Happy Christmas! I’ve been baking up a storm these last couple of weeks, from making
I’m so excited to share this recipe with you! I wanted to make a pie full of Christmas-y flavors that was simple to make, healthier, and a beautiful option for your holiday dessert. Made with sweet, crispy apples, fresh cranberries, a zest of orange, and lots of perfectly added holiday spices, this pie just sings, “Have a holly jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of the year”!
My husband and I actually worked on this pie together. He always makes the cranberry sauce for the holidays, and it’s always so delicious! So, when I told him I wanted the pie filling to be more of a cranberry sauce, he was happy to help in perfecting the recipe.
He also helped me with the lattice pie crust. Whoa, that’s not easy. Especially for your first time! It was both of our first times making a lattice pie top, and together we made it work. We plan to continue to improve our pie decorating efforts. Not too unhappy at the thought of continued pie-making practice either! After we made the lattice top, I then used the cutest holiday pie cutters I bought from Williams-Sonoma. (Shop more fun holiday baking items at the end of the post!) You could also skip the lattice top and just make a bunch of pie cut outs too. I think that would be so pretty as well!
And then to top it off, I added the most beautiful flowers. You can never go wrong with adding flowers to food. Food + flowers is one of my absolute favorite combos. You’ve probably noticed that by now! I definitely encourage you to add flowers to your pie; your guests will love it and think you’re the next Martha Stewart;)
As I mentioned, this pie is healthier, made with fresh fruit, minimal ingredients, a gluten-free pie crust, and is refined sugar free. I used coconut sugar, which is a natural sweetener. I also added in some flaxseed for an extra dose of fiber, omega-3s and a little protein.
Cranberry Apple Christmas Pie
Makes 1 9” pie.
Ingredients:
Crust:
2 Wholly Wholesome gluten-free 9” frozen pie shells or your favorite homemade crust recipe
Filling:
- 1 cup coconut sugar 1 cup pure, filtered water
- ¼ tsp all spice
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp flaxseed
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1.5 – 2 large organic Honey Crisp apples
- 1 12oz. bag fresh cranberries
- Juice of ½ orange Dash of orange zest
Directions:
- Add 1 cup water and 1 cup coconut sugar to saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.
- Add in fresh cranberries, stirring occasionally until berries start to pop and starts thickening. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Add the fresh orange juice and stir into cranberry sauce. Add a little orange zest and stir well.
- Add cranberry sauce to medium size mixing bowl.
- Place in fridge to cool sauce for 10-20 minutes.
- While cranberry sauce is cooling, peel and slice apples.
- Thaw pie shell for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Poke pie shell sides and bottom with a fork.
- Bake unfilled pie shell for 10 minutes on 375.
- Take out cranberry sauce from fridge and add ground cloves, all spice, cinnamon, flaxseed, vanilla and salt and mix well.
- Fold in apple slices and mix really well. Make sure apple slices are thoroughly coated with sauce.
- Fill pie shell with cranberry apple pie filling.
- Make lattice pie top or decorate pie however you’d like with the 2nd thawed pie shell. You could skip the lattice and simply use the pie cutters. Make it however you’d like!
- Cover crust edge with tin foil strips to prevent burning.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees. After about 30 minutes of baking, you’ll want to remove foil strips. Baking times may vary, so make sure to keep checking on your pie.
- Let pie cool 10-15 minutes.
- Decorate with pretty flowers, small Christmas tree clippings, and/or fresh cranberries.
- Slice and enjoy!
Happy Holiday Baking!
xoxo 
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