In an attempt to make November a little less frazzled for us, our fearless leaders at TWD ^[1] are allowing us to present our weekly recipes out of order. This works for me as this week’s recipe is Dorie’s ^[2] Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake. Not only is this cake rather labor-intensive to make, but it calls for chestnuts, which I detest. I suppose I could have used a different kind of nut, but frankly, I just didn’t have the energy this week. My shoulder is still frozen from making all those macarons ^[3] and fillings for the DB challenge last week, and I couldn’t bear the thought of any more mixing and stirring, for a while at least! Instead, I decided to make Dorie’s more shoulder-friendly Cran-Apple Crisps.

These crisps were a snap to put together and are absolutely delicious! The recipe is also quite forgiving. I made them last night at around 10:00 pm, which because of the time change here, was 11:00 on my body clock. In my fatigue-induced stupor, I made several errors. First of all, instead of adding cinnamon to the crisp topping, I accidentally added ground cardamom. To my foggy eyes, both spice jars looked the same. I also forgot to butter the ramekins before filling them. Then, I baked them at 350 degrees F. instead of 375, as the recipe directed. After about thirty minutes, I realized what I had done and turned up the heat in my oven. I was certain that I was going to end up with a sticky, burnt mess, but I didn’t. Despite all my goofs, the crisps turned out just fine. The topping was crunchy and golden and the filling was the perfect balance of sweet-tart fruitiness with a thick, syrupy texture.

For my crisps, I used Honeycrisp and Fuji apples, fresh cranberries and plump, sweet, dried Bing cherries. I had never baked with fresh cranberries before and I was a bit skeptical. I needn’t have worried. While the cranberries were quite tart, the tartness was nicely offset by the sweetness of the apples and cherries. For not a whole lot of work, the payoff was great. This really is a lovely dessert that would certainly be worthy of a place at any holiday table!

My thanks go out to Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef ^[4] for choosing this recipe. She will eventually have the recipe posted on her site. But, if you can’t wait to try these Cran-Apple Crisps, you can also find the recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours ^[5] on page 422.