Recipe: Valentine's Day Cranberry Shortbread Cookies, Plus Giveaway

Nothing says love like a homemade cookie. And the best kind of love is the kind we show ourselves. Too often we are running around caring for others that we forget to prioritise our health. Putting ourselves first isn't a selfish thing, for how can we take care of others if we are not first of all in good health?

So in the spirit of loving ourselves, let's make Valentine's Day treats that benefit us!

I have two cranberry recipes for you: a shortbread cookie with easy ratio to remember (1 butter; 1 sugar; 2 flour) and a refreshing drink to go along with it!

Cranberries are an undisputed super food. They are high in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and C as well as magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, folic acid, potassium, sodium and selenium. The nutrient density and health benefits of cranberries make them an important part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. And we are one step closer to meeting the recommended daily intake of fruit!

The power of the cranberry centers on its well-documented ability to cleanse and purify the body. The high antioxidant levels of cranberries assist the liver in its detoxification processes.

Photo courtesy of Ocean Spray

More than 50 years of research suggests that cranberries play an essential role in promoting health and wellness due to a unique combination of compounds, such as Type-A proanthocyanidins or PACs. These properties help prevent certain bacteria from sticking and causing urinary tract and stomach infections.

Cranberries are a nutritional approach to help reduce certain infections. They help to reduce UTIs, and therefore the need for antibiotics used to treat them. This is important because bacteria that cause UTIs and stomach infections are becoming highly resistant to the strongest antibiotics used to treat them.

Antibiotics resistance is a serious issue and there has been a slew of news in Singapore on this rising trend. I try to avoid taking antibiotics whenever possible. And if food help me prevent infections and lessen my reliance on antibiotics, all the better.

So here are the two recipes to add some ruby red love and goodness to our diet:

Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (~227g) butter, softened
1 cup (~185g) caster sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
Half 5oz/142g package Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries, chopped*

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F or 160°C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
3. Mix in the flour, a little at a time, until combined. Stir in dried cranberries. You should get a firm but pliable dough. Add a little more flour if necessary.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic (you can shape it into a cylindrical roll for cutting later) and chill for 30 minutes. 
5. Slice the roll into half-inch or 1.5cm thick slices. 
6. Arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Allow some space in between each cookie as they will expand!
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. 
8. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature and enjoy!

Shortbread cookies are one of the easiest to make; anyone can do it. There are only three basic ingredients - butter, sugar and flour. You can add nuts and dried fruit to add flavour and crunch. You can also roll out the chilled dough to half-inch thickness and use cookie cutters - create heart-shapes, names or anything meaningful.

Berry Lite Lemonade

Photo courtesy of Ocean Spray

This is so easy to make and gives you all the benefits from cranberry juice too. Cranberry juice helps us flush out toxins, and drinking one 8-ounce glass of cranberry juice cocktail daily helps reduce the amount of recurrent UTIs and therefore antibiotic use.

Ingredients
6 ounces Ocean Spray® Light Cranberry Juice Drink
6 ounces lemonade
Mint sprig, garnish

Directions
Pour into a large glass filled with ice. Garnish with mint sprig.

I got this recipe off the Ocean Spray website where you can find more recipes to get creative with. Feel free to share these lovely treats with loved ones, but make sure you set aside your own secret stash. 

GIVEAWAY

Ocean Spray is kindly sponsoring a giveaway! Two lucky winners will win the following set of prizes worth S$100:

• Ocean Spray products (Cranberry Juice and Craisins Dried Cranberries)
• Quick and easy recipe info-cards to incorporate cranberries into daily diet
• Water bottle
• Health Trackers
• Umbrella
• Apron
• Locally baked cranberry-infused fortune cookies 
• Cash voucher worth S$50

All you have to do is:

1) Like the Ocean Spray and Camemberu Facebook pages.

2) Share this Facebook post, tag a friend, and tell us in the comment your favourite way to pamper yourself on Valentine's Day. Please make your post public, so I can view them.
https://www.facebook.com/Camemberu.Blog/posts/1330320630357409

Contest ends 11:59pm, 28 Feb 2017. As usual, I will prefer to award the prize to genuine Facebook profiles, not contest junkies.