmet market's freezer section for $5.99 a bag. Lesson learned, I purchased several bags of the fresh variety last November to store in my freezer for cranberrying all year long.

Never having preserved anything, I took the plunge, bought the little jars, looked up the directions in my canning cookbook and I was good to go. This recipe made 2 cups... perfect in case of screw-up. No problem- all was wonderful. Though a bit more chunky than I expected, the jam is delicious... sweet and tasty, and it has fall written all over it.

What better to go with that cranberry jam than pepitas! I topped some of my crackers with raw pepitas, and they roasted up nicely with the baking of the crackers.


It was a delicious combination and a great fall snack.

But we needed a Happy Hour appetizer to munch on while watching the first Presidential debate... so I went with a summery dip for my other crackers... Spicy White Bean and Avocado Dip.


While the avocado dip looks like guacamole, it's actually rather different. There are white cannellini beans mashed within, and there is a *mint* component added to the flavor. It was a nice change from our usual guac., and we enjoyed it with our long and fancy Lavash Crackers!

As far as the challenge goes, I enjoyed the simplicity of it. Although my dough never quite reached that *windowpane* description of easy-to-pull-apart-without-tearing, it rolled out perfectly and baked up as crisp as crackers should be. I did think that they were rather good crackers too. And they were easy enough to make again for something more exciting than a Presidential debate!

Thanks to Natalie (Gluten a Go Go) and Shel (Musings from the FishBowl) for hosting this month's challenge.

The Lavash Cracker recipe can be found HERE.
The Fresh Cranberry Jam recipe can be found HERE.
The Spicy White Bean & Avocado Dip recipe can be found HERE.

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