Cranberry-Apple Crumb Pie

May 11, 2011 · 2 comments

Adapted from Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie

Guest Post by Andrea of Washington, D.C.

“This is a great autumnal pie — the cranberries provide a pleasant tartness that balances the sweetness of the apples. It’s also very simple to make and uses mostly ingredients you can keep in the pantry or freezer. I love to make this pie at Thanksgiving instead of a traditional apple pie. It’s a real crowd pleaser! I always make this with the store-bought refrigerated pie pastry, as the author suggests. No one has ever realized it’s not a homemade crust, even people who’ve eaten my homemade pie crusts! But if you’re feeling ambitious, you could make pie crust from scratch.” – Andrea

1 store-bought refrigerated pie pastry
2 large apples (any type), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
2 cups of frozen cranberries, partially thawed
2/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 stick of cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a (9-inch) pie pan with the pastry, and gently press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a ridge. Place the pie shell in the freezer for 10 minutes or until ready to use.
Put the apples in a large bowl and toss with lemon juice to prevent browning. Add cranberries, sugar, and cornstarch, stirring to combine. Scrape the filling into the pie shell and smooth the top. Bake on the center oven rack for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the topping. Combine the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter or fork to rub it into the dry ingredients to make coarse crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Remove the pie from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle the crumb topping over the filling and press gently with a spoon to compact. Return pie to oven. Continue to bake until the topping is golden brown and the juices bubble thickly around the edge, 25 to 30 minutes.
Quick Tips
1. Don’t overdo it on the lemon juice. You want to keep the apples from browning, but you don’t want to add a ton of liquid to the filling.
2. To keep your oven clean, you can insert a foil covered baking sheet under the pie for the second part of the baking. It should catch any spills.
3. Allow the pie to cool completely before serving, which will take several hours. Cutting into it too early will result in a runny filling. For best results, I make pies in the evening and allow them to cool overnight on the counter.
4. The store-bought refrigerated pie pastry keeps very well in freezer, so I always keep a box in there. Just defrost it for few hours on the counter before trying to use. You want pastry to still be cold, but not hard, when you try to unroll it.

About the Guest Author
Andrea has been an avid baker since she was a teenager. Her delicious confections treat and tempt her co-workers regularly (and cause some of them to return to counting Weight Watchers points…not naming names here). Andrea especially loves to bake cookies for her boyfriend, who is a self-described “cookie monster.” Her favorite Thanksgiving memory is learning to make Kolacz, a Polish coffee cake, with her late-grandmother. Andrea and her boyfriend live in Washington, D.C.

Preparation time: 25 minute(s)

Cooking time: 30 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 1 – 9-inch pie

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Ashley November 25, 2012 at 11:24 pm

Any changes here if I use fresh cranberries?

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Alicia November 25, 2012 at 11:37 pm: I haven’t tried this recipe with fresh, but I imagine you can swap them pretty easily. Just keep in mind that fresh will have less water than frozen, so the filling may thicken up a bit more (unless you cut back the cornstarch a little. I’d try 1 T. with fresh.) Good luck and let me know how it turns out!

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