TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

November is a special month for Tuesdays With Dorie: we are permitted to post the recipes any Tuesday we want, as some of the desserts are suitable for Thanksgiving. As evident from my inability to post anything for weeks other than baking group desserts, I need as much structure as possible in my baking/blogging right now, so I thought I would stick with the schedule and post the recipes in the order they were selected, just in case I accidentally forgot about one at the end or something. But then I got busy this weekend and there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to fit in an elaborate layer cake by Tuesday, so I decided to swap the Chestnut Cake scheduled for today, with the less time-consuming Cran-Apple Crisp(s) slated for next Tuesday. (And confession: I was initially hoping to do a double-header this week and also make the one recipe I haven’t completed since I joined Tuesdays With Dorie one year ago. Oh well.)



The cranberries I purchased were much more red and robust than the ones I bought to make sorbet a few weeks ago (I couldn’t resist, I was just so happy to see cranberries) and the apples I sampled were crispy with just a hint of tartness, so I have high hopes for the flavor of this dessert, which is still cooling. Oh, Josh just came up with a huge bowl of crisp smothered in ice cream and it’s yummy. I made a half recipe in a 7-inch pie pan – I find this size pan perfect for half recipes and also portion control, since it’s not small-looking at all – and it baked up nicely in forty minutes. The only thing I did not halve was the coconut in the topping: I quartered that so the flavor wouldn’t dominate too much. I’m not sure about coconut and cranberries together. This crisp rated a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.75. Many thanks to Em of the Repressed Pastry Chef for selecting this great dessert. The recipe will be on her site next Tuesday, and stop by the Tuesdays With Dorie site to see what everyone else chose to bake this week.





One of the things that kept me busy over the weekend was attending Northern California Weimaraner Rescue’s annual Weim Gala. Josh and I attended last year as prospective dog owners and it was fun, though not as relaxing, to attend it with our own dog this year. Eloise was even in the Parade of Rescued Weims, which is the closest she’ll ever come to being in a dog show (seriously, I’m beginning to see why the Weimaraner owners in “Best in Show” were so snippy – it’s hard to control your frenzied animal at a big event). Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon in wine country and we managed to refrain from coming back with another dog.