Cranberry Crumble with Raisins and Figs

This is a great time of year to take advantage of the local cranberry crop and offer a different yet seasonal dessert. The tart cranberries and the sweet, dried fruit are a bit of a surprise - and a nice change of pace during pumpkin pie season.

I started making a recipe similar to this for a friend with a gluten allergy. Since then, I switched to organic fruits and local honey. 
This recipe has a lot of room for substitutions. I listed some of them at the end of the recipe. I hope you share yours, too!




Total Time: 2.5 hours
Yield: 8-10 servings
Level: Average



Making the Filling:
Ingredients
1 cup organic raisins
1 cup organic dried figs, chopped roughly the same size as the raisins
4 cups whole fresh cranberries, cleaned
2 tablespoons rice flour
3/4 cup organic honey
1/3 cup orange liqueur or cream sherry *
Zest of one large orange (approx 1 1/2 tbsp)

Directions

In a large bowl, soak the raisins and figs in the orange liqueur for 30 minutes. While those steep, clean the cranberries. They often have small stems, remove them, rinse and pat dry. Add cranberries, rice flour, honey and orange zest to the raisin and fig mixture. Set aside while you make the crust.

Making the Crust

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup oats (g-free from Bob’s Red Mill)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar and flour.

Cut in the butter until it's the consistency of coarse crumbs.

Reserve approximately 2/3 cup crumb mixture for topping.

Pat remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of an un-greased 11"x 7"x 2 inch baking pan.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly.

Assemble the Crumble

Spoon the filling evenly over the baked crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes or until the juices bubble and the top is browned.

*Substitutions: Non-alcoholic version, use orange juice in place of liqueur.
The raisins and figs are interchangeable, if you leave one out, double the amount of the other.
You can use wheat flour, instead of rice flour, in the same measure.
If you replace honey with sugar, the substitutions are 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup liqueur