Cranberry Apple Crisp
Apple Cranberry Crisp – If you love apple crisp, you’ll love this apple cranberry recipe twist with sweet apples, tart berries, and a spiced crumb topping that is holiday-ready!
Cranberry Apple Crisp – If you love apple crisp, you’ll love this holiday-ready cranberry apple recipe twist, festively spiced with premium Watkins spices for cranberry season! This post is brought to you in partnership with Watkins.
As a self-declared summer person, I have begun to entertain some doubts about this supposed truth. I do indeed miss the hours of daylight and ease of wearing sundresses and sandals, and let’s not forget the bounty of summer produce. But I’ve come to realize that we have entered one of my other favorite times of the year – the holidays! With that comes the cozy sweaters, Christmas music, silly holiday movies, and all the holiday baking.
And let’s not forget the cranberries.
By now, you probably know my deep love for cranberries. As soon as I see them in the markets, I instinctively reach for them and always have them on hand. The cranberry-sauce-kick-off leads to a season of cranberry cooking and baking, whether it’s making my cranberry curd, shortbread bars, or my family’s personal favorite, cranberry tea cake, which we love to bake for our neighbors every year.
But this season, I wanted to introduce a new recipe for the holidays.
If you were to ask my family what desserts represent us as a unit, I think we would all agree that we have a special place in our heart for the homespun. Project baking is all well and good, but we love the simple recipes that we hand down from generation to generation, bringing a sense of tradition and joy. Things like Papa’s buttermilk banana bread, and my mom’s Apple Walnut Delight, or the blueberry crisp I’ve been making since the summer I met my husband.
So this year, I thought it was high time to introduce a Cranberry Apple Crisp to the family. I wish you could have seen their eyes when I served it up with a dollop of ice cream, melting into the sweet and sour mess of cranberries and spiced crumb topping. It brought the wonder of the holidays to life! After one bite, I knew: this is a new tradition my children will look forward to, year after year.
Holiday Cranberry Apple Crisp
Since a fruit crisp is one of the most straightforward but satisfying desserts you can make, I don’t like to complicate things. But it’s the holidays, and we need to give it a little extra touch of merry. A few extra spices in the tangy filling and the crumbly, buttery topping do just that.
For this recipe, I baked with my friends at Watkins. For over 150 years, Watkins has been known for their gourmet flavoring products, and found in kitchens across North America! I love that all their products are free from dyes, high-fructose corn syrup, added MSG, and other artificial ingredients.
I add Watkins Organic Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla and a touch of Watkins Organic Ground Ginger to brighten the cranberry-apple filling. The tart cranberries are balanced by Honeycrisp apples, and the vanilla and ginger really do mellow out the flavors.
As for the topping, Watkins Organic Ground Cinnamon, Organic Ground Nutmeg, and Organic Ground Ginger make the buttery crisp topping extra festive and cozy. It’s like lighting the most fragrant holiday candle — it makes the kitchen smell delicious as it bakes! Without question, this spiced cranberry crisp is made for the holidays!
Grab a spoon and dig in – I hope this recipe makes you and yours more merry this holiday season!
Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with Watkins. Thank you for supporting brands that matter to me; sponsored posts such as this help behind the scenes at Kitchen Confidante. All opinions in this post are, as always, my own. https://www.watkins1868.com
Watkins products are available online at Watkins1868.com and at select stores nationwide. Follow @Watkins.1868 on Instagram, Watkins_1868 on Pinterest, and @Watkins1868 on Facebook.
Cranberry Apple Crisp
Ingredients
Filling
- 3 cups cranberries fresh or frozen
- 2 cups chopped apples i.e. Honeycrisp (about 1 1/2 medium apples)
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Watkins Organic Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Organic Ground Ginger
Topping
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Organic Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon Watkins Organic Ground Nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Watkins Organic Ground Ginger
- 1 pinch Watkins Fine Himalayan Pink Salt or substitute kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter cold, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup rolled oats regular, old-fashioned oatmeal
For Serving
- Vanilla ice cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack placed in the center of the oven. Lightly butter or grease a shallow baking dish (9" tart or pie pan or 8×8 brownie pan).
- In a medium bowl, combine the apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, vanilla, and ginger, and toss to mix. Transfer to your prepared baking dish.
- Make the topping by combining flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add the oats and mix a little more, using your fingers to create chunks with the crumbs. Spread the topping evenly over fruit and pat down gently with your fingertips.
- Bake until the topping is light brown and crisp, about 35-40 minutes, and the fruit is bubbling underneath. Serve warm with ice cream, cream, whipped cream, or as is.
Notes
Make ahead:
You can easily assemble the topping or the whole crisp in advance. Cover tightly and place in the freezer until you are ready to bake. That makes one less thing to worry about when you’re entertaining!Make it vegan:
Fruit crisps are one of the easiest desserts to make vegan. Simply substitute the butter for your favorite vegan butter. Serve with non-dairy ice cream.Can I use frozen cranberries?
Yes, absolutely!Nutrition
Comments
COOKBOOK
Loved this recipe. Had to change to 3 cups apples and 2 cups cranberries cause that’s what I had.. But otherwise stuck to recipe. This has the most lovely flavor! Perfect spice blend! I am making this again! SOON! THANK YOU!!!!!
Aw, you are so very welcome, Gwen! Thanks for coming back to let me know how it turned out :) I love that the filling can be adapted to what you have on hand!!
This was delicious! Added a little orange zest and a squeeze of the juice! Was absolutely perfect!
I am planning to freeze for later (yay!), but I was curious about the directions for baking from frozen!
I had to use up some Granny smith’s that were in my fridge and found them a bit tart in this, but would have been easily remedied with some sugar. I can’t wait to try with honeycrisp apples. My entire house smelled amazing after making this and it was still delish!
Looks delicious
Thank you so much, Barbara!!
definitely holiday ready, thank you, love the cranberries, a nice contrast to the sweetness of the apples, thank you
Thanks, Sabrina! I love how the cranberries and apples pair beautifully together!