Fresh Apple Cranberry Pie and GIVEAWAY! Closed

Of all the pies I make at holiday time, this is our family favorite. It's fresh, tart and sweet. Love the hint of almond flavor. What would Thanksgiving be without PIE? I don't even want to go there. You know how I love this holiday weekend. Family, friends, time to reflect on all of our blessings. Throw in football -the UTAH 8-1 (yay!) vs byu 7-2 (boo) game, food, the family turkey bowl, shopping. Love it. Making special food for the people I love is my favorite part. Baking PIE is my absolute fave.

I know that many of you are intimidated by our friend, PIE. So, I thought this giveaway might help ease you into a friendly encounter with pie making. Pie, the cookbook is 640 pages long and contains 300 pie recipes! There are 57 pages devoted to pie crust alone. This is the pie bible. Which reminds me - the other day my dear friends Laura and Melinda gave me a huge Cooks Illustrated (America Test Kitchen) book for my bday, containing TEN YEARS worth of Cook's recipes. I was so excited. So excited, that I blurted out, 'These are like scriptures!" Ok, so I got a little carried away. Anyway - you are going to love this cookbook. PIE is written by Ken Haedrich, a man who must have devoted an extraordinary amount of time in the kitchen covered in flour to produce such a comprehensive cookbook about Pie.

Here is the deal:

Leave a comment about what you are most grateful for this time of year. The winner will be picked by the Random Counter. Entries must be in no later than Saturday, November 14 at midnight. You'll have this book in your hands in time for Thanksgiving week!

Fresh Apple Cranberry Pie
print recipe

Filling:

6-7 apples any type, peeled, cored and sliced ( I like Granny Smith)

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, washed

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon almond extract
juice from 1/2 of a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

dash salt

Crust:

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup solid shortening

1/2 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place rack on bottom third of oven. 

Place flour and salt in medium sized bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender. Add cold water all at once, stir with fork, just until all of the flour mixture is moistened. Gather the dough together in a ball. Split the dough in to two parts. Flour a surface and rolling pin. Mold half of the dough into a ball. Roll out from center to about 1/8 inch thickness. Fold dough in half. Lift onto a 9" pie plate. Open and shape to pan. Roll out the other half of dough, and set aside.

Place apples in large bowl and mix with cranberries. Add rest of filling ingredients and mix well. Fill bottom crust with apple cranberry mixture. Place other half of rolled out dough on top of filling in pie plate. Crimp edges. Make slits on top of pie for steam to escape. Brush with egg wash if desired, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar.
Place pie onto foil lined cookie sheet (important, this usually bubbles over a bit.
Bake for about 60 minutes. Cover loosely with foil if pie is getting too brown.
Continue baking for about 10-15 minutes or until pie is bubbly and golden. Total baking time is usually 1 hour and 10 minutes.