Cranberry Cookie Crumble - brought to you by the letter C

Today's recipe is not actually one of the 'recipe of the week' posts. Or at least not one of the current ones. I am all caught up on my recipes for this year, but less so on my blogging, so I decided to work my way backwards from last year's list, since they are all new to me too, and having a surprise ingredient/theme is a little like being on Iron Chef and thus makes cooking (more) fun. So, today's ingredient is cranberries.

I just so happened to have some cranberries in the freezer, from Thanksgiving, of course, so I rescued it from the shelf and looked through a few cookbooks in search of the favorite Thanksgiving recipe. I said no to anything too Thanksgiving-y, and to cranberry bread, muffins, scones, etc. - which are similarly ubiquitous and uninspiring. That led me to this recipe, from Nancy Baggett's book Simply Sensational Cookies: She calls it Shortcut Cranberry Crumb Bars. I don't, because for me, at least, it didn't really resolve itself into bars. That leads me to today's cooking lesson.

If you think that what you are cooking may be at all gooey, waxed paper is never, ever a good substitute for foil. I've made this mistake before, but that didn't stop me from making it again today. Unless you enjoy your cookies/crumble with a thin paper shell that is as hard to separate from the final project as the rind on a wheel of brie, leave your ingredients on the counter, hop in your car, and go buy foil. Or grease the pan and go without. Don't use waxed paper. You'll regret it. Having said that, if you consider the finished product a crumble, write off one end that you have to decimate to properly get at the middle, and dig it out slowly with a metal spatula, you can manage to separate it from the paper. It's just not what I would recommend to the more informed reader.

Cranberry Cookie Crumble

2 1/4 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries, chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup orange marmelade
1 16-18 oz package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough (Bigger is better here. If you can, go for the 18 oz)
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup butter, melted

1 tsp ground cinnamon
confectioner's sugar for garnish

Heat oven to 350F. Line a 9x13" baking pan with foil. Or don't line it and use nonstick spray.

Mix berries, sugar and marmalade in a medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until it boils. Lower the heat and boil gently for three minutes. Set the filling aside to cool.

Break up the dough into a large mixing bowl. Mix with oats, butter and cinnamon, using mixer on lowest speed. Spread half the mixture into the baking dish. Lay a piece of waxed paper on the mix and press down firmly all over to make your layer nice and even, making sure it covers the entire bottom of the pan. (This was a very good use of waxed paper. I'm going to do this to all my cookie bars in the future.)

Bake about 10 minutes (or 13 to 15, presumably if you don't live in a high altitude where things cook faster) until the dough is just browned at the edges but not baked through. Let cool 15 minutes.

Spread the filling over the dough evenly. Put the rest of the crumb mixture evenly over the top, and pat it down lightly. Bake about 22 minutes longer, or until the filling is bubbly and the crumb top is lightly browned.

Set aside on a wire rack and let cool. Refrigerate for one hour before cutting if you plan to try to make them into cookie bars. Otherwise, why wait? Dig in!

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar before serving.