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If you love cranberries and apples, you have to try this Easy Apple Cranberry Crisp! Featuring juicy apples, tart cranberries, and a buttery oat crumble topping! Use fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries… both work great! Perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert!
Cranberry Apple Crisp Recipe
Welcome to Day 1 of Christmas in July!!! Yes, you read that right… CHRISTMAS IN JULY!
Growing up, my mom would always take me and my siblings to “Christmas in July” celebrations in our community. Usually, they were humble church bazaars where folks sold crafts and homemade baked goods. My mom would usually give us each a couple of dollars to spend. And – no surprise here – I always spent mine on DESSERT!
Have you ever attended a Christmas in July celebration?
I honestly haven’t thought about CIJ in ages!!! But last week, I was randomly flipping through the TV stations and landed on the Hallmark Channel. They were playing a cute but cheesy holiday movie. And I stuck around long enough to learn they’re actually playing holiday movies ALL month long, in celebration of Christmas in July! And then it struck me… why not do this on the blog!
So for the rest of this month, I’ll be sharing new holiday-inspired recipes with you. Starting with this absolutely delicious Cranberry Apple Crisp! This is a humble dessert that’s SO comforting! And it’s absolutely delicious with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream on top!
What the Heck is a Crisp?
If you’ve never made a crisp recipe before, you might be wondering what exactly to expect! So allow me to lift the veil of mystery and explain to you the simple glory of a crisp!
In short, a crisp typically consists of a juicy fruit filling and a crunchy, butter crisp topping.
Here, our fruit base is made up of cranberries, apples, orange zest and juice, sugar, flour, and some warm spices like ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon. The combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar adds depth of flavor, so I highly suggest using both if you can!
And then there’s the buttery oat tipping! Made with rolled oats, sugar, cinnamon, flour, and butter, it comes together in minutes and is sprinkled on top of the cranberry apple mixture!
The next and final step is to bake! You can use a large 9×13-inch baking dish or a 12″ cast iron skillet, and you can save a mixing bowl by making the cranberry apple mixture right in the dish! No need to spray with cooking spray, but a swipe of butter will help avoid sticking!
Bake until the fruit is tender, bubbling, and smells intoxicating! This will take about 55 to 60 minutes, but it’s well worth the wait. And since it’s the “holidays”, why not kill some time by making yourself a cranberry apple moscow mule?!
Once you pull the dish from the oven, serve warm, with whipped cream or ice cream!
This recipe will serve a crowd if you need it to! If you scoop about a 1/3 cup into each bowl, you should get about 10 servings! That said… I’ve seen 4 people polish off an entire skillet, so be prepared for this one to fly off the table! The good news? You can always bake two trays at the same time, if need be!
More Crisp Recipes:
- Best Bourbon Pecan Peach Crisp
- Chai Spice Apple Crisp
- The Best Blueberry Crisp
- Strawberry Crisp
- Salted Caramel Apple Crisp
- The Best Apple Crisp Bars
Easy Apple Cranberry Crisp
Ingredients
For the Apple Cranberry Filling:
- 8 cups apples (about 9 medium-sized apples), peeled and sliced into 1/4" slices
- 2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen (If using frozen, do not thaw)
- 2 Tablespoons orange juice
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
For the Oatmeal Crisp Topping:
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
- 1 and 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
For the Apple Cranberry Filling:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter.
- Place the sliced apples and cranberries in a large bowl and toss with the orange juice and zest.
- Sprinkle the flour, sugars, and spices on top of the fruit and toss well to coat.
- Pour fruit mixture into prepared baking dish and set aside while you make the crumb topping.
For the Oatmeal Crisp Topping:
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, both sugars, cinnamon and flour. Add in the cubed butter and, using two forks or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles a coarse meal.
- Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit mixture.
- Place the pan in the oven and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
- Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Serve warm! Preferably with ice cream.
We have made this for the past couple years and my family LOVES it! Smells Holiday scrumptious! Yummm
What kind of apples ?
Such a wonderful recipe, this is going to be a new Christmas tradition for me now!
Can you make this in a 8X8 pan or half it? How long would you cook it for?
Hi Pam. I would suggest a 9×13-inch pan, as there’s too much filling to fit into a smaller sized pan.
This turned out so good and everyone loved it! I used mostly pears and a couple of apples. The perfect amount crisp topping too. It was super easy to make gluten free and no one noticed. I will officially be making this for Thanksgiving!!
For those asking about assembling it ahead of time, I think that would work as long as you are using fresh cranberries and refrigerate it. I wouldn’t do it more than the day before though. I would worry about too much liquid coming out of the fruit.
How did you make it gluten free – do you just sub gluten free flour for regular flour?
Yes, I used Cup4Cup flour and gluten free oats. Everything else I kept the same.
I made this today, because I wanted to get rid of some of the cranberries in my freezer. I thought the recipe was just perfect. Loved the hint of orange. LOVED the ratio of crumbs to fruit filling. I like a lot of crumbs, and I thought this was the perfect amount. This was a great way to use up some of my cranberry stash! It’s a keeper! Thank you!
Can this be assembled and baked later? Going to a friends house for a holiday party and want to bake it there so it can be served piping hot !
Could this be made with dried cranberries? If so, would you modify anything about the recipe? Thanks so much!
Way too much flour in the topping! I think it could have been cut back to 3/4 of a cup. The topping really overwhelmed the delicious fruit of this crisp.
Can this be made ahead of time? What would you recommend for reheating?