apple cranberry crisp

This apple cranberry crisp is not Pie's poorer cousin. It is not the Lazy Man's Pie. It is simply damn good.Is it too late for cranberries? Apples? Cinnamon?Never. Not in this kitchen.

This fruity beast is delicious in all the right ways.It's great right out of the oven. Or warmish. Or cold.The crisp can be served up as breakfast and, yet, it works just as well in the late-night snack slot -- the one I usually reserve for lots of peanut butter cup ice cream.I doubled the pecan-oat crumb layer and ate much of our batch straight from the pan. However, it also pairs well with French vanilla ice cream.

Apple Cranberry Crispadapted from Allrecipes.com

2 pounds Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

3/4 cup cranberries

1/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2/3 cup quick-cooking oats

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup chopped pecans

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8" baking dish. In a large bowl, combine apples, cranberries, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place in baking dish.In the same bowl, combine oats, flour and brown sugar. Cut in the butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Stir in pecans and sprinkle evenly over apple mixture.Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender.Note: I sliced my apples fairly thin (as called for in the original recipe) and baked the dish for 40 minutes. The apples were just a little on the soft side (I like mine with more "bite"). I suggest cutting them into average-sized slices, rather than thin strips, to ensure the apples have a nice texture.