Apple Cranberry Crisp with White Wine and Olive Oil

I am not a baker.

Besides the occasional throw-everything-into-a-dish-fruit crisp, I don’t bake. The measuring, the weighing, the waiting. It all stresses me out. I’ve talked about my lack of love for baking before, and from the looks of my recipe archive I’m sure you can tell it isn’t my favorite. This apple cranberry crisp is a little more complex than throwing everything into the oven and crossing your fingers it turns out. But every step of it is worth it.

Creating this apple cranberry crisp recipe

This gluten-free apple crisp is an adaptation from Sarah Kiefer’s The Vanilla Bean Baking Book: Recipes for Irresistible Everyday Favorites and Reinvented Classics. I’ve admired Sarah’s work for many years. The Vanilla Bean Blog is one of the first blogs I started following. Her unapologetically polished style, and classic approach to new and old recipes is undoubtedly recognizable. Her writing is transcendent. Her images are angelic. Her style, all her own.

The original recipe in her book is made with cherries and rhubarb, and topped with a whole wheat streusel. It’s laced with notes of white wine and it’s full of sugar and butter and all the goods things. I tried to keep this version as true to Sarah’s recipe as I could, while still making it vegan and gluten-free for all of you. It’s full of apples and cranberries, and coconut sugar and olive oil. And topped with a crumbly almond flour crisp. If you love butter and can eat regular wheat flour, Sarah has a version of this apple cranberry crisp on her blog. You can get that recipe here.

How to make apple cranberry crisp

This apple cranberry crisp recipe has a few more steps than your average apple crisp, but the prep work takes under 20 minutes to complete. You’ll first need to cook down the cranberries a little with the white wine, sugar and salt. You’ll let the mixture boil for just two minutes, then remove the pan from the heat to cool.

While the cranberry mixture is cooling, slice the Gala apples thinly. Cut them as thinly as possible with a sharp knife to ensure that the apples go nice and gooey in the oven. After you cut the apples, it’s just a matter of making the crisp topping and assembling the rest of this gluten-free apple crisp.

The beauty of making crisps is that you don’t have to worry about making the topping look pretty. Once everything becomes golden brown and bubbly in the oven, it’ll look great. If your crisp topping is dry, add in some of the cranberry and wine mixture to add moisture back into it. (You won’t need much, just a tablespoon or so).

Serve this apple cranberry crisp with a scoop of dairy-free ice cream or enjoy as is. It’s not too sweet, making it the perfect holiday dessert.

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Apple Cranberry Crisp with White Wine and Olive Oil

Sarah's recipe uses regular cane sugar, if you don't have coconut sugar on hand, cane sugar is a great 1:1 substitute in this recipe. Sarah's recipe also uses sweet white wine, but I only have Chardonnay on hand and I like the not to sweet turnout. Any sweet or dry white wine would work here.

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 8 portions

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup organic cornstarch
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar divided, plus 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup white wine {see notes}
• 1/4 teaspoon salt plus 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces fresh cranberries
• 1 tablespoon olive oil plus 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds Gala apples peeled + thinly sliced
• 1 cup fine almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, ¼ cup sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, and set aside.
• In a large saucepan, combine the white wine, ½ cup sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Then add the cranberries to the saucepan, bring to another boil and allow them to cook at a boil for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and add in the olive oil. Set mixture aside, allowing it to cool till slightly warm.
• While the mixture is cooling, peel and slice the apples and set aside.
• Next prepare the crisp topping. In a bowl mix together the remaining ¼ cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup olive oil, almond flour and baking soda. Then add 1 tablespoon of wine mixture from the pan with the cranberries {this adds some moisture to the crisp batter}.
• Stir in the vanilla and lemon juice into the cranberry mixture, then stir in the cornstarch mixture until completely combined. Pour the apples into the cranberry mixture and toss lightly. Pour the mixture in a 8 x 11 baking pan and crumble the crisp topping on top. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove the foil and bake for 25 more minutes or until the fruit is soft and bubbly and the topping is golden brown.

Thanks to the folks at Avery Publishing for gifting me an advance copy of The Vanilla Bean Baking Book!

More holiday dessert recipes you’ll love:

• Aquafaba Chocolate Mousse with Hibiscus Soaked Blood Oranges
• Dark Chocolate Ginger Bark with Sea Salt
• Peppered Balsamic Strawberry Pots
• Raw Chocolate Tart with Cashew Coffee Crust
• Pomegranate Brownies with Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt