Foodie Friday Cranberry Apple Crisp

This sweet and sour Foodie Friday dessert packs a ton of vitamins from the cranberries and apples. That balances out the sugar, right?

Cranberry-Apple Cobbler (prep time about 1 hour. Serves 12 or more)

4 C. whole cranberries

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced into bite-size pieces

1 C. water

Zest of a half of an orange

1 C orange juice

1 C. granulated sugar

¼ C. honey

1 tsp. salt

2/3 C. brown sugar

6 Tb. butter

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

8 packets Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, crushed (about 1 to 1 ½ cups)

In a large sauce pan, bring water, sugar and honey to a boil, stirring until sugar and honey are dissolved.  Add salt, orange juice and rinsed and drained cranberries.  Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes until the berries all burst and the sauce thickens.  You should be able to briefly see the bottom of the pot when you draw the spoon across the width of the pan.  Remove from heat and toss in the diced apples.  Allow the apples to partially soften in the hot cranberry sauce as it cools.

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray and place on top of a cookie pan (put a layer of aluminum foil on the cookie sheet for easy clean up and choose the kind of cookie sheet with sides, otherwise known as a jelly-roll pan) .  Pour the cranberry-apple mix into the pan.  In a large bowl, crumble together the crushed shortbread, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle the crumble on top of the cranberries and bake for about 30 minutes until bubbling and the crumb topping is brown.  Serve warm over ice cream or with whipped cream.

This is another dish you can make in steps ahead.  You can cook down the cranberries and pep. the apples while the cranberries cook.  Make the topping and set aside. Then just put everything together and bake when ready.  It also reheats well with a :30 spin per serving in the microwave.