Cranberry Pie
1 1/2 cups cranberries 1/2 cup water 3/4 cup sugar Put ingredients in saucepan in order given, and cook ten minutes; cool, and bake in one crust, with a rim, and strips across the top.
A single-fruit pie of the plainest kind: cranberries stewed to a thick sauce, then baked in a bottom crust with a lattice. The proportions are small, so read them as a tart or a shallow single pie rather than a deep-dish.
- Cook the filling downTen minutes over moderate heat is enough for the berries to burst and the juice to thicken. If it still slides freely in the pan, keep it going a few minutes more, or the crust will turn to paste under it.
- Cool it properlyThe instruction to cool is the hinge. Hot cranberry sauce melts the fat in raw pastry before the oven can set it. Let it come to at least room temperature, ideally cold.
- SugarThree-quarters of a cup to a cup and a half of berries. Taste after cooking and add more while it is still hot if you want it sweeter; cranberries are high in pectin and need no added thickener.
- "One crust, with a rim, and strips across the top"That means a bottom crust only, its edge built up into a raised rim, with pastry strips laid over the filling as a lattice. No top sheet of pastry.
- Pan sizeThis quantity of filling suits a 7- to 8-inch shallow pie or tart tin. In a standard 9-inch plate the layer will be thin; make one and a half times the filling for that.
- OvenThe original gives no temperature or baking time. A hot oven of around 425F for 15 minutes to set the pastry, then about 375F for a further 20 to 25 minutes, should brown the crust and bring the filling to a bubble at the lattice openings.
- YieldSix modest wedges. Cranberry pie is best a few hours after baking, once the filling has firmed but the crust is still crisp.