Let’s get right to it because I know how much everyone loves reading a life story before getting a recipe.
INGREDIENTS
5-6 apples
1 cup cranberries (frozen or fresh)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 tsp fresh minced ginger
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup apple cider
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
1) Peel, cut out the core and slice the apples. Try to be as consistent as possible in size.
2) In a large, deep skillet melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. You are going to brown the butter. Keep whisking constantly, until the butter starts to bubble, foams, and then turns a light brown colour in appearance. This takes 5-10 minutes and it can burn quickly, keep an eye on it.
3) Next, add the flour to the browned butter and cook for 1 minute, whisking to remove any lumps.
4) In a liquid measuring cup, pour in the apple cider and add the cornstarch. Give this a stir so it dissolves. Add this to the butter/flour mixture.
5) Stir in the white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring until thick.
6) Reduce the heat and add the vanilla into the mixture and add the apple slices. Let this all simmer until the apples have softened, but not to the point of being mushy.
7) Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and pour out the apple mixture on it. Let cool.
8) Add in the cranberries and give it a stir. You can either put this into your prepared pie shell right away or place it in a container to store in the fridge for a couple of days to be used later.
All of this came about after a friend of mine shared about a local apple pie contest. Now, I have never done anything like that before. If you follow my Instagram you may recall that I have made a total of 3 pies before. This is the 4th pie I’ve ever made. I figured why not enter and have some fun? I knew I could be creative with the crust, the filling is what I was iffy about. I wanted to do something a little different. After talking with my sisters and a couple of friends I decided to go with an apple cranberry ginger filling. Why? I actually do a cranberry pear and ginger sauce for Thanksgiving and figured it could be switched around a bit to make a pie filling.
One of the rules for the contest was that we had to use BC apples. Last week we headed out to one of the local apple orchards and got two different types of apples. Orie had fun going around the farm in a wagon and checking out the orchard. Truett had no clue what was going on and actually fell asleep for a bit of our visit there.
Our kitchen smelt so good with all the different spices cooking over the stove. After making the pie, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is very important to make sure the apples are soft during the process of cooking them on the stove. This will make a huge difference in the turnout of the pie. However, after having had several people taste test the pie after many of us agree that this filling would make an amazing apple crisp filling too! So if you don’t like pie, but like apple crisp, give that a try.
I didn’t win the pie-making contest. I didn’t even place. I did have a lot of fun baking and being creative. I’ve actually missed having any sort of creative outlet. This gave me an opportunity to do exactly that.
