Apple-Cranberry Pie

      What do you know? It's Pie Monday again! I think this is my third variation on apple pie, but what can I say? It's an American classic! Today's version is a Thanksgiving/Christmas twist, which you'll love just as long as you like cranberries. Personally, I like them so much that I look for excuses to add them to all sorts of recipes. They are of course, very tart, so if that's not your thing, check out my more traditional go-to apple pie. This link also includes directions for making your own pie crust. (Double the quantities for a double-crust pie.) This time, I used a store-bought one because we just happened to have one in the fridge, so instead of making it from scratch, I decided to turn the pre-made one into a lattice and give detailed directions for that. In fact, my original plan was to cut out little leaf shapes from the dough and make a festive to crust out of those, but I apparently don't own a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Despite that change of plans, I think this turned out to be one of my most carefully constructed, beautiful pies.

INGREDIENTS:
2 homemade or pre-made pie crusts
4 medium Granny Smith apples
1 12oz bag fresh cranberries
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

To finish the top:
about 2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 egg+splash of water

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9in. pie plate.
2. Make/prep your crust. Fit one into the pie rush and set aside.
3. Wash cranberries. Wash, peel, and slice the apples. If you have a handy dandy apple-peeler-corer-slicer, this step is really easy.

4. In a large bowl, toss the fruit with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, spices, and pecans.

5. Spoon the filling into the bottom crust. Use as much as possible, but it's better to have extra than to overfill it.

6. To make a lattice crust, roll out the other half of the dough in the same size circle and use a pizza cutter to cut equal strips. Logically, use the longest strips in the middle for the widest part of the pie. As few as 8 strips is enough, and an easy number to use to learn this technique.
7. Place four dough strips vertically across the pie. Then, fold back the second and fourth vertical strips far enough to place a horizontal strip across almost the center of the pie, but a little off-center. Once it's in place, fold back the vertical strips. Now it will look like the one horizontal strip weaves over vertical strips 1 and 3 and under vertical strips 2 and 4.

8. Now fold vertical strips 1 and 3 halfway back. Place another horizontal strip parallel to the first one, and unfold the vertical strips so that you have another horizontal strip that weaves under vertical strips 1 and 3 and over 2 and 4.

9. Continue this weaving pattern until the pie is covered.

10. Now it's time to finish the edge of the crust. If you made your own crust, you may have enough extra on the bottom to tuck in the lattice edges and pinch the edge just with that excess. That doesn't happen when I use a pre-made crust, so to add integrity to the edge, I gather the scraps of unused lattice pieces and roll that out into a thin snake, long enough to circle the whole pie and work all of that together until it looks like this:

11. To give the top crust a little extra pizzazz, brush it with egg wash and sprinkle some fancy sugar on it. Just beat an egg with a splash of water, and apply it over the crust with a pastry brush. Then take a couple packets of sugar in the raw and sprinkle it evenly.

12. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 for about an hour. Keep an eye on the crust, and cover it with foil if it browns too soon. Try to be patient and let it cool before serving.

Enjoy, and come back throughout the week for more holiday recipes!