Multitasking. It’s something you need to make friends with as the holidays approach and the invitations and social events creep up on you. It’s even more handy when you have a holiday meal to cook and only one small oven. Being the great fan of multitasking that I am, I am pleased to combine the second instalment of my Canadian Tire Kitchen Crew Mission 2 with this month’s International Incident Party with a theme of Cobbler.
My Mission was the following:
Thanksgiving. For some, just hearing the word makes them shudder, especially thinking about all the work creating a Thanksgiving feast for your family entails. Your mission this week is to get inspired and take a new view on old Thanksgiving classics. From side dishes to the main event – anything goes!
Now, even though I am rarely cooking for a huge crowd on Canadian Thanksgiving (The first weekend in October), I do get frustrated when we are cooking a turkey and there’s no room in the oven for dessert. Last year, I made Marie-Hélène’s apple cake in our next door neighbour’s oven (since they were coming over for lunch they didn’t mind!) because I had no room in ours. I like something light and fruity for dessert rather than the traditional pumpkin pie (didn’t grow up eating that, still don’t really “get it” so that apple cake was perfect.
This year, for my Canadian Tire Mission, I decided to go the dessert route and see if I could successfully make a dessert in the Black and Decker Convection Rotisserie Toaster Oven. And what better than a Cobbler that I could also bring to the International Incident party? Multitasking and a dessert – it doesn’t get much better than that! Well actually it does because I made an apple-cranberry crumble with lemon custard as well!
For my crumble, I adapted a recipe that I tore out of a Got Milk calendar years and years ago. It’s been my “go-to” recipe for crumble ever since and I changed it up a little, adding cranberries to the apples for a seasonal touch, made a thicker, more lemony custard and added flax meal to the crumble for some extra goodness.
Apple-cranberry crumble with a luscious lemon custard.Apple-cranberry crumble with lemon custard
Ingredients
For the apples:
For the custard:
For the crumble
Instructions
I really enjoyed this. The tart cranberry and lemon flavours work well with the creamy sweetness of the custard and the crunchy sweet crumble.The oven did well, cooking this, though I could only fit 6 ramekins in if I tried (I only made 4 actually) so not sure it’s the thing for a larger gathering. Even if you used one larger baking dish, you could probably only make a dish large enough to serve 6.
Now let’s look at the cobbler. Until I moved to Canada, I confess to never really having known what a cobbler was. And until last weekend, I had not made one. I actually thought they were one and the same as crisp and crumble. In fact, no, it’s a completely different entity. Epicurious describes a Cobbler as “a baked, deep-dish fruit dessert topped with a thick biscuit crust sprinkled with sugar.”
For the Party, I decided to go traditional and follow The Kitchn’s Foolproof Cobbler (recipe here). It was so easy, the pastry came together in minutes and was crunchy and biscuity and the blueberries and raspberries were jammy and rich. It was perfect served with some vanilla bean ice-cream. I’ll be making this again – love its versatility!
Disclosure: I was provided with compensation as well as a Black and Decker Convection Rotisserie Toaster Oven in exchange for writing two posts about the product. All opinions are 100% my own. The Kitchen Crew series highlights my stories, recipes and tips with promotional consideration made possible by Canadian Tire. If you want to uncover your kitchen’s true potential, stay tuned to the Kitchen Crew for my weekly missions.
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Great desserts. These looks so rustic and delicious.
I am all about the rustic!
Mmmm I love cobblers and crumbles so much! Everything from the smell of them baking to me plunging my spoon into them is just absolutely perfect! Great recipe and photos!
Yes it makes the house smell divine!
This crumble sounds so good! Great combo with the apples and cranberries! And that lemon custard is a great addition!!
Yes it’s a nice balance of the sweetness!
This crumble sounds so good!
We like it a lot!
That’s a great job at multi-tasking, Mardi. I love both your flavorful fillings and toppings for the crumble and cobbler. I wish somebody would send me that convection oven to try out too, I’d be cooking in it the whole day!
Btw, I spotted your dessert spoon for the cobbler and I thought I could SO make my madeleines in a few of those ;-). LOL.
Oh yes, that would make GREAT madeleines!
Great cobbler and crumble I love the lemon custard you are using too!
Yes it’s a nice touch, I think!
Lol, I grew up here and also thought a crumble and cobbler were the same thing for a long time. When I started cooking and reading recipe books though, I figured it out.
Who knew?
The cobbler is definitely one of the easier go to desserts for me. I love its versatility as well.
Yes, I am in love with it now too!
Well, the cobbler party has come and gone and I STILL haven’t made a proper traditional one, lol. But I need only look at yours when inspiration strikes, it’s so pretty! Must be such fun to cook in that oven, mmm.
Yes but you made a cobbler cocktail!
They both look great. I could never turn down a good cobbler!
Now I know what one tastes like, neither will I!
I’ve never made a crumble but have made lots of crisps, however never with a custard in it. Looks wonderful and I love that you did them in individual servings.
P.S. I’ve cut out a few recipes from the Got Milk calendar over the years too. Their cinnamon apple pancakes published a few years ago are wonderful.
Oh I like the sound of those pancakes too! You would love these desserts Paula!
OMG it’s almost October
great recipe, thanks so much for submitting Holiday recipes early so we can see choices!
Dave
These are both easy Thanksgiving recipes!
Dessert sounds pretty good right about now 🙂
Adding custard to the base of a crumble…Brilliant!
And that cobbler looks delish! You’ve just given me an idea for my next cooking project 🙂
Both of these were really really good!
I’ve been craving a fruit dessert lately but we are right smack in between fruit seasons. Apples must be it although I’m good for throwing in frozen berries. You’ve inspired! And love the lemon custard addition to your crumble!
Yes the lemon custard really is tasty!
Ha! I see what you mean about great minds thinking alike! 🙂 Even funnier when you consider we had totally different products to build our challenge around.
Love the individual ramekins. It’s always so much nicer to get your very own dessert in its very own dish.
Yes you see it is the perfect dessert for Thanksgiving though…
Crumbles are one of my favorites in the fall… Strangely enough, though, I almost never make cobbler. I’m not sure why! Yours looks fantastic. Perfect for individual holiday desserts!
I’ll be making cobbler again, that’s for sure!
mmm – perfect ways to use fruit this time of year! crisps and crumbles are our family favorites, in part because they’re easy for kids to make. yum! have never thought of using our toaster oven for it – which, i am a bit ashamed to say, is the least-utilized appliance in the kitchen – but i am going to make an effort to try this, especially at the holidays when space in the oven is at a premium. thanks for the tip!
Yes it’s a great advantage when you have an oven full of turkey to have a toaster oven to make dessert in!
Amen to Multitasking ! I love cobbler number one best…yumm. Would love that oven!
The crumble? Yes it’s pretty good!