Cranberry Crunch
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These cranberry crunch bars include sweet and tart cranberries with a buttery streusel-like crumble topping and base that make them the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving table this year.
Some recipes just get you talking about the old days, which is why we love them so much. Cranberry crunch is one of those recipes that gets my mother talking about her childhood. The school lunch ladies often made this around the holidays and she loved it so much that one of them gave her the recipe for it, which has led us to enjoy it for the past couple of generations. Nothing like an heirloom recipe to bring memories back to life, especially around the holidays.
You only need 5 ingredients to make this old-fashioned cranberry crunch recipe: cranberry sauce, flour, oats, butter, and brown sugar. All we’re going to do is combine our dry ingredients (flour, oats, and sugar) in a mixing bowl and then cut in the butter to make it deliciously crumbly. Then we press half of this into the bottom of our baking dish before adding all the cranberry sauce and then the remaining crumble topping.
Then you have to patiently wait for it to bake before grabbing a bowl and serving your cranberry crunch bar with a big dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I’ve also been known to enjoy one for breakfast, too. If you’re a fan of the humble crumble, you will love cranberry crunch. The combination of tart yet sweet cranberries with the buttery streusel-like crumble topping will be the perfect addition to your holiday table this year.
Recipe Ingredients
- Whole berry cranberry sauce
- Old-fashioned oats
- Flour
- Dark or light brown sugar
- Butter
How To Make Cranberry Crunch
Place your flour, oats, and brown sugar in a large bowl.
Stir them up.
Add your butter and cut that in with a long-tined fork or pastry cutter.
It will look like this.
Now spray a pie plate or 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray.
You can see some of these pretty dishes by fellow food blogger, Ree Drummond here.
Press half of your crumble mixture into the bottom of the pie plate to form the crust for the cranberry crunch.
Top that with the entire can of cranberry sauce.
Then take that same spoon and spread it around a bit.
Sprinkle the remaining topping over the cranberry sauce.
Bake cranberry crunch at 350, uncovered, for 45 minutes to one hour, or until bubbly and golden brown.
Cranberry crunch is excellent served with whipped cream or ice cream but you can also serve it as a side dish. Enjoy!
Storage
- Store leftover cranberry crunch in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days. You can serve it at room temperature, cold, or reheated either in the oven or the microwave. This is a great recipe to make ahead of time this Thanksgiving.
- You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes
- I use old-fashioned rolled oats but quick oats will work just as well if that is what you have on hand.
- As for brown sugar, I’m using dark because it is my very favorite, but if you have light or prefer light, knock yourself out!
- I don’t recommend using frozen or fresh cranberries for this particular cranberry crunch recipe, as the cranberry sauce has added sweetness, which is exactly what we want.
- If you like, you can add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or chopped pecans to the crumble mix for added flavor and texture.
- Another option is to make cranberry apple crunch. Spread a cup or so of chopped apples over the cranberry sauce before adding the topping.
- Another way to add flavor is to add some spices to the topping. I’d recommend 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
Check out these other tasty cranberry treats:
Pumpkin Cranberry Bread With Caramel Glaze
Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie Recipe
Upside Down Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 16-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
Instructions
- Mix the oats, flour, and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Cut in the butter using a long-tined fork or pastry cutter.1 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup light or dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- Press 1/2 of the crumble mixture into the bottom of a greased 8x8 baking dish.
- Spread cranberry sauce over the crust before topping it with the remaining crumbs.1 16-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until lightly brown. Excellent served with whipped cream or ice cream.
Nutrition
Don’t set yourself so firmly on remembering Thanksgiving’s past that you forget to put your heart into this one.
My dad died on Thanksgiving morning in 1979. I was 15. Understandably, Thanksgiving was a difficult holiday for a while after that. I used to be the one who volunteered to work Thanksgiving so I wouldn’t have to be with reminders of that time. Gradually I came to understand the reality of Thanksgiving IS the memories and the traditions. When you wrote this part: “Some parts of the holidays will always be bittersweet when you have loved and been loved, but living in the past should always come full circle as a reminder to live in the moment.”it really hit home. Sometime in my early 20s I realized this to be true, and I embrace the bittersweetness and have learned to regard Thanksgiving as my time to really remember and say thanks for having such a great Dad in the first place. Thank you.
Thank you Beth.
