Adventures In CranApple Pie
As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission if you navigate to Amazon from my site and buy something. This will not result in an extra cost to you.
Sylvia Schur was a food editor who helped design products like Clamato and CranApple juice. And she also invented the corn dog, for which I will be forever grateful. But the concept of cranberries and apples as a fabulous flavor combination is the subject of today’s blog post. Specifically, CranApple Pie.
I can’t remember why my mother and I decided to try the combination, but for Thanksgiving some years ago, when we were making apple pies, we decided to try adding cranberries to them. As a sort of experiment, we added fresh cranberries to the sliced apples in one pie, and some jam to the other. I had wanted cranberry jam but couldn’t find any, so I had to settle for Lingonberry. My mother did say at the time that she thought cranberry sauce would work, but as I recall, I scoffed at that notion and went ahead with my jam plan.
The results were interesting. The pie that had the fresh cranberries added was extremely tart. Everyone politely tasted it, and then said noncommittal things like, “Interesting,” and “I’ve never tasted anything like it.” And then they didn’t eat any more of it. The other pie was perfectly nice, but pink (the jam had bubbled up through the apples and colored everything) and with just a slight hint of cranberry.
I’ve finally figured out the right balance of flavors now…a layer of cranberry sauce goes under the apples on the bottom of the pie, and craisins (sweetened dried cranberries) are mixed in with the apples. As the pie cooks and the apples release their juice, the craisins absorb it and plump up beautifully. It’s delicious, and easy.
When I got the ingredients to make the pie for this blog post, I had pie crust on my grocery list. I find a Pillsbury pie crust to be flaky, tasty, and very convenient, as I don’t have to make it myself and it’s already rolled out for me to the correct shape and thickness. But my grocery store had no pie crusts. None. The whole section was empty. So I went to another grocery store…same result. I don’t know who bought out all the pie crusts, but when I find that selfish person, I will have a few things to say to them. Bottom line, I ended up making my own pie crust from scratch. It’s not hard, and I use this recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen.
As usual, the method first, followed by the recipe: First, prepare your pie crust. Put one of the crusts into a 9” pie dish, and cover the bottom with cranberry sauce (here is a recipe for the best cranberry sauce). Use a pizza cutter to slice the other pie crust into 10 strips for making the lattice on top of your pie.
Set the crusts aside and make your sauce. Melt your butter and then add the flour, stirring and cooking for a couple minutes. Then add the rest of the sauce ingredients (water, sugar, salt, vanilla) and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it boils, simmer for about three minutes. Then remove it from the heat and set it aside.
Prepare your apples. You’ll need 6-8 baking apples, by which I mean apples that are firm and relatively tart. And your pie will taste just a little better if you use more than one variety of apple. I ended up with Pink Lady and Gala apples, because that’s what was available. You can of course peel, core, and thinly slice the apples by hand. And if you choose to do that, you might want to sprinkle the apples with a little lemon juice as you put them into a bowl to keep them from going brown before you’re ready for the next step. But personally, I prefer to use this apple peeler/corer/slicer machine. It’s rather old school but it’s so effective that it’s still being made and still widely in use. In addition to being super fast, you get apple slices that are all exactly the same thickness, which means they cook evenly. Genius.
Once all your apples are sliced into a bowl, add your craisins and your cinnamon and toss together. Then pour the sauce you made over the whole thing and toss again until all the apple slices are coated with the sauce. Then pour all of it into your prepared pie dish, mounding the apples slightly in the middle. Weave your lattice over the top of that and pinch the top and bottom crusts together where the lattice joins at the edge. You can finish the edge all fancy if you like, by crimping with your fingers or you can just sort of tuck everything together, which gives you a more rustic finish, which is what I do. Brush the crust with egg wash, which is an egg beaten together with a little water.
Bake the pie with a rimmed baking sheet on the shelf below it…this pie will drip! And if your crust appears to be browning too fast, you can put a sheet of foil over the top; just don’t forget to cut a hole in the middle of the foil to let steam out. When the pie is done, let it cool for at least an hour before you serve it.
And that’s it. It’s really not any harder than a plain apple pie but it tastes so much better. Happy Holidays!
CranApple Pie
INGREDIENTS
2 pie crusts
6-8 baking apples*, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (should equal about 7 cups)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
1 cup of cranberry sauce or jam
1 cup craisins (sweetened dried cranberries)
Egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tbsp water, beaten together)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425°.
Prepare your pie crusts. Place one into your 9” pie dish. Use a pizza cutter to cut the other into 10 strips to use as a lattice for the top of the pie. Spread the cup of cranberry sauce over the bottom crust.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 3 Tbsp flour then simmer for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Whisk in water, sugar, vanilla, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue simmering 3 minutes, whisking frequently then remove from heat. Set aside and work on the apples.
You will want to end up with about 7 cups of sliced apples. If you are slicing them by hand and are worried about them browning before you can get them in the oven, you can toss them with a little lemon juice. Place the sliced apples in a large bowl and toss them with the cinnamon and the craisins. Then pour in the butter/sugar/flour sauce and stir to combine. Try to make sure all pieces of the apple are coated with the sauce.
Place the apple mixture in the pie dish, letting it mound slightly in the middle. Then weave the lattice over the top, pressing the ends firmly into the edge of the pie crust. Finish the crust however you like, whether it’s crimping with your fingers or just tucking everything under for a more rustic look. Brush all of the exposed crust with egg wash.
Bake in the oven at 425° for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350° and continue baking until the apples are soft and the filling is bubbling, usually another 40+ minutes. It’s best to place a tray on the shelf beneath the pie to catch any drips. If the crust appears to be browning too fast, cut a small hole in the center of a 12” square of foil and set the foil over the top of the pie. Once it’s done, let the pie stand at room temperature for an hour before cutting and serving.
NOTES
*baking apples should be tart and firm
