We host thanksgiving each year. . . hard to believe, but this was year four. I will put up a series of posts with what we served this year, the good, the bad and tips to how to make it better. The highlights were the potato leek soup and the crisp for dessert. . . (the turkey was good and juicy too, don't get me wrong, but its more fun to talk about the sides)
The last three years we made a carmelized pumpkin and pear crumble for dessert using a recipe I had found years ago in Real Simple magazine. I love that dessert, but it doesn't quite get the attention i think it deserves from our guests. . . so this year we decided to try a different crisp (i love a good crisp).
I chose this Apple-Cranberry Crisp figuring that apple and cranberry were a classic pairing for Fall. . . it was a total hit- a perfect combination of sour and sweet and really easy to make. You are basically just mixing everything and then baking- no cooking anything first on the stove.
apple-cranberry crisp recipe from Bon Appetit
serves 6
11/2 pds tart green apples, peeled, cored cut into 3/4 inch pieces
3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2/3 cup sugar
4 tbls all-purpose flour, divided
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tbls firmly packed golden brown sugar
2 tbls butter, cut into poeces, room temparature
*preheat oven to 375 degrees
*toss apples, cranberries, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tbs flour, cinnamon and nutmeg to blend in large bowl
*transfer to 8x8x2 inch glass baking dish- let stand for 15 minutes
*combine oats, brown sugar and remaining 2 tbls flour in medium bowl- add butter and stir until moist clumps form, sprinkle topping over filling
*bake until topping is golden brown and filling bubbles- app. 1 hr- serve warm or at room temperature
tips-
1. we made this the night before and then re-heated it in the oven as dinner was finishing- worked out just fine.
2. double the crisp recipe for extra crisp- the portion called for in the recipe just did not seem like enough. . .and why hold back on dessert?
3. make your own whip cream- its easy, wonderful tasting and a nice touch to have your guests scoop homeade whip cream onto their crisp. . . just add cream and sugar and wisk- we used 1 pint heavy cream (for ten people), 2 to 3 tbls sugar (to taste), and the wisk attachment to an immersion blender. . a hand blender works as well of course and if you must, good old fashioned wisking by hand would work as well (but takes a lot longer).
4. we used fresh cranberries and a differently sized glass dish and it worked out great.
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