Easy never goes out of fashion, nor do crumble bars, nor does Christmas. That’s why I love to make this dessert with its sweet, tart filling for the Holidays. You can make it well in advance (it even tastes better the next day!), you can safely take it to your sister’s dinner party without being afraid of crushing it, and, most importantly, it tastes like Christmas.
When it comes to food at our Christmas dinner table, my family enjoys a more humble approach.
I admit, it’s nothing fancy (no three-layered, richly decorated cake, I’m sorry), but when it comes to food at our Christmas dinner table, my family enjoys a more humble approach. In a lot of cranberry crumble recipes the tartness of cranberries is compensated by adding a lot of sugar. Since I’m not very fond of desserts that are overly sweet and, in fact, like the tartness of cranberries, I added just enough sugar to make it pleasant to eat. Serve it with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream and everyone at the table will love you.
Just watch my little video below in the recipe block and see for yourself how easy it is.
Easy Peasy Cranberry Crumble Bars
Equipment
- food processor
- square 24 cm/ 9 inch baking pan, greased
- parchment paper
- fine grater (like microplane)
Ingredients
- 100 g / 3.5 oz hazelnuts
- 250 g / 8.8 oz flour
- 225 g / 8 oz granulated sugar
- 175 g / 6.1 oz cold butter diced
- 300 g / 10.5 oz cranberries fresh or frozen
- 1½ tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 small clementines or 1 small orange
- powdered sugar for dusting
Serve with
- vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Put the hazelnuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add the flour, 125 g / 4.5 oz sugar, and a pinch of salt. Pulse briefly until everything is well combined. Add the cold butter, plus 1 tbsp of cold water and pulse briefly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Tranfer the dough to a bowl and press the crumbs with your fingers into larger lumps if you think the crumbs are too fine. Let rest in de fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Line the baking pan with parchment paper with a little overhang (this way you can lift the crumble out easily once cooled).
- In a bowl, mix the cranberries with 100 g / 3.5 oz sugar, the cornstarch, and the cinnamon. Zest and juice the clementines or the orange and add the zest and 50 ml / 1.6 fl oz juice to the cranberries. Toss until well combined.
- Press half of the dough firmly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Spoon the cranberry mixture (with the juices) evenly over the dough. Sprinkle the remaining crumble dough over the cranberries.
- Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let cool completely before cutting it into 12 bars.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream. The bars can be stored in a sealed container for up to 3-4 days.