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 to 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.
Cranberry Crunch ingredients are pretty simple. You’ll need:
- Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
- Old Fashioned Oats*
- Flour
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
*I use old fashioned but quick will work just as well if that is what you have on hand. You can also use margarine instead of butter and don’t waste a single moment fretting over it! 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!
How To Make Cranberry Crunch
- Place your flour, oats, and brown sugar in a bowl
- Stir them up.
- Add in your butter and cut that in with a long tined fork.
It will look like this picture above 🙂
Now spray a pie plate or 8×8 dish with cooking spray.
You can see some of these pretty dishes by fellow food blogger, Ree Drummond, here.
- And press half of your mixture into the bottom of the pie plate to form the crust for Cranberry Crunch.
- Top that with the entire can of cranberry sauce. I just glob it by spoonfuls on top of my little crust…
- Then take that same spoon and spread it around a bit.
- Sprinkle remaining topping over cranberry sauce.
- Bake Cranberry Crunch at 350, uncovered, for 45 minutes to one hour, or until bubbly and browned.
Cranberry Crunch is excellent served with whipped cream or ice cream but you can also serve it as a side dish as well. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 Cup oats I use old fashioned but quick will work
- 1/2 Cup all purpose flour
- 1- 16 ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
- 1 Cup brown sugar I use dark but light is fine
- 1/2 Cup butter or margarine
Instructions
- Mix the oats, flour, and brown sugar together. Cut in butter.
- Pack 1/2 in bottom of greased pie plate or 8x8 dish.
- Spread sauce over crust. Top with remaining crumbs.
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until lightly browned. Excellent served with whipped cream or ice cream.
Nutrition
You may also like these recipes with Cranberry as well:
Cranberry Orange Meatballs Appetizer Anytime
Upside Down Cranberry Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
Don’t set yourself so firmly on remembering Thanksgivings past that you forget to put your heart into this one.
I made this last night for my family, and it was delicious. However, the crust really stuck to the glass pie plate. I had to chisel the cranberry crunch out of the pan! What did I do wrong?
I remember a delicious lunchroom treat from 50 plus years ago and I hope you or your readers can help me enjoy it again. It was a peanut butter bar. It was the exact consistency of a dense warm brownie–not cakey. There was no chocolate in it; just a dense peanut butter bar. Anyone else remember it? Thanks!!
Christy, You a gave us this recipe at the right time! I am gonna make it for Thanksgiving, with another favorite of mine. “whole berry cranberry sauce of course”. Hope you try it out one day. It was a hand me down from a friend years ago:
Cranberry Salad:
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple – drained
1 8oz. carton cool whip – thawed
1 cup chopped nuts pecans or walnuts
Coconut (Optional) *I love coconut!
Beat the sugar and mayonnaise with softened cream cheese
And blend in the cranberry sauce. Then mix in the drained pineapple,
And Cool Whip. Stir in the nuts and handful of coconut if using:
I make this for Thanksgiving and for Christmas!
I hope you enjoy the Cranberry Crunch!!!
I didn’t have cranberry sauce, but couldn’t wait to try this, so I used a can of blackberry pie filling and only 1/2 c. brown sugar. It is delicious warm or room temp. I ate half the pan myself – can hardly stay out of it. Want to try it with a variety of pie fillings and of course the cranberries. Thanks for a great recipe!
Oh my goodness, I bet that was good!!
Thank you Christy for the beautiful post! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas too! This sounds yummy!
Thank you so much Debbie, I hope your whole holiday season is merry and bright and full of blessings!!
I wish I had been brave enough to ask one of our lunch room ladies for the recipe for School Boy sandwiches, they were so good and sloppy joes just don’t measure up. Thank you for reminding us to slow down and enjoy our time together before some of us are no longer there.
I wonder if someone in your area still has the recipe. That might be fun to track down!
Sure would have been nice if the recipe had been printed……Seems we old folks love to have a recipe in front of us as we are not tech savvy.,…….
I always like to print my recipes out as well, that’s why I have a printable recipe card at the bottom of each post, including this one. Just look for the “print this” button in the card and it will print out just the recipe in black and white so it doesn’t even use you a lot of printer ink. Have a great Thanksgiving!