Homemade Cranberry Apple Crisp {with Fresh Cranberries}
Cozy up this holiday season with this deliciously simple cranberry apple crisp recipe! The tart berries gel together with baked apples in the fruit filling, nestled beneath a buttery, crumbly oat topping. Don’t skip the ice cream – it takes this entire dessert over the top!
This October, I went to the Cranberry Festival in Grayland, Washington with my husband and parents to celebrate cranberry season. This little patch of land along the Pacific Coast grows millions of pounds of cranberries every year. We brought home a heap of fresh cranberries, and I set about preparing and preserving them in lots of different ways.
Since we love fruit crisps around here, I adapted my old fashioned apple crisp recipe to work with these tart berries. It just might be my favorite version! The tart cranberries are a perfect pair for the brown sugar and buttery crumble topping. This just might be the perfect dessert…I highly recommend you give it a try!
What is Cranberry Apple Crisp?
This delicious dessert is an adaptation of regular apple crisp. It’s made by combining fresh apples with cranberries and tossing them with a little sugar, flour, and cinnamon to help them gel together in a delicious fruit base. This fruit mixture is topped with a sweet, crunchy, crumbly oat streusel topping that takes the whole thing over the edge!
Since cranberries are such a tart fruit, they are a match made in heaven with the sweet crumble and warm spices. It just needs a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of homemade whipped cream to take it over the edge!
What you’ll love about this cranberry apple crisp recipe:
Equipment
The best apple cranberry crisp is simple. You don’t need any fancy equipment or gadgets at all (unless you count an oven).
- 9×13 baking dish
- Fruit peeler or paring knife
- Measuring spoons and cups
- Cutting board
- Medium mixing bowl
- Fork, pastry cutter, or your hands
Ingredients
Apple Cranberry Filling
- Fresh cranberries: Give your fresh berries a good rinse to remove any dust, leaves, or stems. Feel free to use frozen berries instead!
- Apples: Choose a good baking apple. Granny Smith apples are a classic choice. Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apples are wonderfully tart and firm, too. I used Winesap apples.
- Flour: Since cranberries and apples are so high in pectin, you don’t need much flour to help them gel together. You can also use a teaspoon of cornstarch instead.
- White sugar: This gives the fruit mixture a little sweetness, but it’s pretty tart without the topping!
- Cinnamon: Since this is a holiday dessert, I like to add warm spices to both the filling and the topping.
Oat Crisp Topping
- Rolled oats: The main difference between a cranberry apple crisp and a cranberry apple crumble is oats. Crisp have them; crumbles historically do not, but these two terms are often used interchangeably now. Use traditional or rolled oats, not quick oats.
- All purpose flour: This will help absorb the butter to give you a really crispy topping.
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar has so much more flavor than white sugar and adds a slight chewiness. All out? Make your own brown sugar!
- White sugar
- Cold butter: This is the most important part. Use very cold butter. If it is too warm, it will melt as soon as you put it in the oven instead of creating crunchy clumps of flavor!
- Cinnamon
How to Make Cranberry Apple Crisp from Scratch
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add your cranberries, peeled and chopped apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and pinch of salt to your baking dish.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the crumble topping ingredients. Use a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingers to crumble the ingredients together until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it.
- Pour the crumble topping over the fruit mixture.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the crumble topping is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbling along the edges of the pan. Remove from the oven.
- For best results, let this sweet crisp cool for 25-30 minutes to allow the filling to finish setting.
- Serve with a scoop of ice cream or homemade whipped cream.
Storing
Let the crisp cool to room temperature (max 2 hours), then store the leftovers in the fridge. To keep it fresh, transfer the extras to an airtight container or wrap it in a plastic wrap alternative. The crisp will stay fresh for approximately 3-4 days.
For longer storage, freeze leftovers in a freezer-safe container for 2-3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before either microwaving or baking your crisp to warm it up. Because this crisp is so easy to make, we typically just enjoy it fresh and share any leftovers with friends or family.
How to Serve Apple Cranberry Crumble with Oats
This classic apple cranberry crisp tastes best slightly warmed and with either a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a little whipped cream on top. It adds a creamy flavor that is just heavenly, and the extra sweetness tastes amazing alongside the tart filling. It’s a lovely Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert!
