Got a bunch of leftover cranberry sauce, some pepper jam, or both? Got some apples and oats? You can whip this up in no time and keep impressing post-Thanksgiving. Easy peasy.

Spicy Gluten Free Leftover Cranberry Sauce Apple Crumble

Spicy Gluten Free Leftover Cranberry Sauce Apple Crumble

When it’s made with part hot pepper jam instead of all cran sauce, this dessert is zingy and tangy with a kick of heat and cider vinegar; sandwiched between two different buttery, crunchy comforts. Delicious.

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Recipe by Brookey
5 from 1 vote
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

8-10

servings
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

  • Shortbread Crust

  • 3/4 cup gluten free flour of choice (any is fine here)

  • 3/4 stick cold, cut up unsalted butter (or salted but then omit extra salt below)

  • 4 tablespoons powdered sugar

  • pinch salt

  • 2-4 tablespoons ice water or apple brandy (you can get creative here with the liquids, we had a bunch of leftover apple brandy laying around after some Thanksgiving recipes)

  • Filling

  • 2 cored, diced apples (unpeeled is fine; I used honeycrisp apples in this one but any will do)

  • 1.5 – 2 cups whole berry cranberry sauce, or a combo of 1 cup cranberry sauce and .5 – 1 cup cranberry hot pepper jam (you can even use 1.5 cups whole berry cran sauce and .5 non cranberry jelly, like, seriously go crazy here)

  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, or to taste

  • Crumble Toppin’

  • 3/4 cup uncooked rolled or “quick-cook” oats

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar

  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cut up cold or room-temp butter (if salted omit salt below)

  • pinch salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

  • 1/2 – 1/3 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour an 8×8 inch baking dish – even a round cake pan or a couple small loaf pans will do the trick in a pinch, though.
  • Combine all Shortbread Crust ingredients in a medium mixing bowl or food processor and process, mix with your hands, or use a pastry blender until just combined and some crumbs are pea-sized. Add ice liquid 1 tablespoon at a time just until the mixture comes together into a dough that, while still crumbly, holds its shape a little.
  • Pat this dough evenly across the bottom of your baking dish, prick lightly all over with a fork, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or just until it begins to turn golden brown on the edges.
  • While the crust bakes, toss all filling ingredients together, adding or subtracting brown sugar and salt to taste based on your preferences / how sweet your cranberry sauce came out this year. Mine had some orange zest and ginger already cooked in; you can add these here to the same result if you like.
  • Combine all crumble toppin’ ingredients in a bowl and mash / mix until combined. Spoon filling all over the pre-baked crust and crumble topping evenly over filling.
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the top is even more brown than it was before, delicious fragrances fill your kitchen, and hot, thick cranberry juices begin to bubble up around the edges of the crumble topping in the dish.
  • Cool for at least a few minutes before serving hot or room temperature, with or without vanilla ice cream.

Notes

  • I had some dumb vanilla ice cream I literally messed up the flavor profile on I ate this with; the zingy cranberry-forward filling took over the weirdness of my ice cream. Nice. Convenient. Basically, don’t serve this with your nicest home made ice cream. Save that for apple or pecan pie.