Into every January, a little dessert must fall, in spite of our best intentions. Knowing this, I just try to bake fewer desserts than normal, and I try to make sure they are fruit-based. In fact, around December 20th, I find myself craving this kind of treat, my palate already tired of the butter, flour, sugar, chocolate combinations I have surely been eating often. Don’t fall over. Yes, this is coming from a woman who believes there can never be too much chocolate in the world. But it happens. Really.
Last night, I made the first dessert of January. (Well, that’s if you don’t count the New York Times version of chocolate chip cookies, and seriously, I counted that as research, for heaven’s sake! I was the only food blogger in existence who hadn’t made them yet. And, by the way, thanks for asking, yum.) I had a frozen bag of cranberries begging to be made into a crisp, the bright red color practically shouting at me every time I opened the freezer door. It’s amazing I held out this long.
This clearly was a job for Dorrie. She didn’t fail me. She never does, really. However, her cranberry apple crisp called for coconut in the topping, and I didn’t have any in the house. I also don’t love, love, love coconut the way some people do. (Can someone please explain to me why I would never, ever dream of ordering coconut cream pie - yuck – but I will make old-fashioned coconut macaroons, dip them in dark chocolate and I have to lock them in a cupboard so that I don’t eat them all at once?) In the cookbook I own, she has another crisp recipe, one with a strawberry-rhubarb filling. It has a topping which includes crystallized ginger, something I’ve been known to eat by the bagful, and therefore usually have in my pantry. A filling from one recipe and a topping, with slight tweaks, from another, and, well, let’s just say it produced groans of delight. I’m so glad I only made half the recipe. After all, it’s still January.
Cranberry Apple Ginger Crisp
Adapted from Baking From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 8 1-cup ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
For the Filling
4 medium apples, peeled, cored, cut into ½ inch chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (if frozen, don’t thaw – I used frozen)
½ cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Toss ingredients together and divide evenly among the buttered ramekins.
For the Topping
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
8 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
Put all topping ingredients into the food processor and pulse for about one minute. Spoon topping equally over the fruit filling in the ramekins. Place on center rack of oven and bake for 45 minutes. Cool ramekins on rack at least 10 minutes before diving in. (We topped ours with a tiny scoop of slow-churned low-fat vanilla ice cream and we were very happy people.)
