New England Cranberry Duff - But what is a duff?

With a bag full of fresh cranberries in the fridge I was dying to make something with them, but didn't know what. With a bit of research online I found some recipes that called for 'fresh cranberries' and not crazins. I prefer cooking new recipes that I've never tried before so when I came across this recipe for a New England Cranberry Duff I was intreged. What is a duff?

Thanks to Wiki - I found the definition:

Duff is a Bahamian cuisine dessert dish made with fruit (especially guava) in a dough.[1] Fruit is folded into the dough and boiled, then served with a sauce. Ingredients include fruit (especially guava), butter, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, flour, rum, pepper, and baking powder. The dessert is often accompanied by switcha (a lemon, water and sugar mixture) or beer.

That makes sense, but when I read over the recipe that doesn't match at all. But what the hell, it sounded good and I wanted to eat something sweet and cranberryish.

The end result was tasty. The dessert comes out tasting like something inbetween a crisp and a cobbler. I think it would be super tasty with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

The Recipe:

New England Cranberry Duff

Serves: 1 - 8" x 8" dish

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, (1 stick), softened

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

1/3 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely chopped (I used hazelnuts)

1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

To Start: Preheat your oven to 325 Degrees, Butter the bottom and halfway up sides of an 8" square backing pan or dish using 2 tablespoons of butter. Spread cranberries evenly over bottom of dish. Sprinkle pecans (or hazelnuts) on top, then sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar. Set aside.

Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a bowl or saucepan and then set aside. Put egg and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and mix super well, at a high speeed for about 1 minute or until pale and thick. Gradually beat in your four, then salt. Pour in melted butter in a slow, steady stream and then beat until smooth.

Pour the batter over the cranberry mixture. I had to smooth it out, but be delicate so that the cranberry mixture doesn't some up with the batter. Bake until golden brown... about 45 minutes. At high altitude I had it in the oven for 40 minutes. Run a knife along the edges and invert the dish on a server platter. I'd server it warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream!

Enjoy