Cranberries are one of those fruits I kind of love and kind of hate. The flavor is so distinctive and tart, you cannot really feel neutral about them. I seem to to often have a half a bag of cranberries in my freezer, since any recipe I can think of never uses the whole bag. They sit in the back until I finally give them a second thought. They make great muffins, sauces, cocktails, and compotes. most people shy away from using them for a main ingredient though. Kinn finds this to be tragic, so I humored him by making cranberry crumble. I topped it with chopped clementines, which added even more crazy tartness. It is not a desert for the meek.
Cranberry Clementine Crumble
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3oz butter (6 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2 fresh clementines
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Mix your flour with half (1/4 cup) of your sugar. Slice up your firm butter and cut it into your flour mixture like you are making a pie crust. Continue cutting it together until it makes a very crumbly dough. Take half of your dough and press it to the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch Pyrex or baking pan. Mix the remain sugar with your cranberries. Pour the cranberries over the pressed dough. Sprinkle the rest of the dough crumble over the cranberries. Peel two clementines and chop them into small pieces. Sprinkle the clementine over the cranberries and dough. Place the tray in your oven and bake for 35 minutes.
You want to avoid overcooking this or you will have a mess of sugary glue that is not fun cleaning up.
This a fun desert to make with leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving. I have been known to pull cranberries from Thanksgiving out of the freezer and use them for Easter. People underestimate how great they are with ham!
See also : Tart & Tasty Homemade Cranberry Sauce
