Realizations Inc

My family members were never big fans of cake; they love pies. In fact they usually prefer pie for birthdays and anniversaries, to say nothing of holiday celebrations.

I began adding cranberries and apples to cherry pie when one of my stepsons asked, “Is this just a cherry pie?” I replied that it was indeed a cherry pie. "Well," he continued, "there aren't very many cherries in my piece. It definitely needs more stuff."

And that's how Cherry-Cran-Apple pie was born. It has been a huge favorite ever since with family and friends. This recipe makes one 9-inch pie. Just multiple the ingredients for as many pies as you want to make. I'll bet they won't last very long. They never did around our house!

Ingredients

• 9-inch pie plate
• Pie crust for top and bottom 
• 1 can red tart pitted cherries in water (drain water and save for filling)
• ½ cup dried cranberries (soak in hot water for 10 minutes then drain well)
• 2 apples, sliced or diced (wash well but you don't need to peel them)
• 1/2 cup sugar or equivalent  (I use Xylitol - low Glycemic Index and okay for diabetics)
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch (scant)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp almond flavoring

Preparation

Place water drained from canned cherries in a sauce pan.
Stir in sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixtures boils and thickens. Remove from heat.

Add cherries, apples, cranberries, and almond extract. Mix gently.

Pour filling into pie plate (bottom crust in place). Cover pie plate with top crust and crimp/seal edges. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape. Cover loosely with a square of tin foil (not tucked in around the edges). *

Place pie in oven preheated to 400º F. and immediately turn heat down to 325º F.

Bake 45 minutes. Remove tin foil. Bake another 10-15 minutes until pastry browns. Allow to cool at least an hour so filling can gel.

Serve plain, with frozen yougert or ice-cream, or all add non-dairy topping. Enjoy!

* Rather than make my own pie crust, I sometimes purchase frozen pie crust already in a pie tin (vegetarian shortening). It's so easy to just pour the filling into the ready-made pie crust. To reduce calories, I rarely cover the top with an entire crust. Instead I take the second pie crust in the package, turn it out on a bread board and let it thaw for 20 minutes or so. Then I carefully cut out the bottom round and then cut the round into eight wedge-shaped pieces. I lay these on top of the pie.  It looks pretty and is already to be cut into eight pieces once it's baked.