Sending you love
~Christy
Christy,
Thank you for sharing your story. My Papa passed away in January and this will be our first Holiday Season without him. I read this last night while and I had to take the time to compose myself before I could comment. I don’t comment often, but I just really felt like I needed to for this one.
You put your feelings out there for all of us and I deeply appreciate that. And too, I don’t think anyone would be able to explain almost exactly how I am feeling as we approach the holidays, but you were able to. And for that I am ever grateful.
I miss my Papa like you miss your Granddaddy. Yes…someone is missing from our tables this year, but they are in our hearts on Thanksgiving Day and every day.
I would also like to add that I have been trying to figure out a cranberry recipe to have this year, and I think this one is the one! Can’t wait to try it out!
Thank you again.
Hey Natalie,
Your comment made me feel so understood, like I was sitting across cups of coffee with an old friend. Thank you for reaching out and being a friend to me today 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy
As always, your post was so touching and awakened so many memories, bitter and sweet. I just love your positive, caring attitude.
And about that crunch recipe – I remember that from school! In fact, I remember a LOT of good school food. Way back then we had “lunch ladies” who could really cook. I am still trying to replicate their creamed corn.
The very first time I got out and marched in a protest (hey, I started school in 1956 and finished college in 1972) was because the school board had decided to take our lunch ladies away. The whole school marched out and carried signs up and down in front of the school. And the lunch ladies got to stay!
Oh I remember those lunch ladies too, weren’t they the best? And they all loved us so much also, I think that is part of why their food tasted so good 🙂 The made it just for us 🙂
Thank you for your comment Linda, it made my day 🙂
Have you tried this creamed corn? I’m thinking it might be it since they would have likely had to use canned or frozen corn to make it https://www.southernplate.com/2011/08/easiest-ever-creamed-corn-oh-my-word-good.html
Thanks for posting this, Christy (although it brought tears to my eyes)! Last year, I woke up on Thanksgiving morning and cried, because we were pretty sure it would be the last Thanksgiving we would share with my dear father-in-law, a man who has treated me as his own daughter. Well, God, in His abundant grace and mercy, has allowed him to be here this year, too, in spite of what all the doctors said. It might well be that this year is his last year with us, but I am so grateful for the time we’ve had (and are still having!) with him.
You know, back in the late eighties the Doctors told us to have our Christmas in November, because my Grandaddy would not be with us come December.
So we did, and it was a hard year because my great grandmother had passed away weeks before. After we opened out gifts, Mama handed out cards to us. Lela (great grandmother) had signed “Love Lela” in each of them and put a $20 bill in. She’d had a feeling she was going to pass and wanted us to have our Christmas from her..
Opening those cards and being with Grandaddy, after having been told it was the last time, made for quite the lump in our hearts.
Grandaddy lived ten more years after that 🙂
Just goes to show…
I will certainly try this recipe. Maybe it will start a new tradition. I started a tradition of cheesy garlic bread at a family function a long time ago. Now I bring it every time the family gathers for anything. I’ve given them all the “recipe” (not really a recipe just an idea of what to put into the mix), but I’m the only one they want to make it.
After reading your message, I realize I cherish every time our family gets together. There are lots of missing members, but there are just as many new faces as well. I will enjoy all the memories, new and old. Thanks for your stories and recipes. I enjoy them so much, as well as the many comments which are just as heartfelt.
Have a very “Happy Thanksgiving”!!!
I am enjoying the comments so much, too, Pati! It’s the family that makes Southern Plate, that’s for sure! Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Gratefully,
Christy
funny how this brought back memories for me too. But one thing that stands out about my childrens memories is a summer I was trying to create fond memories for them. One day after spending 4th of July with a millio’n people on the riverfront in 1000 degree weather and going on the Macdonald boat and going to the zoo. I was a horrible hot! memory for me. Crying hot kids, yuck. Too much for one day. That September, the kids were asked to write about their summer vacation and they wrote about that horrible hot day. It was amazing. They wrote of things that I didn’t even see that miserable day. Learning lesson for Mom, they create their own memories. I can only give them the chance to do that!
Stephanie
Oh wow, what a Mama moment! I’ve had that happen and am always so grateful to have my eyes opened to the fact that we’re making wonderful memories whether we realize it or not! lol
Gratefully,
Christy
The cranberry crunch sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it.
I hope you enjoy it Glenda!