Cranberry-Apple Crisp with Nut Crumble

Autumn’s most popular fruits make this a festive dessert

Apples and cranberries are both autumn icons. So why not set them up for a date?

They get along beautifully in this dish: Cranberry ting enlivens apple mellowness. And baking concentrates their flavors, bringing out the best in both.

With Thanksgiving coming up soon, you’ll want to add this dish to the menu. Your guests will gobble it up.

Recipe: Cranberry-Apple Crisp with Nut Crumble

Crisps (called crumbles in the UK and Australia) are similar to cobblers. But instead of using a biscuit topping, a crisp typically is topped with streusel – a crumbly mixture of butter, flour, and sugar.

This crisp recipe is adapted from one that appeared in the November 2001 issue of Bon Appétit. The original recipe called for adding uncooked oats to the streusel topping. But Mrs. Kitchen Riffs – the dessert maven in our household – prefers to use walnuts instead (an idea she also used in our recipe for Walnut Apple Crisp). We think nuts provide better texture, and richer flavor.

Prep time for this recipe is about 30 minutes. Baking adds another hour or so. You may also want to let the crisp stand for at least 30 minutes before cutting, so it has time to firm up.

This dish serves 8 to 10. Leftovers keep well for a few days if refrigerated in an airtight container (you can also freeze them, in which case they will keep for at least a month or two).

Ingredients

For the nut crumble:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups walnuts or pecans, chopped
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For the cranberry-apple base:

• 3 to 4 pounds apples (see Notes)
• 1½ to 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (thawed if frozen)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• zest and juice of one large orange 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

For the (optional) garnish:

• Whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and/or cooked cranberries

Notes

• Peel the apples or not? We usually don’t. The peels add extra flavor and texture, which we like. But peel away if you wish.
• What type of apple to use? Whatever you have on hand. If you have a choice, though, it’s best to use apples that retain their shape and texture when baked. We used a mixture of Gala and Golden Delicious.
• BTW, Golden Delicious apples are very different from their similarly named red counterparts. Goldens have much more flavor and savor. The red variety? Kinda blah, in our opinion.
• A traditional streusel topping contains only flour, butter, and sugar (plus maybe some spice). It’s tasty stuff, but doesn’t have enough structure to hold its shape on top of the apples as they soften during baking. That’s why many recipes for crisps call for adding oats – they add texture to the streusel.
• But they don’t add much flavor. So we prefer chopped nuts, especially walnuts or pecans (either goes well with apples). They’re tasty and attractive, and retain their shape when baked.
• Baking powder loses its potency over time, so check the expiration date. We replace ours once a year, buying fresh baking powder when the time changes in the autumn (this helps us remember to do it).
• We always use kosher salt for cooking/baking. Because kosher salt is more coarse than regular table salt, it’s less salty by volume. If you’re using regular table salt, start with about half as much as we specify.
• We often serve this dish neat, without garnish. But whipped cream and vanilla ice cream both make dandy additions. Or you can add a few cooked cranberries: Heat the cranberries in a small saucepan, adding some sugar to glaze them (and sweeten them – cranberries are pretty tart on their own).

Far from the Tree

“So we did Spiced Hot Apple Cider with Rum last week, and now this week we’re doing Cranberry-Apple Crisp with Nut Crumble,” said Mrs. Kitchen Riffs. “Maybe we should change our name to The Blog Apple.”

“Well, you can’t have too many apples this time of year,” I said. “And the cranberries add a nice touch.”

“Notice I included an orange in the recipe?” said Mrs K R. “Proving that you can in fact mix apples and oranges.”

“You’re a berry good baker,” I said.

“And you’re an apple polisher,” said Mrs K R.

“Of course,” I said. “I’m hoping that flattery will get me another helping of this crisp.”

“Why not?” said Mrs K R. “I wouldn’t mind a second bite of the apple.”

You may also enjoy reading about:
Walnut Apple Crisp
Walnut Roll Cake
Sweet Potato Pie with Walnut Crust
No-Churn Pumpkin SPice Ice Cream
Peach Cobbler
Rum-Frosted Pecan Shortbread Cookies
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