Cranberry Apple Pie

Mark made one request for this Thanksgiving dinner: cranberry apple pie. I never made one before, so I had to do some recipe comparing. I saw some recipes incorporating oats both the filling and crust, which looks great, but I thought I would keep it traditional. The filling recipe is a basic one, but with a few tweaks of orange juice and dried orange peel (orange and cranberry is a lovely combination). The pie crust recipe is your basic no-fail pie crust. There is a bit of sugar in it, which helps with the tartness of the craberries.

Filling Ingredients:

5 cups peeled and thinly sliced apples (I used Gala)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp. orange juice

1 1/2 tsp. dried orange peel (or the zest of a fresh orange)

Pie Dough Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick of cold butter, diced

1/4 cup ice water (or as needed)

Directions:

Make the pie dough first since it will need to chill for at least 20 minutes prior to using. You may use a food processor like I did, or stick to mixing bowls.  Combine the flour and salt. Then add in the butter. (Use a pastry blender if you are not using a food processor.) Mix just until it starts to crumble and incorporate. If you mix longer, it should resemble coarse meal, which is less likely to become soggy. For a fruit pie, you want to leave a few bits of fat in larger pieces, about the size of a small pea. This will help create a crisp, flaky texture.

Drizzle a few drops of ice water over the mixture, continuing to add a tablespoon at a time until dough holds together. It should be moist; not wet.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, gather into a ball, and divide into two equal pieces. Pat each into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients. Then you are ready to pour into your pie shell. You may choose to brush your top crust with egg wash, and sprinkle with a bit of sanding sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.