Apple Cranberry Oat Crumble
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
This rustic apple cranberry crumble boasts a buttery, crunchy crumb topping.
This old-fashioned apple cranberry crumble with a crunchy oat streusel topping comes from Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson, a small and unassuming little cookbook full of yummy treasures. If you’re at all intimidated by baking, or just think of it as one of those things that other people do, this recipe is for you. There’s no fussy pie dough—just fruit tossed with sugar and cinnamon and a simple crumb topping of oats, flour, brown sugar and butter. Serve the crumble warm out of the oven topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Leftovers are delicious plain, especially for breakfast.
You May Also Like
Apple Cranberry Oat Crumble
This rustic apple cranberry crumble boasts a buttery, crunchy crumb topping.
Ingredients
For the Dish
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
For the Topping
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1⅓ cups packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
For the Fruit Filling
- 8 large baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced ¼-inch thick
- 2 cups (8 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1⅓ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 3-quart, or 9 x 13-inch, baking dish.
- To make the topping, mix the oats, flour, brown sugar and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter, then press the topping together with your hands to form small clumps. Put the topping in the freezer while you assemble the filling.
- To make the fruit filling, toss the apples, cranberries, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Transfer the filling to the prepared pan and spread it out, pressing the fruit down into the corners.
- Press the oat crumble evenly over the fruit, then bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the crumble is lightly golden and the filling is bubbling up in the corners. Cool for about 20 minutes to temper the heat before serving, then top with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.
- Note: This crumble is best served the day it is made, but any leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Reheat in a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, until warm.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: After baking, the crumble can be frozen tightly covered for up to 3 months. When you're ready to serve it, defrost it in the refrigerator for 24 hours then reheat it, uncovered, in a 300°F oven until heated through and crisp on top.
Nutrition Information
Powered by 
- Per serving (12 servings)
- Calories: 441
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 80 g
- Sugar: 51 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Sodium: 106 mg
- Cholesterol: 33 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
This recipe is a required birthday treat for my mom. The whole family loves it. What a tasty treat of apples, cranberries and oatmeal. Any leftovers are eaten for breakfast the next day.
Thank you for this great recipe. In our family we’ve reduced sugar to a minimum in recipes. Once you reduce the added sugar, the natural flavours and sugars are highlighted. My modifications were to reduce the sugar in the topping by about 1/2 and the sugar in the filling by about 2/3. For the apple/cranberry filling, I didn’t have corn starch on hand so I used the same amount of xanthan gum stirred into some melted butter, then mixed that into the apples and spices. The topping still bound together well even with the reduced sugar, probably since I didn’t change the amount of butter. I mixed in a few tablespoons of almond flour with whole wheat flour and oats for a slightly nutty flavour to the topping. I used Pazazz apples, a new hybrid of Honeycrisp. They are sweet and stay crispy for months after a fall harvest. I enjoyed the tartness of the cranberries!
I made this recipe, and it was a hit! I only used 6 apples though because 8 was way too many. I have a quick question though, can I half this recipe, but keep the same cooking time?
Hi Samara, If you want to halve the recipe, I’d use a smaller baking dish — either an 8 or 9-inch square dish. Baking time should be about the same.
Unrated because I made too many tweaks. This is a delicious combination of fruits and the flavor is awesome. However, for us there is too much sugar in the fruit, I use only 1/2 cup sugar, which allows us to enjoy the tang of the cranberries and is still sweet enough. Due to complaints from my family, I also halved the amount of topping, the second time I made this. These changes were deemed successful by the family.
Thanks Jenn for a flexible recipe that has become a favorite in our house.
Amazing, was the hit of my dinner party!! Had two couples over for post holiday dinner. Wanted a more casual yummy, warming comfort food for dessert. Everyone, especially the guys, LOVED it! Quote from my husband “Fantastic, Best one you ever made”.
The cranberries add a nice tartness and red festive color. I have made a ton of different crisp recipes over the years and this was by far the best. Although I may add some pecans to the crisp next time. Also I have always made crisp with pieces of cold butter and struggled to get the crisp just right. I found the melting of the butter made the crisp a bit easier to handle. I also baked it in a smaller dish by mistake but it was still awesome, but had extra crumble.
Don’t hesitate to make this for your family and friends, they will love it. Don’t forget the Ice Cream it completes the dish. We love the rich Tillamook brand. BTW I made Jenn’s Baked Ziti too and that was also adored by the group.
Thanks for all the great recipes! If I make this the day before serving, would you recommend putting it back in the oven to warm up before serving or would that dry it out too much?
I think it’s fine to reheat it a bit – it will also add some crispiness back to the topping. Enjoy!
Best dessert for thr holidays! So easy and festive!
I stumbled across this site while planning to make yummy meals for my grandkids. I’d been trying quite a few other sites with mixed results and when I found this one, I really bonded with it. Everything was turning out, except for possibly one I don’t recall UNTIL I TRIED THIS ONE. What happened? All these five star reviews and mind was a disaster. SO SWEET. I followed the crumble topping and I’ve made a fair number but there was SO much in my 13×9 pan and I pressed it but it never set, just sat on top after baking, dry and disconnected from the filling. I really did follow everything to the letter, except I used four pears and four apples because I was out of apples. I’m incredibly sad, not because I wasted time and effort but because I loved the feeling that I could turn to one big your new recipes and be guaranteed a great success. I just needed and wanted that reliability factor in my life.
So sorry this didn’t turn out well for you, Nyny. You mentioned it was dry – did you by chance use dried cranberries instead of fresh?
Well, you are an angel to reply.
The cranberries were whole, unsweetened ones, thawed from the freezer. I used the lightest brown sugar of the three I have. Maybe I mismeasured (but I’m a stickler for measuring and use mise en place for double checking).
I feel like jumping right back in because of your reply. If you had to recommend your favorite little cake recipe, the go-to that you’d whip up for family that is easy, which would it be? I’m going to make it happen today and get over my disappointment in the crumble! Thank you. I love your warm personality that comes through.
Hmmm… not sure why it would’ve come out dry for you then — I’m sorry it was a bit of a miss!
If I had to pick my favorite cake from a whip-it-up-quick perspective, I’d say my French Apple Cake. Hope you enjoy if you make it!
I’ve nade this many times and once unknowingly used a sweeter apple type and it was too sweet. Now I always make sure to use tart baking apples and it’s perfect every time.
This looks like a great recipe for Thanksgiving. What type of apples would you recommend for this recipe? Thanks
Hi Rich, I like any of the following: Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Fuji, Granny Smith, or Golden Delicious. And I’d suggest using a mix of them for the best flavor. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving
Everybody loved it! I decreased the sugar a little bit and it was sweet enough.