Thanksgiving Pie Recipes: Cranberry Pie Recipe

Add a little pizzazz to this year’s line up with one of these easy cranberry pie recipes.

Cranberry sauce has been a holiday favorite at many family gatherings for years, and cranberry quick bread has joined the desert menu alongside the traditional pies and breads. Take a walk on the wild side with a sweet, tart cranberry pie the whole family will love.

There are a few different variations on cranberry pies, and each has a little twist that makes them special and unique. There are two main differences that should be noted between the pie directions, namely that one type will have a cooked pie filling and the other will have an uncooked filling. There is a recipe for each variant to allow for personal preference.

Cranberry pies require lattice work top pie crusts in order for proper venting while cooking. If there is insufficient venting, the crust will be soggy and the pie will be too juicy and sloppy.

Whether you use fresh or frozen cranberries, they will need to be washed and sorted. Sort out the stems and twigs as well as any damaged or unappetizing berries. Once the berries have been sorted, place them in a colander and run cool water over them to rinse. Completely drain the water from the cranberries and lay them out on a paper towel and gently pat them dry.

Ingredients

• Pie crust pastry for both top and bottom crusts
• 3 cups cranberries
• 1 cup golden raisins
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1t vanilla
• 1t grated orange peel
• 2T butter
• 2T flour

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Combine cranberries, raisins, water, orange juice, sugar, orange peel and flour in a large, heavy saucepot.
• Bring to a boil then lower to medium-low heat.
• Simmer the mixture, while stirring frequently, until it thickens (approximately 15 minutes.)
• Once it begins to thicken, remove from heat and gently stir in vanilla.
• Pour the filling into prepared pie shell.
• Dot the top of filling with butter.
• Place lattice pie crust on pie and crimp the edges.
• Bake at 450 for the first 10 minutes, then reduce to 35 degrees and bake until crust is golden brown, approximately 35 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 12oz bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup golden raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts (chopped coarsely)
• ¼ cup flour
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 3T melted butter
• 1/2t grated orange peel
• 1 egg beat with 2t water

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 deg.
• In small bowl, combine flour and sugar.
• In blender or food processor, chop cranberries until the largest chunks are about the size of a pea.
• Place processed cranberries into a medium size bowl and add butter, orange juice, raisins, walnuts and orange peel. Mix well.
• Sprinkle ¼ cup of the flour-sugar mixture in the bottom of prepared pie crust.
• Spoon cranberry mixture into pie shell.
• Sprinkle remaining flour-sugar mixture over filling.
• Top the pie with a lattice work top crust, or a crust with several large slits for venting.
• Crimp edges of crusts together.
• Bake at 400 until crust is golden brown and filling bubbles up through the vents in the crust, about 50 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cranberries
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream (whipped to stiff peak stage)
• 1-¾ cup eggnog
• 6T cold water
• 1T corn starch
• 1T rum extract or 2T rum
• 1T unflavored gelatin
• 1/8t nutmeg
• 1 pie shell (baked)

Directions

• Combine sugar, 2 tablespoons water and cornstarch in large saucepot and mix until smooth.Stir in cranberries.
• Cook on medium heat until thickened, roughly 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
• Cool 15 minutes then pour into pie shell.
• Add remaining water to small saucepot and sprinkle gelatin on top, let stand for 5 minutes.
• Cook over low heat stirring constantly. Once gelatin is dissolved completely, stir in rum and eggnog.
• Remove from heat and refrigerate until slightly set, about 5 minutes.
• Gently fold in whipped cream and pour over cranberry mixture in pie shell.
• Chill until set, about 2 hours.
• Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Ingredients

• 6 cups cranberries
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• ¾ cup butter (cold and cut into small cubes)
• 1¼ cup flour
• 1/2t salt
• Tart Shell (baked) Recipe below

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 deg.
• Combine 1 ¾ cup sugar and flour in large bowl.
• Cut in butter until the resulting mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.
• Cut until a clumpy dough forms that crumbles easily.
• Combine ¼ cup sugar and salt in medium bowl.
• Add cranberries and toss to coat completely.
• Spoon cranberries into the tart shell, forming a light mound at the center.
• Sprinkle crumbled topping over the cranberries, being careful not to pack the topping into the fruit.

Tart Shell

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour plus 2T flour

• ½ cup butter (cold and cut into small chunks)

• ¼ cup ice water
• 1 ½ t sugar
• 1/8 t salt

Directions

• Bake 40 minutes at 375, or until the crumb topping is a golden brown with bubbling fruit at the edges.
• Cool completely before serving.
• Into medium bowl, place flour and butter. Cut butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse corn meal.
• Combine sugar, salt, and water in small bowl.
• Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the flour mixture and begin tossing them together until the dough begins to clump together.
• On a floured surface, turn out the dough and form a ball.
• Wrap dough in plastic and flatten into a disk shape then refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.
• Again, on a flour dusted surface, roll the dough into a large circle shape that is between 1/8 and ¼ inches thick.
• Dust dough again lightly with flour and fold into fourths then transfer to the tart pan with the point in the center of the pan.
• Gently pat the pastry into the bottom and sides of the tart pan and trim excess.
• Cover and place in refrigerator overnight.
• Preheat oven to 425 deg.
• Line tart shell with foil and use either pie weights or dried beans to fill the pan.
• Bake until the shell is nearly dry, about 20-25 minutes.
• Remove weights or beans and foil, then prick sides and bottom with a fork to make holes all over the pastry.
• Bake for a remaining 5-8 minutes or until golden brown.

In addition to the selection of cranberry pie recipes listed here, you may like to try a sweet potato pie this year. Perhaps a Pecan pie is more to your liking. Whichever pie you make, rest assured that your endeavors will not go unnoticed nor unappreciated; nearly everyone likes a great home-made pie.