Pie of the Week - Cranberry Pie Deux

Winter's almost over and I still have two bags of cranberries in the freezer. I know, I said I would attempt cranberry pie again after that shaky and barely palatable first attempt. Lessons learned, as they say in corporate life. I'll do it better this time!

If you were not tuned in during the post-Thanksgiving cranberry pie experiment, let me just give you the bottom line again:

Cranberries are SOUR. Their sourness will dominate any other flavor note in the filling unless you curb it with even more sugar than you think. If you don't get the sugar right, no one will taste the citrus, apple, pear, or cinnamon, or clove, or whatever other delightful accessory flavors you were so excited about. And your guests will not be able to force a full serving of this pie down, because their faces will be turning inside out with pucker. Sac Pie has already run this experiment so you don't have to. Trust me!

Cranberries impart terrific health benefits to us along with that puckerful punch that makes your jaws lock up. Loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants, very hardy and relatively non-perishable, they can make a great addition to your dessert repertoire if you handle them right. They need to be cooked and sweetened in order to be palatable. Just writing this is making my eyes water...

Sac Pie began with friend Kim's cranberry relish recipe again, and this time was in possession of several estate-grown oranges with which to add flavorful sophistication to the pie filling.

The cranberries, frozen, as I said, were thawed and then rinsed gently. I hewed closely to the original recipe, namely combining

1 c. orange juice

1 c (organic cane juice) sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp clove

1 T minced fresh ginger plus a strip of dried sliced ginger (removed after cooking)

1/2 c golden raisins

in a saucepan on the stove. I boiled the juice until the sugar was dissolved. Then I added the cranberries and other ingredients and cooked it just until everything was combined. I cooled the mixture for about 2 hours.

The spicing and additional fruit is completely up to you. All will be well if you just remember that the critical thing is the sweetener (we can run the experiment next season with brown rice syrup or honey). In this incarnation, in addition to the cranberries, I used 1 chopped apple and about a T of orange zest in the filling (after it had cooled).

After adding the sugar-spice combination to the cranberries and mixing, I sprinkled in a scant teaspoon of tapioca for a thickener.

Voila! A carnival in a pie shell. Maybe for Mardi Gras or Valentine's Day next year?

A few pats of butter, a full pie lid, and into the oven at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

This time, the pie filling was much more temperate and sparkly in flavor, rather than aggressively tart and borderline obnoxious. I liked having the apple chunks and the raisins for textural variety. The seasoning really does remind me of the mince pie combination. I completely forgot my note-to-self from last fall about adding a little booze. I think that amaretto or kirsch would be an interesting note. But even foregoing that, I think the combination really comes together as a result of the sugar to buffer the acidity of the cranberries.

Don't forget to try the recipe above as a cranberry relish, which is its origin, after all. And thank you again, Kim, for getting me started on this. I can cater you a slice, if you like!