Apple and Cranberry Crisp

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's day. I was originally planning on making this for dessert to go with the super romantic Valentine's meal of pizza and beer but I decided to class it up a bit and made chocolate fondue and bought some pretzels, cream puffs, and strawberries for dipping. I already had the ingredients for a yummy apple crisp so I decided that it was a good midweek treat. Michael is out of town and is coming back tonight so he will be excited to have the leftovers for breakfast (hey don't judge it has apples and oats in it so one can argue it is kind of good for you.) So any-who I was supposed to have some friends over for dinner so I made a lasagna (recipe coming soon) and was going to have this for dessert however one of them called about 45 minutes ago telling me that her daughter was in labor so we had to reschedule, the good thing is lasagna freezes well and reheats amazing so no harm done. I already had the crisp in the oven when they called so I figure hey why let a delicious warm treat go to waste so I had my mid day, mid week snack.
I just added a little fresh made whipped cream with this AMAZING cream I bought at the Amish market (love having that right down the street, an advantage of living near Amish country) and it was an awesome treat to motivate me to do more laundry/unpacking. The worst part about moving is even if your clothes where clean before you moved you need to rewash them because they have been in a stinky truck for a week. I don't know if you have ever washed everything you ever owned but it takes a lot of time and effort. At least my washer is in the basement so I am getting my work out going up and down the stairs. Anyways on to the recipe. This is super delicious and not to sweet so you can feel free to top it with an amazing vanilla bean ice cream (blue bell for those lucky enough to have it... oh how I miss you blue bell.)

Ingredients


for the filling:
5 gala apples peeled and sliced 1/4'' thick
juice of half of an orange
2 TBS vanilla sugar*
1/8 tsp clove
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 TBS flour
3 TBS dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 TBS butter
for the topping:
1/2 stick of butter
2 TBS flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBS vanilla sugar
pinch of salt

* If you don't have vanilla sugar make some it is easy! Take one vanilla bean that you have used the insides of for another recipe or one whole bean, put it in some sugar, wait a week and you will have an amazing flavored sugar! If you don't have a week to wait just substitute regular sugar and then add a tsp of vanilla extract.


Preheat the oven to 350'

Put sliced apples in a large glass bowl and mix in orange juice. Toss lightly and make sure all of the apples are covered to prevent browning. Then sprinkle with vanilla sugar and let them sit for 10-15 minutes. This will release alot of juice that is tasty but will make your crisp to runny so you will need to drain them after they rest.

After you drain them place them back in the bowl and add in clove, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg then lightly toss. After you have all of the apples covered in the spices you can add in the flour and toss lightly. Then you can add the cranberries and pecans.

Place apple mixture into a pan that has been lightly buttered. Cut up the butter into cubes and place around the top of the apples

For the topping:
Cut the 1/2 stick of butter into little cubes and put in mixer with the flour, oats, cinnamon, and sugar and mix on medium speed until they are combined well.

Add the topping to the apples with your hands breaking it up into small pieces. Sprinkle the top with a pinch of salt and into the oven it goes. It should take about 30-35 minutes. When it looks golden brown it is done.

note: if you like your apples mushier you should slice them a little thinner but in this recipe the apples still have a little bit of a bite.

Enjoy!
Krystle