TWD: Apple Cranberry Crisp

I grew up in Houston, Texas. I think people either love Houston or they hate it, and I can't count the number of times I've told someone that I'm from Houston only to hear, "ugh, I just hate it there. It's so humid -- it's like trying to breathe chicken soup!" I happen to like the heat and humidity, and even though it sprawls and it's crowded and flat with lots of traffic, I really do like my hometown. My parents, however, are from New England, and growing up I used to hear about very foreign things like snow days, taking the train to the City, and picking apples. We have our fair share of produce in Texas, but in southeast Texas, we don't have any of those plants that like cold weather. I love peonies -- it doesn't get cold enough (I tried!); cherries, way too hot; apples, absolutely not, why don't you try peach trees? So when I moved to D.C. I was very excited to do things that my parents had talked about, like picking apples.

Me & my dad -- that yellow thing is Lucy's leash wrapped around my legs.

Last year, Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Galveston very hard. After a week without power, my mom and dad were ready for a break, and they flew up to visit me. We had the best time and I went apple picking for the first time! This year they came up to pick apples again, and we came away with two bushels for our efforts. Naturally, the better portion of those two bushels stayed in my kitchen, and I've been eating and baking with apples like it's going out of style around here. One thing that I'd been craving -- but I hadn't made -- was some sort of fabulous apple cranberry concoction. I love anything cranberry! I thought I would make a cranberry apple pie, but I really don't like pie, so I had a hard time motivating myself in that direction. So, wasn't it perfect that Em, of the Repressed Pastry Chef, chose cranberry apple crisp as her pick for TWD this month? Personally, I think the stars aligned.

My mom takes apple picking very seriously -- and it pays off! Look how many apples she can get from the high branches!

I've already thrown out my mea culpas for being a bad blogger lately. And this is no exception. As I was walking home from class at 6:30 this evening I realized I hadn't made my TWD for this week. Not only that, but I haven't posted the last two weeks. Gah! Luckily for me, this recipe came together super seriously fast. I wish I'd timed it, but I know I made it from start to the oven in under 20 minutes (having one of those apple peeler-corer things helped my cause). It took twice as long for this crisp to cook as it did to make it!

I made 1/3 of the recipe, and the only change I made was to use dried cherries rather than dried cranberries. The dried cherries were readily visible and available -- I have no idea where the dried cranberries are in my pantry right now. The crumble topping is fabulous! I love the coconut and the ginger flavors in the crisp. Yum! Actually, the whole thing is quite tasty. The topping is sweet, and it balances out the tartness of the cranberry apple filling (which is quite tart. If you like things sweeter you might want to up your sugar a bit). I loved this crisp -- it definitely satisfied my craving for a cranberry apple (cranapple?) dessert.