Here is a scene: it is a Sunday evening in late fall, and I am sitting on the couch in my apartment, hovering over a pocket mirror as I frantically try to coax a renegade contact lens from the back of my desert-dry eyeball. My boyfriend passes me on his way to the kitchen for a snack and tells me I have flour in my hair. I realize I must look terrifying with my floured hair and bloodshot eye. If you’re an over-achiever like, ahem, some people, the gift-giving season will do this to you.

Cartoon by the author

I know you will be surprised to learn that I am a fan of homemade presents. Last year, I exhausted myself with the process of putting together gift jars of granola, for which I then made little labels stamped with birds in gold ink and which, in a moment of creative clarity, I realized could only be presented with matching stamped gift cards.

Even through this paper, I can sense the look on your face that says, what’s wrong with a sweater? Believe me when I say that there is no satisfaction like the exhaustion that comes after a night of gift-baking. When it was all said and done and I had a row of fifteen perfect-looking jars of granola sitting on the counter, it’s true that I might have napped for about eight hours. But call me crazy—and you very well might—homemade presents are worth it to me.

So, as this season of holidays rolled in, all cinnamon-spiced and jingle-jangling, I set out in search of an easy and easily-double-or-triple-able recipe that could be made and gifted. Which is where the most amazing apple cranberry shortbread crumble enters the story. It’s amazing how recipes get around. This one started its life as “brown butter peach bars” in the pages of The New York Times, which featured it as a preview from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. In the end, the recipe didn’t make it into the book after all, though a similar one featuring rhubarb did. Most recently, Deb, of the cooking blog SmittenKitchen, re-worked the recipe to create “a brown butter peach shortbread.” This year, as the weather grows frigid and peaches have gone the way of miniskirts and strappy sandals, I’ve dressed this recipe in apples and cranberries, with a hope that someone will turn up on my doorstep, a buttery fragrance wafting from a package in hand.

Apple Cranberry Shortbread Crumble
Adapted from SmittenKitchen.com

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into slices
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons cups all-purpose flour (or you can measure 3 cups and remove 2 tablespoons flour)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium firm, tart apple, cored and thinly sliced (between ⅛ and ¼-inch thick)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cranberries

1. Brown butter: Melt butter slices in a medium saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat. Once melted, whisk frequently as the butter begins to foam, then turns clear golden. Watch carefully as lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan; scrape these up as you stir. When the butter is mostly brown and has a nutty smell, remove from heat. Note: Butter will burn very quickly after it browns, so keep an eye on it to make sure it isn’t blackening. Set it in the freezer until solid (30 – 40 minutes).

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices. Using your fingertips, blend the solidified brown butter, egg, and vanilla into the dry ingredients to form a crumbly mixture.

3. Transfer ¾ of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile apple slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter chopped cranberries evenly over apple slices. Top fruit with an even layer of remaining crumbs. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is slightly brown and edges are beginning to color. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.