Tate's Bake Shop (Apple Cranberry Crisp)

Recently, I won a give away from The Cilantropist (check her out - beautiful pictures and awesomely yummy food).  It may have been the first time in my life that I've ever won anything, besides a Lisa Frank pencil and paper set in a raffle in fourth grade.  That's a pretty long run, over 17 years.  Hm.  There must have been a $1 scratch off lottery ticket in between there somewhere. Hmmmm...

Anyway, this giveaway was better than a Lisa Frank pencil and paper set AND a scratch off lottery ticket combined.  This giveaway was from Tate's Bake Shop.  A few months ago, I noticed them popping up all over the Internet.  Tate's Bake Shop is a little bakery in the Hamptons that became famous at the beginning for their chocolate chip cookies.  Now they make all kinds of baked goodness, and can ship these treats anywhere.  The gift set included three kinds of cookies - chocolate chip, macadamia white chocolate chip,oatmeal raisin - and a cookbook.  I wish I had some pictures of the cookies, but I don't.

Because they're gone.   They got that way in about 0.3 seconds (the length of time of a normal cycle - blip beep-  on an EKG monitor, by the way.  See, I learned something in critical care nursing this week.)

These cookies aren't your usual bakery cookies.  They're flat and crispy and delightfully simple tasting.  They're not fancy, wannabe cookies that try too hard and end up withdrawn and socially awkward.  These cookies are cookies like your gramma might make.  I'm going to try out some of the cookie recipes eventually, but we had a little dinner party coming up, and as I was eagerly thumbing through the cookbook I found a recipe I knew that I just had to try - Apple Cranberry Crisp.  

For Christmas, I asked for an received the KA ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer.  I wanted to try some ice cream as a topping for something warm and wintry.  I'll share my adventures in ice cream churning in a later post.  For now, let's concentrate on the main event.

Warm.  Apple-y.  Cranberry-esque.  Cinnamon-ness.  Slightly gooey.  Topped with melty ice cream.

Plus, look at all the good nutrition in apples and cranberries.  This is practically like a fruit cup, except much.....much....much better.

Thank you, Tate's Bake Shop!!

Apple Cranberry Crisp

(from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King)

Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/4 sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

7 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Fruit Base

4 cups apples, peeled and sliced thin (I used Granny Smith)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1-1/2 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest (I omitted this)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups fresh cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a medium (8") baking dish.  Mix the flour, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a small bowl.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture becomes coarse crumbles.  Gently mix in the walnuts.

In another bowl, mix the apple slices and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon.  In a medium saucepan, stir together the OJ, sugar, nutmeg and remaining teaspoon of cinnamon.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Add the cranberries and cook them until they begin to swell and pop, about 5-8 minutes.  Strain the cranberries from the liquid and mix them with the apples and cinnamon.  Continue to boil the liquid until it's reduced to about 1 cup and is the consistency of syrup.  Pour 3/4 cup of this over the apples and cranberries, reserving the remainder for drizzling over the dish right before eating.  Pour half the apple mixture into the baking dish, then cover with half the walnut topping mixture.  Cover that with the remaining apple mixture and top with the remaining topping.  Bake for 45 minutes until bubbly and brown.

Enjoy being a winner.  :o)