Cranberry, Apple, and Pear Crumble

I asked Mom what dessert we were going to make for Thanksgiving this year. Thanksgiving dinner is a big deal at our house – my mom (expert cook), sister (expert baker), and I (expert, uh experimenter and mess maker) always go all out.

So when Mom nonchalantly replied, “Oh we’re not going to make dessert this year because someone gave us a store bought pecan pie,” I was utterly blown away by the thought of such heresy.

I might have been slightly hyper, having finished my last day of preclinical classes in med school (yup, no more classes EVER) and driving all the way home in one go with insufficient sleep (thus having had a lot of caffeine)

Chef Uy: We’re not making dessert? Both Shobe and I are back home and you dare suggest we not make our own dessert??? What madness!!! What kind of Uy Thanksgiving is that??? Dessert is our middle name!!!

Of course, my sister and I fixed that no dessert problem real quick (store bought pies don’t count!)

I basically took whatever we had and invented something. I’ve always wanted to try eating cranberries with something and adapted from this from Simply Recipes minus pie crust since I didn’t want to bother with making a crust. We ran out of apples so I tossed in Asian pears as well. I really love the tartness the cranberry brings (and bonus, it prevents UTIs too). The trick to a golden crust and non soggy filling is baking it long enough.

Since it was dark, taking the photo was a nightmare but I managed to collect the last remaining light for this pic. The actual dinner was too dark (and my hungry, hungry family was telling me to hurry up so we could eat already), so those recipes will wait for another year!

Ingredients
FILLING
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 orange zest
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
18 teaspoon salt
4 apples, sliced and peeled
2 pears, sliced and peeled

TOPPING
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
3-4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/4 cup, old fashioned oats (not instant)
1/4 cup granola
1/3 cup, walnut pieces

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl mix sugar with flour, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add cranberries, apples, and pears, and mix well. Let sit for 10 min to let juices out; drain the liquid to avoid a soggy crumble. Place filling into baking dish.

In another bowl mix brown sugar, flour, oats, granola, and walnuts. Add the butter and cut in with a pastry blender or rub with your fingers until the mixture forms small lumps. Sprinkle topping over the filling.

Set baking dish over a cookie try to catch the drippings and bake until juices bubble, 35-45 minutes. If pie browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil.