Monday, November 8, 2010

Apple Cranberry-Orange Pie


Apples, apples, apples...so many apples. I decided to make more pie. I adapted this recipe from the great Martha Stewart and changed it a bit. She calls it Apple Cranberry Pie but I decided it was necessary to throw in the word 'orange' because the orange flavor is quite prominent. In fact, next time I make this recipe I will only use half the zest and juice that this recipe calls for. I suggest doing the same unless you really don’t mind the strong orange flavor.

Just like with the apple turnovers, I used a pre-made pie crust. Martha would probably “poo-poo” me for not making homemade but, c’mon…it’s so easy to buy pre-made!

Apple Cranberry-Orange Pie
Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS for FILLING

5 medium-sized apples, peeled cored and sliced
The zest of 1 orange
The juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup fresh cranberries roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

INGREDIENTS for TOPPING

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 rounded tablespoons of oats
3 tablespoons of melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

MISC

1 pre-made pie crust
Aluminum foil

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl. Be sure to stir well and mix evenly. Pour filling into uncooked pre-made pie crust.

Mix together all the ingredients for the topping until the consistency becomes crumb-like. Sprinkle evenly over the pie.

Before going into the oven

Bake for 1/2 hour then remove from oven. Loosely cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 1/2 hour.

Depending how thick you cut your apples will affect how long it will take to bake your pie. Obviously, the thicker the apples, the longer it will take. To test, I take a sharp knife and stick it into the pie. If the apples are tough, I bake it until they become soft and I can easily stick a knife in the pie.

Once the pie is thoroughly baked, remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack and allow to cool.

Once cooled, eat and enjoy!

Fresh cranberries, chopped

mmmm...orange

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Caramel Apple Pie...ooh and a New Cutting Board!

About two weeks ago Rob and I went to Michigan. It was a perfect fall weekend. We went to wine tastings, toured Fenn Valley Winery and vineyards, ate lots of yummy food and went leaf peeping. I'll post pictures soon. On the way back to Chicago we stopped at Big Dan's U-Pick Farm to pick more apples. Yes, more apples! I've been doing so much baking with apples that I think I need an extended vacation from them. One of my favorite recipes is my caramel apple pie. I'm really selfish when it comes to this recipe. There are a lot of recipes I make up and I post them on this blog. But there are some I keep to myself, like this one. Call me selfish but I just don't want to release my baby to the world. Here she is before being put into the oven:

I love you, little pie

Of course, I forgot to take a picture after I baked it. Here's a pic from an older post. Yum...

I'm also really excited about my new cutting board. I get ridiculously excited about new kitchen items/utensils. I've been eyeing some here and there but couldn't bring myself to spend a lot of money. I wanted a really big cutting board. The biggest one I had (pictured above with my delicious apple pie) still wasn't big enough and it was starting to crack. So I went to Ikea (I love Ikea) and got this one:

Hello new cutting board!

Only $12.99! What a deal! whooohooo....