Cran-Apple Crumb Pie

Before baking

It has become a joke among some of my friends that they can always find a huge bag of cranberries in my freezer. It’s true! I find all sorts of uses for them throughout the year. Because it’s such a beautiful red, I’m making one this week for my significant friend for Valentine’s Day. I posted this over a year ago for Christmas, but I have new readers who might be interested, too. The picture above is just before it goes into the oven.

My crust recipe is one I found in a magazine back in the 50s (early marriage) and I have not rolled out a pie crust since then. Everyone wants to know how it’s made because it is so tender and flaky. I’ve shared it before online, and I hate for it to get lost.

No-roll Pie Crust
Place 1 ½ cup flour, 1 ½ teaspoon sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt directly into an ungreased 9” pie pan. Pour out ½ cup canola oil, then add 2 tablespoons cold milk and mix with a fork until milky. Pour into flour mix in the pan and stir it all together. Press the mix into the pan until it resembles a regular pie crust. Leave enough up on the sides to squeeze into a rim.

It’s light and flaky – doesn’t leave a mess and never requires rolling out!

Lucy’s Cran-Apple Crumb Pie

1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
4 cups peeled, sliced and chopped apples ( I use Fuji, but any apple will do)
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
Preheat oven to 425 F. Gently mix berries, apples, sugar, and flour until fruit is coated. Dump into pie crust and top with crumb topping.

Crumb Topping

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter (I use half butter and half yogurt spread).
Mix together until crumbly, and put over top of pie.
Bake about 40 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when it starts to bubble and brown.

Here it is right out of the oven. Needless to say, wherever I take this, I have only an empty dish to bring back home! Imagine this with a scoop of vanilla-caramel swirl ice cream on top. Oh my!

Fresh from the oven

Makes me hungry just to write about it!
A hui hou!