Happy Pi(e) Day: Cranberry Pie

As I’m sure you know since you’re online, today is Pi Day in honor of our favorite number.  I was originally planning to bake a special pie for the day, but the holiday sneaked up on me so I’m using this recipe from my backlog.  Besides, I’m not great at making things pretty, so go admire some other great pi pies, and just pretend my pie is similarly awesome.I recently read Humble Pie by Anne Dimock, which is a cute book of pie musings and anecdotes.  One of the recurring themes (that has been embraced by other pie-makers in my life), is the idea of a “Pie Calling”.  This is the pie that you were born to make, the one that no-one makes better than you, the one that life steered you to.  For Dimock, it’s rhubarb (not strawberry-rhubarb) pie, which she started making after moving to a house with an abundance of rhubarb plants.I haven’t found my Pie Calling yet.  Perhaps this isn’t surprising as I’ve only been at it a few years, but also I’m pretty conservative in my pie making.  The only pies I’d made before reading this book were apple, apple-cranberry, and key-lime (I’ve witnessed the making of sour-cherry pie , but as that is my Fairy Pie Mother’s Pie Calling, I’ve never made it alone).  At one point in Humble Pie, Dimock relates how she arranged Wedding Pie (in lieu of cake) for a friend’s wedding, including a grape pie.  Who’s heard of grape pie?  That’s crazy.  That story made me decide that while looking for my Pie Calling, I’m going to make weird pies. As previously discussed I love cranberries, so my first foray into weird pies was a cranberry pie.  The pie was brilliantly colored, and wonderfully tart, with just enough sweetness to balance it.  My plan to make weird pie probably (definitely) will lead to some failures.  But as it also led to this pie, I’m going to keep with it. If you roll out your pie crust between two sheets of wax paper, your life will be much easier – no pie-crust stuck to the counter, no problems with the crust breaking when you move it.

I suggest 5-6 cups cranberries, but if you prefer a deeper pie, you can keep piling them on.  As long as you can get a top crust on, you can’t have too much filling, you’ll just have to bake the pie longer.

Wrap tinfoil around the edge of the pie-crust to prevent it from burning. 

Ingredients:

Your favorite double crust recipe (my pie-crust recipe is here)

5-6 cups fresh cranberries (that’s a pound and a bit, so buy two bags)
1 1-inch piece of ginger, grated or 1 Tbsp orange zest optional
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

Make your pie crust, roll out 1/2 of it and line a pie-pan (I use a 10 inch pan because that’s what I have).  Pour your cranberries into the pan, and sprinkle ginger or orange zest (if using) over the cranberries.

Stir the sugar, flour, and salt together and pour onto the cranberries.  Dot with butter and top with the second crust.  Flute the edges and cut vents to let steam escape.

Bake at 400 for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until the cranberries are soft ( you can check by poking a fork through one of the vents). 

Serves 8