Sweet apples, tart cranberries, a hint of almond and all nestled in a delicious flaky, buttery sourdough discard pie crust. This is the perfect pie for your Thanksgiving table or anytime apples and cranberries are in season.
16gramsgranulated sugarfor sprinkling on top of the pie before baking, (1 Tablespoon)
Cranberry Apple Pie Filling
1000gramshoneycrisp or granny smith applessliced, 8 cups or 7-8 apples
150gramsfresh cranberries1 1/2 cups
250gramsgranulated sugar1 1/4 cup
70gramsall purpose flour1/2 cup
8gramssalt1 teaspoon
6gramsground cinnamon1 teaspoon
4gramsalmond extract1 teaspoon
20gramsfreshly squeezed lemon juiceabout 2 Tablespoons/half of a large lemon
22gramsunsalted buttercut into small chunks, 1-2 Tablespoons
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Instructions
Cranberry Apple Pie (with Sourdough Pie Crust)
In a large bowl, mix together 150 grams flour with sugar and salt.
Cut the cold, unsalted butter into small chunks (about 16 pieces per stick of butter) and add to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until all of the butter is moistened by the flour and forms into a thick paste (pictures and more detail in this post).
Add the remaining 175 grams (1 1/4 cup) of flour and use the pastry cutter to distribute the flour until the mixture looks crumbly.
Pour the chilled sourdough discard on top of the flour/butter mixture and stir to combine. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. If the dough is too crumbly, add ice cold water a Tablespoon at time until it comes together.
Cut the ball in half and form two balls of dough. Wrap the balls in plastic wrap, press down on them to form a disc shape and stick in the refrigerator to chill. Chill the dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. The dough can be chilled for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
While the dough is chilling, make the pie filling. Peel and core the apples using an apple peeler or a hand peeler. Slice apples into chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the fresh cranberries, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, almond extract and lemon juice.
Pull the chilled dough out of the refrigerator. Lightly flour a pastry mat(or countertop). Roll out the first disc of dough a little over 10 inches round, turning about 30-45 degrees after every roll so you have an even circle of dough. Fold the dough into quarters and place it inside a pie plate, unfolding it and fitting it to the pie plate. Allow the pie crust to hang over the edges. Roll out the second/top crust to the same size or a little bit larger and set aside.
Fill the pie with the cranberry apple pie filling, mounding it up in the middle. Dot the pie filling with small chunks of butter (1-2 Tablespoons). Place the second pie crust on top of the pie filling. Use kitchen scissors to cut the overhang of the pie dough. Gather the edges around, folding the top crust edges under the bottom crust to form a seal for the pie and keep the juices from escaping.
Place the oven rack in the middle to lower half of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Crimp the edges of the pie and decorate the pie crust as desired. Slice two or more slits in the pie crust to allow steam to escape while baking.
Whisk a medium egg with a splash of water and spread the egg wash on top of the pie. Sprinkle the top of the pie with a Tablespoon of granulated sugar. Place a baking sheet in the bottom of the oven to catch any dripping from the pie as it bakes. Bake the pie for about 90 minutes until bubbly and brown on top. Put a few pieces of aluminum foil or a pie shield over the pie crust about halfway through if the pie crust is browning too quickly.
Let the pie cool completely before serving. This is important for the juices to gel together and prevents a soggy pie crust. Cool for about 3 hours. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Sourdough Discard: This pie crust recipe works best with chilled sourdough discard straight from the refrigerator. Throw away any “hooch” that has collected on top of the discard. Smell the discard to make sure you are okay with the flavor it will bring (I don’t like to use discard longer than 2 weeks old in my discard recipes because the sour flavor can be overwhelming). Stir the discard and use in the recipe. The extra chill from the cold discard keeps the butter cold as you incorporate it into the crust. You can also use bubbly sourdough starter in this recipe if you don’t have any sourdough discard. Apples: I like this recipe best with tart/firm apples that hold up well for baking. Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples are my favorite in this pie.
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