Emeril's Apple and Cranberry Crisp

If you read our other blog, you'll have seen that there were 20 people at my Mother's house for Thanksgiving this year. With so many people expected, the dinner turned into a kind of potluck and my job was to bring a dessert.

I've never been afraid of baking, but that's probably because I have fond memories of my Mom baking all fall so that she could offer her guests a wide assortment of things once Christmas came. I saw a comment on one of my other posts that one of my five faithful readers is a bit apprehensive about baking, which seems to be a common sentiment... I don't think Rachel Ray can make it through one of her shows without telling the audience that she can't bake. There's definitely some issues that you run into with baking that don't come up in cooking... you have to be a lot more exact with your measurements and the proportions of the ingredients, and it's a lot more difficult to fix something that went wrong after it's supposedly "done".

So in order to help out my faithful readers, I'm going to post some easy baking recipes that are popular in our house...

For the filling:

Butter for the baking dish
2 1/2 to 3 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and cut into a 1/2 inch dice (I used a combination of Granny Smith and Fuji)
12 ounces cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest, plus 1 tablespoon orange juice

For the Crisp Topping:

6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned)
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter a 9-by-13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, vanilla, and orange zest and juice. Set aside.

In another large bowl, combine butter cut into small pieces, flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Using an electric mixer, beat on low until coarse crumbs form.

Transfer filling to baking dish and cover with topping.

Bake until topping is browned and juices are thick and bubbling around edges, 55 to 60 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Adapted from: Everday Food, October 2009

Coming Soon: Southwest Tuna Noodle Casserole