the unadulterated cranberry: go away apple and pear! ::::
I have thought long and hard about a cranberry crisp, squirreling away fresh cranberries into the depths of my freezer for months since autumn. Finally, my creation has some to fruit(ion). It’s not that I don’t like a good pear crisp dotted with some cranberries, or an apple pie with dried cranberries flavoring every bite, but the idea of a pure cranberry dessert, no other fruit to detract from the cranberry tartness and floralness was too good to pass up. I visited pure cranberry dream previously when I made some cranberry compote, jam, and galette in one post. I actually feel the same about rhubarb too, but have yet to make a pure rhubarb dessert on the blog, unless you count my rhubarb simple syrup for homemade rhubarb soda and its sidekick rhubarb compote.
I’ve been waiting for the summer fruit dessert inspirations to appear, but often fall back on the freezer fruit stock when I am overwhelmed with too many strawberry and stone fruit possibilities (endless!). I’m also preparing room for freezer meals to come. When Baby arrives at the end of June/early July, we can’t be subsisting on cranberries for every meal (though that could be an interesting post-partum diet). While I wanted to scarf down about half of this cranberry crisp in one sitting, I reined myself in, only portioning a small amount with a large bowl of Greek yogurt. It made for a nice bedtime snack, usurping the usual plain Greek yogurt choice I make.
Enjoy a burst of autumn flavor in your incipient summer.
One year ago: rhubarb simple syrup and compote
Two years ago: candied walnut wedge
- 24 ounces (680 g) fresh cranberries
- 1¾ to 2 cups sugar (I like tart desserts, so I used the 1¾ cups)
- ½ cup orange juice
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup roughly chopped almonds or hazelnuts
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cook cranberries, sugar, orange juice over medium-high heat to soften and pop the cranberries, stirring occasionally. This will take about 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the 4 tablespoons of butter, and set aside.
- For the underlayer and topping, mix almonds, oats, flour, unsalted butter, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl, using your fingers to combine the ingredients.
- Sprinkle half of the oat mixture into a 9x9-inch pan. Spoon/pour the cooked cranberry mixture over the crust. Sprinkling remaining oat mixture over the top.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Top will be golden when done.
- Serve with ice cream or Greek yogurt. I found this to be a wonderful topping in small amounts on a generous portion of Greek yogurt, blood sugar controlled well.
4 COMMENTS
This recipe is awesome! I made it two weeks ago and now I’m making it again! Thank you so much !
Great! I’m glad you like it.
Excellent dessert!!! I’m just wondering if I can make a cranberry crisp using dried cranberries???? Just wondering, Thanks, Keith
Thank you! The only way I’ve used dried cranberries in crisps is as an adjunct: fresh apples or pears with a handful of dried cranberries for a tart punch. Solely using straight-up dried cranberries for a crisp wouldn’t work with this recipe given 1) they have such a different consistency than fresh cranberries, and 2) they have much less water content. You might be able to hydrate the dried cranberries with soaking in water and cut down the sugar while cooking down to create the fruit layer. Maybe try a date bar recipe as a guide (like mine: http://www.storyofakitchen.com/dessert-recipes/date-bars/) to experiment. Would love to know if you create something!