Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Apple-Cranberry Streusel Pie

I'm a big fan of pie. Homey and unpretentious, pie is difficult to mess up and always comforting. In terms of flavor choices and individual servability, I'd even be willing to give it my vote as the next "it" dessert. Local pie rebel Dangerously Delicious is clearly ahead of the curve on this one.

I made this pie a few weeks ago, on Columbus Day, when I happened to find myself with a blissful 4-day weekend and unseasonably warm temps. After the requisite three days of sitting around doing nothing, I finally managed to motivate not only to make this pie, but to actually drive out to Stribling Orchard in Markham, Virginia and pick the apples myself. How quaint.

Blue Ridge views from Stribling Orchard

There is definitely something rewarding about using local produce, and I may have even gone a little local-overboard by buying about 2 pounds of Stribling's homemade honey. Oops. In other words...stay tuned for honey-based recipes :)

I also made pie crust from scratch for this one, but it honestly wasn't that great (I found it too tough, though that can be a plus for juicy fruit pies) so I won't include the recipe here, but feel free to substitute your own favorite or store-bought crust. The streusel topping, however, was easy and amazing. If you don't have a pastry cutter for this step, you can just use two knives to cut the butter into the flour--not as effective, but much more ninja-like.
Ninja Pie

Apple-Cranberry Pie

FILLING
Juice of 1 orange
Zest of 1 orange
5 cups of peeled, sliced apples (approximately 5 medium apples)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped (if frozen, do not thaw)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

TOPPING
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Make or purchase one recipe of your favorite pie crust.  Preheat oven to 400. Roll pie dough out into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Place dough in the pie pan and refrigerate while you make the filling and topping.

2. To make filling, mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. To make topping, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. The topping mixture should clump when pressed together.

3. Add filling to cold pie crust and scatter topping all over the filling. Bake at 400 degrees until the juice in the center of the pie is bubbling, about 1 hour. If the crust or topping becomes too dark, cover the pie loosely with foil.

4. Transfer to a wire rack; cool completely before serving.

Easy as pie!!

3 comments: