I can’t begin to bake an apple pie as good as my mother’s. I’ve tried. Oh boy, how I have tried! But there is something she does that makes her crust perfect and her filling superb. Never have I been able to match it.
But while I can’t make a pie as good as Mom’s, I can make a pie that is good enough to keep my husband bragging about my baking skills. This time of year, as we move into Thanksgiving week, he will be expecting an apple pie to come out of the oven. I found this recipe, a New England variation, many years ago. It dresses up the standard apple pie with holiday favorites — cranberries and walnuts.
Cranberry Walnut Apple Pie
- 1 cup fresh whole cranberries
- 3 cups apples, sliced (4 cups if you are using one of those large ceramic pie pans)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp. quick cooking tapioca
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- pastry for 9″ double crust shell
- 1 to 2 Tbsp. cold butter cut into small chunks
- milk
- sugar
In a large mixing bowl combine cranberries, apples, and walnuts.
In a small bowl combine sugar, tapioca, and cinnamon until well blended.
Add the sugar mixture to the apple bowl and stir until fruit is well coated. Let stand 20 minutes.
In the meantime, make your pastry, roll out a crust and fit it into a pie plate.
Pour the fruit mixture into the bottom crust. Dot with butter.
Roll out and adjust your top crust, sealing and fluting the edges. Cut a pretty design into the top crust if you wish.
Brush milk onto the crust and sprinkle lightly with sugar. This may seem like an unnecessary step and while it won’t add anything to the taste of your pie, it will make it look much prettier.
Cover edges of the crust with foil to prevent it browning too quickly. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 20 minutes until golden.
Let cool for a couple of hours allowing the filling to set.
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