Tips & Variations
- Use any type of apples. Firm, juicy apples are best, but use what you’ve got!
- Use dried cranberries. Although fresh and frozen cranberries are interchangeable, dried cranberries require a few adjustments. Add 1.5 cups of dried cranberries instead of the 2 cups of fresh and skip the sugar in the fruit filling completely.
- Add orange zest. Cranberry and orange are a classic combination! Add the zest of one orange and up to a tablespoon of orange juice to the fruit filling.
- Add bourbon. For a special holiday treat, add up to a tablespoon of bourbon to the fruit. The alcohol will cook off, leaving a rich flavor.
- Make your own whipped cream. Combine 1/2 cup of heavy cream in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add a tablespoon or so of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla extract. Whip until firm peaks form (the peaks should stand straight up when you remove the mixer without collapsing). This should make approximately 2 cups of whipped cream. Adjust the sweetness and flavor however you’d like!
- Mini cran-apple crisps. Feel free to add the filling to ramekins instead of a baking dish! Sprinkle with the oat topping then bake. These will take between 20-25 minutes in the oven.
FAQs
It’s very easy – just rinse and dry off the cranberries and add them to the chopped sweet apples! They’ll cook down in the oven and take on a tender texture with a tart flavor. There’s no need to do anything else to the cranberries at all, like slicing them, etc.
Yes! Since cranberries have such a short season, it’s a great idea to freeze them for later. The best part is that you can even bake with them while they’re still frozen! They don’t need to thaw your frozen cranberries at all. You may need to add an extra 3- 5 minutes to your baking time to make sure they soften up properly.
Yes! Dried cranberries are a great substitute for fresh cranberries in most preparations, although results may vary depending on the original recipe.
You’ll need slightly less dried cranberries than fresh. Ocean Spray and US Cranberries recommend 3/4 cup dried cranberries per 1 cup of fresh. To make it easy to remember, just add 1/4 cup less dried berries than fresh.
Since craisins are sweetened, it’s best to adjust the sugar in your recipe as well. For example, if you use dried cranberries to make this cranberry apple crisp recipe, skip the extra 1/4 cup sugar in the fruit filling.
Related Recipes
- Apple Blueberry Crumble with Oats
- Blackberry Apple Crumble
- Cherry Apple Crumble with Oats
- Strawberry Apple Crisp
- Blueberry Crumble Bars
Cranberry Apple Crisp {Frozen or Fresh Cranberries}
Equipment
- 9 x 13 baking dish
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Pastry blender or fork
- small mixing bowl
Ingredients
Fruit Filling
- 2 cups fresh cranberries, washed and dried
- 4-5 apples, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/8 cup flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Oat Crumble Topping
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold; diced into 1 cm cubes
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add the fruit filling ingredients to the baking dish and stir to combine. Press gently to remove any air pockets for an even layer.
- Add the crumble topping ingredients to a small bowl. Use either your hands, a fork, or a pastry blender to mix everything together. The crumble should have a sandy texture and hold together when you squeeze it.
- Pour the crumble topping over the fruit filling and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling in the corners of the pan.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cranberry apple crisp rest for 25-30 minutes before serving. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
Notes
- Use any type of apple. Firm, juicy apples are best, but use what you’ve got!
- Use dried cranberries. Although fresh and frozen cranberries are interchangeable, dried cranberries require a few adjustments. Add 1.5 cups of dried cranberries instead of the 2 cups of fresh and skip the sugar in the fruit filling completely.
- Add orange zest. Cranberry and orange are a classic combination! Add the zest of one orange and up to a tablespoon of orange juice to the fruit filling.
- Add bourbon. For a special holiday treat, add up to a tablespoon of bourbon to the fruit. The alcohol will cook off, leaving a rich flavor.
- Make your own whipped cream. Combine 1/2 cup of heavy cream in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add a tablespoon or so of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla extract. Whip until firm peaks form (the peaks should stand straight up when you remove the mixer without collapsing). This should make approximately 2 cups of whipped cream. Adjust the sweetness and flavor however you’d like!
- Mini cran-apple crisps. Feel free to add the filling to ramekins instead of a baking dish! Sprinkle with the oat topping, then bake. These will take between 20-25 minutes in the oven.
Nutrition
