Apple Cranberry Crisp

 

A recipe from October 2003 Bon Appétit is a favorite standby dessert in our house. I doubled the recipe and tweaked it by macerating the dried sweetened cranberries and dried sweetened cherries and using whatever apples were in the fridge, and finally adding a whole bag of cranberries from the freezer.

Apple and Cranberry Crisps with Ginger-Pecan Topping

(I doubled this recipe.)

I macerate the 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries and 1/4 cup dried sweetened cherries in 2 tablespoons of Calvados but you can sub apple brandy or even water for 20 minutes.

For filling: 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, chopped into 1/2-inch cubes.

Add the macerated dried sweetened cranberries and cherries.

Add half a bag of frozen cranberries, if you have them.

Add 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger and 1 tablespoon all purpose flour.

Let stand about 5 minutes until juicy. 

Butter a baking dish or individual custard cups, pour filling in and bake at 20 minutes for the individual cups or 30 minutes for large baking dish.

While filling is baking, prepare topping:

In large bowl stir together: 

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 

1/3 teaspoon salt

Rub in 1/2 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes until coarse meal forms.

Mix in 2/3 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped. 

Spread topping over hot filling and bake until topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

We didn't have any vanilla ice cream in the freezer but it is wonderful with this dessert.

This dessert is pure comfort food, something we all need now. And it has a lot of fruit in it so that makes it healthy, right? 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 🤭