Gluten-Free Cranberry Kuchen

Looking for a Christmas treat? This gluten-free cranberry kuchen is not just easy to make; it’s effortlessly festive and delicious too!

Back when I was first learning to make gluten-free recipes for my husband with celiac disease, I had a lot of disheartening desserts. 

I wondered if I’d ever be able to make something good enough that he wouldn’t miss wheat. 

This simple gluten-free cranberry Kuchen recipe was one of the first that gave me hope. 

It was so simple, I almost didn’t believe that it would work, but it did! 

Similar to a coffee cake in substance and texture, it was somehow both fluffy and dense. Sweetness, balanced with tart cranberry. None of the dense, gritty gluten-free texture I’d been battle so much against. 

It was perfect. 

After the first time I made it, the holiday season passed, and I didn’t make it again for another year or more. Looking back, I wonder why, when I was struggling so much with making yummy treats, would I have let a thing like seasonality get in the way of serving the one thing that was working. 😅

But that’s just a distant memory now. Today, almost anything you want with a gluten-free version, we have it. In fact, some of our very favorite Christmas recipe are gluten-free – like gluten-free molasses cookies, and our new chocolate crinkle cookie recipe. 

Of course, it’s also nice to have recipe that are naturally gluten-free like easy fried apples, and homemade caramel sauce. 

Gluten-Free Cranberry Kuchen

• Most traditional Cranberry Kuchen recipes have a crumb topping. In this one, you’ll notice that I’ve opted for a sugar crust. I just love so much how it glazes the top of your kuchen, and looks a little like snow, while being so incredibly easy. 
• If you use a gluten-free flour mix with binders like xanthin or guar gum, your gluten-free kuchen will be perfect. If you opt to leave them out however, this cake is best served warm. Without them, it can get a little crumbly when it’s cold. (I’ll link my preferred flour mixes in the recipe box)
• The method by which you chop your cranberries is up to you. Most kuchen recipes have you whirl them in a food processor to chop them pretty finely. I like to use a nice to half and/or quarter them so I have bigger, nicer chunks of cranberry that really stand out in my cake. 
• After having so much success with this gluten-free cranberry Kuchen recipe, I’m happy to say it springboarded me to creating many more delicious gluten-free cakes. gluten-free chocolate cake, and french butter cake are two of my favorites, but in the summer, you also can’t beat gluten-free peach cake. If you’re a dessert lover in search for good gluten-free recipes, be sure to check them out. 

Now on to our recipe!

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