Cranberry pie can be tricky to make, but steeping the berries in sugar and citrus juice, cooking at a low temperature, and possibly skipping the crust can result in a delicious dessert. Adding other fruits like apples can balance out the tartness.
Cranberry pie offers a tart yet sweet, rustic dessert for winter dinner. Bakers who work with cranberries likely find that they require a lot of processing before they can be eaten easily. Long baking times risk burning the crust, but there are a few tips for making delicious, silky cranberry pie. These tips include steeping the berries, using low and slow cooking techniques, and possibly skipping the crust altogether.
Steeping the berries is perhaps the most important tip for making cranberry pie. Whole berries, even when cooked, can be tough and chewy. Softening them with a blend of sugar and citrus juice usually helps them release the juices and soften as they cook. About a cup of sugar and citrus juice should help. Add them and mix the berries vigorously with a wooden spoon, pushing and squashing them to break the skin. The lemon, lime, and orange juices will complement the tart sweetness of the cranberries.
Time also helps to steep the cranberries. After mixing, let the berries stew in their own juices for up to 24 hours. The citrus acids will further soften the cranberries and the sugar will dissolve. More mashing and stirring with a wooden spoon after the mixture has marinated should create a sticky, ruby-red paste. Those who like very smooth fruit cakes can use an immersion blender to thoroughly mix the berries and juices.
Another tip for making cranberry pie is to cook it at a low temperature for a long time. Some cranberry pies call for a mixture of beaten eggs and butter to create a custard filling, while others call for flour and cornstarch to soak up some of the juices. Either way, a blueberry pie baked for about 40 minutes at about 325°F (about 325°C) should have plenty of time to allow the flavors to marry, creating a thick, rich blueberry filling.
Sometimes going crustless is the best way to avoid burning the dough. Cranberry pie doesn’t always call for a crust, especially a custard one. An egg and berry filling is already rich on its own and doesn’t need a crust to stabilize it. Leaving the crust on also cuts calories for the health conscious. With this change, cooks may want to lower the temperature to around 150°C to keep the blueberry pie from drying out.
Home cooks may find that some batches of cranberries can be extremely tart. In these cases, adding another piece of fruit, rather than more sugar, can help balance out the flavors of the cranberry pie. Apples have a mild, sweet flavor that pairs well with cranberries. Raisins, dates, figs and walnuts often make it to winter tables, so it’s not a bit to mix them with cranberries. These sweeter fruits often mask overripe blueberries without overpowering them.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
