Made with apples, fresh cranberries and the most incredible streusel topping, this Apple Cranberry Crisp makes the perfect comfort food for the holidays.
Apple Cranberry Crisp
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Inspired by the holidays, this Apple Cranberry Crisp makes a stunning centerpiece on any dinner table or holiday spread. Over the holiday season, I think of all the rich colors, deep-rooted family traditions, and food – especially the classic mouthwatering dishes. Once fall rolls around, I start to make apple crisp, applesauce, and apple cider – everything becomes apple-fied.
Once I found out how much my family loves apple crisp, I decided to try a few versions of it, including my husband’s favorite: Apple Cherry Crisp. But since my mind has been in Thanksgiving Feast mode, I’m thinking cranberries. From scones to sauces, I’m envisioning cranberries in everything, and that is exactly where the inspiration for this special twist on an Apple Crisp came from.
In this Apple Cranberry Crisp recipe, I added a little more cinnamon in my sugar mixture to toss the apples and cranberries in because I wanted to balance some of the tartness. And a little vanilla extract goes a long way in this recipe. I love the streusel topping on this apple crisp; it is my favorite topping for pies, crisps and cobblers. I learned a trick a while back from a friend when she substituted a yellow cake mix for the flour to give it a bit of vanilla flavoring and a touch of sweetness. It is beyond delightful. Seriously, you will find yourself filling up on the topping before you even get to the fruit.
So this holiday season, spruce up the classic apple crisp and add some holiday spirit using cranberries. Your guests will comment on how gorgeously festive the dessert is right before adding the oohs and ahhs over how wonderful it tastes. Happy holidays friends.
XOXO San
Apple Cranberry Crisp
Ingredients
- 6 large Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and sliced
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries frozen will work too
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Crumb Topping
- 1 ¼ cups yellow cake mix
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 6 tablespoons butter chilled
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Peel apples, core and slice apples into quarters and slice each quarter piece into three slivers.
- In a large bowl add apple slices, cranberries lemon juice, cornstarch, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Gently toss to combine. Pour apple-cranberry mixture into 12-inch round iron skillet or 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine yellow cake mix, brown sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine. Add butter, and using a pastry blender or a fork, cut butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add crumb topping to evenly cover the apple-cranberry mixture. Set in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes or until crumb topping is a nice golden brown and the juice from the apples and cranberries is bubbling.
- Serve immediately or let it cool and serve later, it's great either way especially with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped topping.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
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I know you said we can use frozen cranberries. Mine were fresh but are in freezer. Do I thaw them out before or is ok to use frozen?
You can use them right from frozen Paige. Enjoy the crisp!
425 degrees was way too high for my pies, the topping was turning brown/black in 10 minutes! Had to scrape parts off and lower temp to 325 degrees.
So sorry that happened Lisa! You can also tent the top of your pie with tin foil to prevent further browning once it has reached the golden brown color.
It says bake for another 35 min. Are you saying to bake first before adding the topping?
Bake 35 minutes total :). Updated, thank you Nicole!
We seriously love this recipe and it is a fantastic dish for the holidays. We can’t wait to make this recipe again. Thanks for sharing!