All the goodness of apple crisp but even more festive with cranberries and a touch of orange added into this Cinnamon Cranberry Apple Crisp. This crisp is a healthier version that’s gluten free, dairy free, and paleo as well using whole food ingredients!
I’ve spent most of my life pretty much ignoring cranberries until recently. They’d make their once a year appearance in the form of my Cranberry Orange Sauce at Thanksgiving time, and then that’d be it for another year. But little by little they started making their way into my recipes.
There’s nothing quite like their tart flavor that adds the perfect amount of contrast to so many dishes. I’ve always loved sweets, but I prefer them with an edge or some zippyness if you will, and cranberries provide just the right amount of tang to so many things.
One of our all time favorite ways to use cranberries is in my Vitamin C Booster Cranberry Orange Smoothie, it’s super simple and so good that we both drink it several times a week all winter long without tiring of it! Just last week alone, I bought 6 packages of frozen cranberries, and we’ve already burned through all of them. I made gallons of the aforementioned smoothie, this Cranberry Apple Crisp, and a Honey Mustard Cranberry Roast Pork Loin that’s coming your way soon.
And… it’s not just the flavor of cranberries that I’ve fallen for, I love how they give such a glowing red festive look to any dish you put them in!
I developed this recipe to be on the large side with the holidays in mind. It’s nice to have some bigger desserts that will feed a crowd, but you can easily cut this recipe in half as well.
Let’s jump in and talk about how to make this Cinnamon Cranberry Apple Crisp!
You start by layering in the apples and scattering the cranberries over the top. You can use either fresh or frozen cranberries for this dessert. An apple/peeler/corer/slicer is really handy to have whenever you’re doing anything with apples. It cuts down the prep time by at least 1/4 compared to peeling and slicing all those apples by hand.
I love the way a little fresh orange juice brightens up an apple crisp, it’s a trick I learned from my Mother-In-Law who makes the best apple crisp I’ve ever had! You just mix a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice and some orange zest into your cornstarch/tapioca mixture and pour it over the cranberries and apples. I creates a wonderful sauce around the fruit that thickens while it bakes.
For the topping, you mix together all the dry ingredients…
… then mix in the wet ingredients
… and then dot the crisp topping evenly over the fruit mixture.
This crisp topping is much wetter than a traditional crisp topping made with flour and oats, but it bakes up into perfect little islands of crispiness.
And… maybe it’s just me, but no fruit crisp is quite complete without a scoop of ice cream! We topped ours with the Vanilla Bean Coconut Bliss from the store, but if you have a bit of extra time you can try it with one of our homemade ice creams!
The Best Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
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Cinnamon Cranberry Apple Crisp
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
All the goodness of apple crisp but even more festive with cranberries and a touch of orange added in. This crisp is a healthier version that’s gluten free, dairy free, and paleo as well using whole food ingredients!
Ingredients
3 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (1/4″)
1– 10 ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries, 2 cups
2 Tablespoons organic cornstarch or 1 1/2 Tablespoons tapioca starch
1 Teaspoon cinnamon, Vietnamese cinnamon if you can
1 Tablespoon orange zest
fresh juice from 1 orange, about 1/2 cup
1/4 cup Grade A maple syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Topping:
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 cup chopped almonds, or 1/2 cup each chopped cashews and pecans, raw not toasted
1 cup big flake coconut
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup Grade A maple syrup
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Place the sliced apples in a 4-quart baking dish and scatter the cranberries over the top.
Whisk together the cornstarch and cinnamon before adding in the orange zest, orange juice, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Mix together until thoroughly combined without any lumps, and pour the mixture over the apples and cranberries.
Make the topping by combining all the topping ingredients together in a bowl. Mix until combined, the topping with be quite wet. Dot the topping evenly over the cranberry/apple mixture in the pan.
Bake the crisp until the apples are tender and the sauce is bubbling and thick, about 1 hour depending on the depth of your baking dish, (mine was 3″ deep). If you halve the recipe the baking time will be less.
Let the crisp cool slightly before serving.
You can make this ahead, but the crisp topping will soften overnight. You can reheat it for 15 minutes or so in the oven at 325ºF to re-crisp it.
Notes
Apples vary in size so much that I gave you the measurement in pounds, you could need as little as 4 apples or as many as 12 depending on what’s available in your grocery store. Also organic Granny Smith’s seem to run on the small side sometimes, so I always just weight my apples when I’m buying them so that I know for sure I have enough.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
This sounds amazing. Any idea on the calorie count?
I don’t know the calorie count, but you can find out with an online recipe calculator, I’ve included a link below for a popular one. I hope you enjoy the recipe, and be sure to let me know how it goes, or if you have anymore questions!
https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Any way to make this without nuts?
You could sub gluten free flour or oat flour for the almond flour, but you’ll need to increase the amount of coconut oil because these flours are much drier than almond flour. For the 1 cup of chopped nuts you could sub an additional cup of big flake coconut or pumpkin seeds would be another good alternative. I hope this helps and be sure to let me know if you have anymore questions!
Nothing like a good crisp on a chilly autumn day…especially one with gorgeous cranberries! I love the story your pictures tell…beautiful!
Thanks Annie, the cranberries really do serve 2 purposes – they’re so pretty and I love their flavor!
Love finding new ways to use cranberries! When I was a kid I only ate cranberries once a year as well; on Thanksgiving in cranberry sauce! This looks amah-zing!
I still love cranberry sauce for sure, but now I’m using cranberries all winter long!
These are DELICIOUS pictures!!! Can’t wait to make this!
Let me know how it goes, and I hope you enjoy it!
Just made this last night and it’s so good with whipped cream and coffee, especially for breakfast!
Yum, a little whipped cream might even be better than a scoop of ice cream!
I love me a good crisp and yours looks absolutely incredible. The pecan crumble is to die for…
It’s full of buttery holiday flavor and super addicting!
In the picture I see pecans and cashews, but not in the recipe itself. Are there typos?
I forgot to include them in the recipe, I tested it 2 different ways, 1 time with almonds and another time with cashews and pecans instead. I just fixed the recipe, and I’m so glad you caught that!