This Cranberry Cherry Pie is the perfect pairing to any Thanksgiving dinner. We made this recipe twice: the first time for Aaron’s family on Thanksgiving and the second time just for the two of us to enjoy.
This will also be the first of many dessert recipes here on Marguerite’s Cookbook. Dessert recipes were the most popular in Marguerite’s collection and the cookbook is about 50% desserts. Her pies were one of the best desserts to have, because she was so good at hand making pie crust. For as long as Aaron can remember, his mother and other members of their family always talked about how no one could make pie crust like Marguerite. When Marguerite tried to teach Aaron’s mom how to perfect the pie crust, the main advice she gave was “touch the dough as little as possible.”
Here is what the original recipe said:
First to tackle was the crust itself, the previously mentioned hardest part. Marguerite used a standard Crisco pie crust recipe, which we have included below. When we made it the first time for Thankgiving, the family commented that the cranberry and cherry filling, along with the topping, tasted delicious. Aaron’s mom, who was the best one to judge the crust, said that while it was good, it was not as soft and flakey as Marguerite’s.
Darn.
We attributed this to over handling the crust, as well as not putting enough water in it. We also over baked the pie because there were no baking instructions on Marguerite’s recipe. We were determined to get it right, so we tried it again.
Despite being advised to, we didn’t chill the Crisco the second time. This seemed to make it much easier to play with the crust less. More water was also added.
In both attempts we omitted the Tapioca pudding from her recipe because neither of us care for it and we decided that it wouldn’t negatively affect the recipe to skip it.
The other challenge with this recipe: Marguerite left no instructions on how long to bake the pie and at what temperature! For the first attempt we baked it for too long. The second time turned out much better!
I’m not a huge fan of pie, so I only sampled a small amount. Not the worst pie I’ve ever tried though.
Aaron loved it, despite not being a huge fan of cranberries.
We hope you attempt this recipe for your next holiday to share with your family!
- 1 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 stick Crisco OR
- 1/2 cup Crisco
- 3-6 Tbps ice cold water
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1 can whole cranberry sauce 14 or 16 oz. can
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbps margarine
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup margarine room temperature
- Blend flour and salt in large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pastry blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.
- TIP Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
- Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 1/2 inch round disk.
- Chill for 30 minutes or up to two days.
- Roll dough from center outward into a circle 2-inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate.
- Mix the cherry pie filling, cranberry sauce, sugar, and lemon juice.
- Pour the filling mixture into the crust.
- Dot with margarine
- Mix the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and margarine for the topping with a blender.
- Sprinkle the topping on top of the pie.
- Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes
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