Cran-Raspberry Pie

I whipped up an almost-exact-same feast from Christmas 2009 for this past Christmas. The only thing that was different was the pie. I had never been a big fan of mince pie- because I am more of a savory kind of girl, I got very upset when I first had mince pie. I thought it was going to be a glorious mince MEAT pie :(- and so this year I decided to bake a different kind of pie. Also because Jk likes pies (actually, he more than likes them. I think he'd be happy if I baked him pies all day long and he'd have them for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner... Actually, just the other day he skipped out of the toilet singing happily because he got to have pie for breakfast :p )

So anyway, I decided to do some research and happened upon the Cran-Raspberry Pie. The result: An amazing explosion of jeweled ruby colours and an overdose of berry sweetness enough to get a young toddler going for hours and hours on end. Because I am generally bad at following instructions for baking (especially pastry), I ended up buying the pie crust from Pilsbury. Don't judge, it was for Christmas dinner and I didn't want to screw anything up.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen Cranberries

1 1/2 cups frozen Raspberries

1 1/4 cups Sugar

2 tbsp Cornstarch

1/2 tsp Almond extract

1/4 tsp Salt

Pastry for double crust pie (I bought these ready made ones from Pilsbury)

Method:

1- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Celsius.

2- Mix everything but the Pastry in a big bowl.

3- Line pie pan with a layer of pastry. Add filling. Top with a lattice crust or whatever else you feel like doing. (just remember there has to be some holes so the steam can escape ;) )

4- Bake at 375 degree Fahrenheit for 15 mins and reduce to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for another 35-40 mins or until the crust is golden brown and berry filling is bubbling away happily.

Let the pie rest for at least 4 hours in a safe place (I was not so smart, I learnt my lesson the hard way when I found the guilty pair Jk an Jy munching away on some crust that they got their hands on when I turned my back to attend to the Turkey...) Resting the pie will help the filling become thicker and gooier... And also give it time to come to terms that it will be ingested by a hungry horde of barbarians :p

(notice where the crust is torn off... courtesy of Jk and Jy..)