Cranberry Apple Crumble Pie

Just out of the oven, smells amazing!

When I started this blog, my idea was to *exactly* replicate vintage recipes from my vast (if I do say so myself) collection of cook books from 1920-1990, but along the way I realized that if I actually intend to EAT the results (and enjoy them), that I might modify them... so here is a modified recipe based on a pie from 1959 edition of The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook which was a gift from my brother-from-another-mother, Grant K Gibson:

Thank you, Grant! xo

For dinner at a friend's I needed something a little special, and I wanted it to scream "Fall" so I asked 1959 what to do and she told me to see page 352 for a recipe for Cranberry Apple Pie - perfect! Except I had to go and change almost all of it. I left out tapioca, added lemon and cinnamon, and instead of the top crust, I looked above at the peach crumb pie and went with a crumb topping, but modified that as well, adding oatmeal. Whew, that's a lot of changes... but the result was delicious! 

Inspiration recipe

 Ingredients 

So because I changed the recipe so much, I will give you my steps here. Thank you 1959 for the inspiration :)

Apple Cranberry Pie: 

1 pie crust (see my 3 min no-roll, no fail recipe here) blind baked

Mixing the pie filling

FILLING: 

4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin (gala work especially well)

6 oz fresh or frozen (not thawed) cranberries

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

* combine all ingredients for filling BUT BUTTER in a bowl

* dump into pie shell and top with dabs of unsalted butter (approx 2 Tbsp)

* cover with foil and bake at 425 for 30 min

Filled pie before butter and before topping

TOPPING: 

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 Tbsp softened butter (unsalted)

1/2 cup oatmeal (any kind but instant)

* blend with pastry cutter or fork till crumbles are the size of peas

* after first 30 min, top pie with crumble and lower heat to 375 and bake 45min to 1 hour till fruit is bubbling over and topping is browned and you smell cinnamon

* cool completely, up to 2 hours

where is my durn pastry cutter? Ah well, fork it ;)

Make a mini treat with any leftover filling in a Pyrex single serve cup or dish! 

Prepare, bake and top same as pie :)

Topping the pie

Enjoy for with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or cold with coffee for breakfast because: PIE!

Blueberry Muffins

I’m not sure why fresh-baked blueberry muffins sound so fancy, when they are so quick and easy to bake, you’ll wonder why you don’t make them more often! Especially if you freeze them individually in foil, so that you can heat one at a time up in the toaster oven and get that hot-from-the-oven effect any time. Say “I love you” with a muffin!



I like Betty Crocker’s 1971 “Basic Bakings” because not only are the instructions, well, basic, but also because they offer variations to most of the recipes – ways to change and “customize” the recipes that will also get you thinking creatively about what else you might do. This is a perfect method for the beginning baker, who needs to see that the recipe itself is easy enough, and then to see how it can be changed when they feel ready for adventure.


Muffins, like fruit breads, are one of those easy-to-bake joys that just work. The self-defined portion control and the ability to make almost endless varieties mean that I bake muffins of some type or another just about every week. Hello: NO trans fats and no paying $4.00 each at a café.


One final note about fruit muffins: I have a secret trick with fruit, because I always have a lot of fresh berries around, but if it looks like I won’t eat them within a couple of days, I freeze them (rinsed, with any stems removed) in 1 cup containers and use them either in smoothies or in baking. See how green I am? This is all part of my secret plan to use this blog to reduce my readers’ carbon foot-prints…



Muffins



1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup salad oil

2 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt



Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups. In mixing bowl, beat egg slightly with fork. Stir in milk and oil. Add remaining ingredients all at once, mixing just until flour is moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 30 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan; serve hot. 12 muffins.



Muffin Variations



• Fruit Muffins: Fold one of these into batter with the last few strokes: 1 cup fresh blueberries or ¾ cup drained canned blueberries / 1 cup finely cut up raisins / 1 cup finely cut up dates / 1 cup shredded coconut

• Dinner Muffins: Fold one of these into the batter with the last few strokes: ½ cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese / ¼ cup snipped chives / ¼ cup crumbled crispy fried bacon (** and why NOT all three? CS)

• Children’s Surprise Muffins: Fill each muffin cup just 1/3 full. Drop ½ tsp jam or jelly in center of each; top with batter to fill cup 2/3 full.

• Crunchy Nut-Topped Muffins: Mix ¼ cup brown sugar (packed), ¼ cup chopped nuts and ¼ tsp cinnamon in a small bowl. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture on batter in each cup.