I am one of those people who go grocery shopping with two separate lists: a physical list of things to buy and a mental list that forms up in your head spontaneously—when you see something you don’t need but cannot keep yourself from buying it, thinking you may need it soon. For me, most of the time that “soon” comes rather late, when the spontaneously bought ingredient is literally ready to scream at me—just use me finally!
The cranberries I bought quite some ago were from my second list. They were on the verge of going bad but were courageously hanging in there. I had to use them. I wanted to bake something with them, and thought of combining them with chocolate. The cranberry season is in full swing and chocolate is always there, any season. So decided to make use of the two together now that I had the opportunity.
My choice fell on pull-apart cranberry-chocolate buns from the recipe I had bookmarked long ago. Tried it and love it. The buns turned out fantastic. You bite on a roll, and the juicy cranberries burst in your mouth, blending in with dots of melted chocolate—so unexpected, so good. I will be making these buns again and again.