Cranberry Apple Pie

This is a great holiday pie recipe, and it's unique! My aunt introduced this recipe to us one year at Thanksgiving, and I have been in loveh it ever since. For those of you who are not too keen on cranberries, the bitterness of them is actually balanced well by the sweetness of the apples. I must warn you though, cooking apples that you slice up yourself are always best. If you use the apple pie filling in a can, your pie will be a little bit, shall we say, liquidatious. I know this from lots of experience!  As a note, you will need 2 separate bowls: One for the pie filling, and 1 for the pie topping.

Serves: 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
*Pie filling:
-9 inch pie crust
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/3 cup flour (or more to thicken if liquidy, if you are using canned apples instead)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-2 tablespoons butter (softened, not melted)
-4 cups peeled and sliced cooking apples (approx. 5-6 apples, depending on size--Cortland and McIntosh are good ones) or 1 can of apple pie filling
-2 cups fresh cranberries

*Pie topping:
-1/2 cup quick cooking oats
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup softened butter

1. Heat oven to 425°.

2. Unroll pie crust into a pie tin. Pinch the edge all the way around.

3. Wash, peel, and slice apples into small chunks (I would say for me that translates to half the size of a golf ball) and put in large bowl, along with washed cranberries. Set aside.

4. Mix all ingredients (minus the fruit) well in a large mixing bowl. Butter may not mix as well if it is not softened, so break it up with a fork into small pieces.

5.Once mixed well, add in the apples and the cranberries slowly, and gently mix until all fruit is completely covered.

6. Put all ingredients into the pie crust and set aside. Now prepare pie topping.

 

 

7. Mix pie topping ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Again, butter may not mix well, so break up with fork into small pieces.

8. Once mixed well, sprinkle topping over entire pie until covered well.

9. Bake for 40 minutes. I burned the edges a little as you can see, but I learned that if you put foil around the edge, it's much less likely to burn.