Hey y’all! Hey! We’re back! That’s right. Coffee and Pie Chat is back. I’ve missed it. Boy how I’ve missed making pie and telling you all about it. You know how things go…you miss one session and then another and then another. And honestly, I haven’t made a pie (maybe 1) since our last pie along in June. But we’re back on schedule now…just in time for the Holidays!

So let’s recap the coffee and pie chat journey since it’s been a while. Daenel from Living Outside the Stacks contacted me at the beginning of the year and asked me if I would join her for a pie along and chat. I would ‘teach’ how to make a pie and she would make the same pie as a learning tool. How can I say no to that! We decided it should be seasonal pies so every pie we make would have the main ingredient be something that is in season. So we started the pie along in January with a Maple Orange Walnut Pie. Winter sure is a hard time to start the seasonal pie along but thankfully we found some good resources. Our first few pies came from Ashley English’s A Year of Pies. That book also gave us the recipe for February (Lemon-Lime Chess Pie). For March, I recreated my Mamaw’s Lemon Meringue Pie. In April, we made my most favorite pie yet–the Butterscotch Pie with Curry Crust from Bon Appetit. I’ve made this pie over and over again with new additions, gluten free crust, etc. I love this pie. It’s so good. May was Strawberry Pie which is a close second to the Butterscotch Pie in terms of favorites. And for June, we switched over to using recipes from First Prize Pies. This book y’all. It’s the best. We’ll be using it for the foreseeable future. We made a Blueberry-Nectarine Pie for June which was oh so yummy.

So I think that brings us up to speed. Are you ready for November’s pie? I know I am! This month, our recipe is from the same book as above, First Prize Pies, and it’s an Apple-Cranberry Pie. You guys. I am so addicted to cranberries this time of year. I load up on bags and bags of cranberries and put them in the freezer. In fact I still have bags in the freezer. I dream of making cranberry preserves, chutneys, bread, pies. You name it I want to make it. But you didn’t come here for all that…you came here for PIE! So without further ado, let’s get to baking!

The Recipe: 
From First Prize Pies by Allison Kave

The Crust:
Classic Pie (see page 38 of the book) for one double-crust 9-inch (23-cm) pie
*If you are not familiar with how to make a pie crust, see this post

For the Filling:
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or orange curacao liqueur (or orange juice for a non-alcoholic option)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
zest of 1/2 orange
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 pounds large tart apples (Granny Smith, Rome, Mcintosh, Macoun, and Cortland are all good options), peeled and thinly sliced
Egg wash or milk, for the glaze
Raw sugar, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Roll out half of the dough into a circle about 11 inches in diameter. Transfer it to a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the overhang to 1 inch and refrigerate the crust.

Make the filling: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, cook the dried cranberries with the liqueur or juice until the liquid has been absorbed by the fruit, and set them aside to cool (alternatively, you can soak the dried cranberries overnight in the liqueur).

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, zest, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Add the apples, fresh cranberries, and rehydrated dried cranberries and toss to coat.

Put the pie crust on a baking sheet. Fill it with the apple-cranberry mixture and brush the edges with egg wash or milk. Roll out the second half of the dough into a circle about 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter. Cut it into lattice strips or decorative shapes with a cookie cutter and arrange them over the filling. Trim the overhang, roll the dough under, and press it to seal. Crimp the edge into whatever patter you like, brush the crust with egg wash or milk, sprinkle raw sugar over the top.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes, rotating it once halfway through. Lower the temperature to 350F and bake it for 30 to 40 minutes more, until the crust is golden and the juices have thickened.

Remove the pie to a wire rack to cool completely, at least 2 hours.

Tips & Tricks:

1. I didn’t have any orange liqueur nor did I have an orange. So I used lemon extract (homemade) and lemon zest. I zested the whole lemon. Had I had an orange, I would have used my orange extract and zest of the orange.
2. Don’t throw out those apple peels! Use them to make your own apple cider vinegar.
3. I used about 9 medium apples and thought that was too many. That should have been about 2.5 pounds. I ended up pulling some of the apple slices out to make room for all that apple-cranberry yumminess. I used a combo of Empire, Cortland, and Ginger Gold (I think they were Ginger Golds!). I had them leftover from my STEM after school program from Friday so it worked out perfectly!
4. Use whatever you have as a cookie cutter. I used a vintage diner glass, an aperitif glass, and the lid to the vodka as my cookie cutters!
5. I don’t think I’ve ever made a pie that didn’t have some sort of thickener in it whether it be flour, arrowroot powder, or cornstarch. This pie was extremely juicy while baking so please be sure to put the pie on a cookie sheet to avoid cleaning up the oven (like I have to do now).
6. I would like to try this pie but using pears. Pear-Cranberry. Pear-Currant. Or Apple-Currant. I think those combos sound so delicious!
7. We had some heavy cream so I whipped up some whipped cream for a topping! Yum!
8. Got leftover dough? Roll it out, cut it into shapes, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and then pop them in the oven (350F) for about 10 minutes. Yum!

That’s it friends! This was a super easy pie. We’re testing it out for dessert tonight so you’ll have to check back in on Friday during my weekly roundup to find out how we made out! Happy pie making!