Easter Holiday Recipes

Easter is fast approaching, and our maraschino cherries and glace fruit mixes can help make your holiday feast memorable this year.

Our maraschino cherries are available for purchase from our website, and our glace fruit mixes can be purchased and shipped by calling our office at 1-800-431-0718.

Let us know if you try these recipes and how they turn out!

Hot Cross Buns with Glace Fruit

4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages (1/4 ounce each) fast-rising yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
1 – ¼ cups milk
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into pieces
2 eggs
½ cup dark raisins
¾ cup (6 oz.) Leelanau Fruit Glace Fruit Mix
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons milk

Combine 2 cups of the flour, yeast, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in large bowl. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan until butter is melted and milk registers 125 to 130 degrees; add to flour mixture mixing until smooth. Beat in eggs. Mix in enough remaining flour to make smooth dough; mix in raisins, pineapple and fruit & peel mix. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in bowl; let rise, covered, in warm place until double in size, 30 to 45 minutes. Punch dough down.

Shape dough into 3 dozen balls; place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Let rise, loosely covered, until double in size, about 30 minutes. Beat egg white and water until foamy; brush over tops of rolls. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Mix confectioners sugar with enough milk to make thick glaze consistency. Drizzle a cross of frosting over the top of each roll.

Makes 3 dozen

 

Holiday Manhattan Bundt Cake with Spiked Bourbon Glaze

Manhattan Bundt cake

Cake

20 oz. Leelanau Fruit Maraschino Cherries

4 large eggs

1 tbs grated fresh orange zest

¾ c bourbon

2 tbsp sweet red vermouth

2 ½ c all-purpose flour

2c granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsps. Salt

16 tbsp (2 sticks) salted butter, cut into chunks, softened

 Glaze

1 c powdered sugar

2 to 2 ½ tbsp. bourbon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
  2. Drain cherries and reserve 6 cherries for garnish; roughly chop remaining cherries.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, orange zest, ¾ c bourbon and vermouth until combined. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed, adding butter, 1 chunk at a time.  When all butter has been incorporated, beat at medium-low speed until mixture is crumbly, about 30 seconds.
  5. With mixer on low, add egg mixture in a steady stream. Scrape down the sides of the bow, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until batter is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Stir in chopped cherries.
  6. Lightly grease of spray a nonstick Bundt pan and pour batter evenly into pan. Rap on counter to release any air bubbles.  Bake in preheated oven on a lower rack until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.  Rotate the pan halfway through baking.  Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
  7. While cake is cooling, make the glaze. In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp bourbon until smooth.  (Start with 2 tbsp bourbon and add a little more if needed)
  8. Turn the cake out onto a cookie sheet or serving platter and drizzle with glaze while cake is still slightly warm. Garnish with reserved maraschino cherries.

Enjoy!

Sleepy from Daylight Savings Time? Try tart cherries!

Many people have a love-hate relationship with daylight savings time. They love having more daylight early in the morning, but they hate the way the time change affects their sleep patterns. It’s an insomniac’s worst nightmare, to say the least. Fortunately, many people who have difficulty sleeping are able to overcome the problem with the help of cannabis, where they are able to order concentrates by mail, or by visiting an online or physical dispensary in order to obtain the cannabis-infused products they need to improve their sleeping patterns. Over the years, this idea has seemingly grown in popularity and many are now using it to help combat any physical or mental ailments they may be suffering from. Of course, knowing a thing or two about the bong vs bubbler debate would be helpful for a first-time novice in this area.

Research has shown that daily consumption of tart cherry concentrate about 90 minutes before you go to bed delivers natural melatonin to your body. Tart cherries are a rare food that contains melatonin, and this melatonin helps your body regulate sleep.

The research behind tart cherries amazing ability to help regulate good sleep can be found here:

http://www.choosecherries.com/press-material/study-tart-cherry-juice-increases-sleep-time-in-adults-with-insomnia/

To see a few great clips of the Dr. Oz show and his investigation into tart cherries ability to help us sleep can be found here:

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/tart-cherry-all-natural-sleep-aid-pt-1

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/tart-cherry-all-natural-sleep-aid-pt-2

Our families sleep routine includes taking two Leelanau Fruit Co. Montmorency Cherry Plus Tart Cherry Capsules an hour and a half before we go to bed. We sleep great and wake up refreshed.

Our Montmorency Tart Cherry Concentrate is also a great way to get your nighttime dose of cherry goodness. The sweet-tart flavor is also great to quench that late-night sweet tooth.

Melatonin can be a great natural way to help you get to sleep when the hours get mixed up. It can also help in general if you suffer from insomnia. Though you may want to explore other options as well, such as looking on websites like https://felixgray.com/sleepglasses for resources to aid in restful sleep. Something as simple as changing your mattress can help induce a good night’s sleep, believe it or not. Some mattress sellers occasionally offer 1-2 month trials (here’s a place to find these kinds of offers: https://www.raise.com/coupons/saatva) so you can always try before you buy if you’re ever unsure. Another way to try and get a better night’s sleep is simply to avoid any kind of electronic or bright light before bed as they can trick you into thinking it’s still daytime. So don’t bring that smartphone to bed, you can check Twitter in the morning.

Let us know how our tart cherry products or other sleeping tips are helping you sleep by commenting below. Happy Daylight Savings Time!