Cranberries are a Thanksgiving classic, so A and I were delighted to make not one, but two cranberry pies. One sweet, and one savory, we liked them both a lot!
First, the savory. Originally, this recipe was for pork and cranberries, but we did a vegan switch and subbed seitan for the piggy, and liquid smoke and some smoked salt for the bacon. The result was delicious. Even meat and potatoes people liked it!
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Here’s how it went down:
Ingredients:
Enough seitan to fill a pie dish. I used the Viva la Vegan recipe for white seitan, which is steamed. I think I used about four loaves of seitan, chopped up, probably about 3 cups.
1 tsp of sage, or meat rub, or thyme, or anything tasty.
quarter cup flour
A solid shake of liquid smoke.
A solid shake of smoked salt.
1 cup ground cranberries
one third cup sugar
1 cup hot water
1 biscuit crust: 1 cup flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, .5 tsp salt, .25 cup margarine, one third cup almond milk
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix the herbs, flour and salt together. Toss seitan to coat. Pan fry in a little margarine, until browned and delicious. Place in a casserole dish, or a deep pie pan.
- Combine the cranberries and sugar, and sprinkle over the seitan. Pour cup of hot water over all, and stick it in the oven.
- While that’s baking, mix up your biscuit crust. Combine the dry crust ingredients, and cut margarine into it until crumbly. Add milk, stir. Knead it a few times, then roll it out, ideally between sheets of parchment paper. Cut into strips, or circles, or whatever seems cool to you.
- Take the seitan cranberry mix out of the oven, place biscuits on top, return to oven.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Our sweet cranberry venture was a Harvest Apple-Cranberry Pie. Of all our pies, this is the only recipe I’d tweak for recipe, rather than vegan reasons. It just didn’t set, and while delicious, I think it would be improved by more cooking, which is reflected here. However, the flavor was fantastic.

Ingredients:
2 piecrusts (bonus recipe for peanut pie crust below!)
.75 cup sugar
3 TBSP cornstarch
.25 tsp salt
.75 cup corn syrup
.25 cup water
1.5 cups raw cranberries
2 tsp. grated orange peel
1.5 cups chopped apples
2 TBSP margarine.
Directions:
- Heat oven to 425 degrees.
- Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a saucepan. Add corn syrup and water slowly. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens to a filling-like consistancy.
- Add cranberries and continue to cook until their skins pop, add orange peel. Cool mixture.
- Add apples to the mixture, pour into piecrust. Dot the top with margarine, add top crust and seal and vent the pie.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes.
For this pie, we branched out, and made a Peanut Pie Shell. It was delicious. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 cup flour (you should probably sift it)
.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
one third cup vegetable shortening
one quarter cup crushed salted peanuts
3 to 4 TBSP cold water
Directions:
- Crush the peanuts by putting them in a plastic bag, and banging on them with your rolling pin.
- Sift dry ingredients together.
- Cut in shortening.
- Add peanuts.
- Sprinkle cold water over mixture, a little at a time, until dough holds together in a ball.
- Roll it out. Put it in a pie pan.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes before filling.
This crust would be fantastic with a chocolate filling, or a regular apple pie filling.

I made the apple-cranberry pie for Thanksgiving. Adding two tablespoons of dry tapioca to the filling made it gel up beautifully. Not soupy at all.