California-Style Apple Crisp

How many of us spend the month of November looking forward to that decadent piece of pie, or two, we get to have on Thanksgiving? I know I do! I get so excited about Thanksgiving dessert that I forget that there are so many other wonderful dessert opportunities leading up to Thanksgiving. This California-Style Apple Crisp is one of them.

My mother’s parents are German, and they typically come to spend the holidays with us. This is exciting to me for many reasons, but one of the sweetest reasons is that my Omi (that’s German for grandma) makes the absolute best apple crisp in the entire world. It’s a simple recipe that’s been passed down to her from her family, and now I’ve tweaked it here and there to make it my own. One main difference is that I add a handful of cranberries to the dish to brighten things up a bit! And it makes it even more festive-looking with the bursts of cranberry red dotted throughout the dessert.

I’ve started serving this for dessert the night before Thanksgiving when the whole family is in town. I almost always have a little bit left over, so I can heat it up the morning of Thanksgiving for breakfast too! It’s a holiday after all, so we are totally allowed to have dessert for breakfast, right?

California-Style Apple Crisp

Ingredients

For the apples:

• 6 tart apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 cup frozen cranberries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Spice Islands Ground Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Spice Islands Pure Vanilla Extract

For the crumble topping:

• ¾ cups unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup flour