apple cranberry braided lattice pie

Happy pi/pie/3.14 day everyone!

While I truly believe that every day is pie day....I won't say no to celebrating it a little extra today. I'm pretty bummed that our rhubarb is only two inches tall at the moment, so I wasn't able to make my favourite rhubarb pie, but that'll come yet! Other options include: classic apple pie, or the incredibly cute apple hand pies. Or pecan pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, or even cherry pie! And if you're craving something savoury...these mini chicken pot pies should do the trick!

Phew! That's a lot of pie! And today we're talking about one more...an apple cranberry pie!

I wanted to do a Winter-y pie since we just keep getting snow here! So unusual, and I hope it's gone for good this time! I used the last of our tart Elstar apples that we had stored up, and threw in a few cranberries as well. I loved the little pops of flavour from the cranberries, and it was such a fun spin on your regular old apple pie.

apple cranberry pie

ingredients:

1 pie crust - find my recipe for pastry dough here

5ish medium Elstar apples (or any tart apple of your choice)

1 cup cranberries (I used frozen since I couldn't find any fresh)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

directions:

1) Once your pie dough is ready, you can peel and chop apples (the exact number will depend on the size of your apples, and how full you want to make your pie). We used Elstar apples, which are nice and tart, and are wonderful for baking with!

2) Mix all ingredients in with your diced apples and cranberries, stir, and let sit for a few minutes.

3) Roll your pie dough into a circle and drape over your pie plate. You want your dough circle to be big enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate, and to cover the outside edge at least a half an inch.

4) Add your apple cranberry mixture to the pie plate and roll out another dough circle for the top. Alternatively, roll out dough and use a pizza cutter to cut thin strips of dough, and then braid together. Repeat until you have 6 braids that will form a lattice, and a long braid to go around the edge. Weave the lattice, trim excess, and attach the edge braid by wetting the crust slightly and pressing down firmly.

5) Brush the top with a bit of milk or beaten egg to help it brown and have a nice shine, and sprinkle lightly with coarse sugar.

6) Bake at 425 degrees for the first 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until nice and bubbly. Cover with tin foil if you notice certain parts are browning more quickly.

Pie is best served warm and fresh, but will last several days.