If you’re looking for something to make your holiday meal easier, this pie might be the answer.
The Nantucket Cranberry Pie recipe is a showstopper of a dessert in “The New Christmas Clinic” by Lexington cookbook author Barbara Harper Bach.
And unlike almost everything else about the holiday season, it’s so easy that you can’t go wrong.
“That’s a really good pie recipe and it’s easy to make,” Harper Bach said recently. “It’s a one-bowl recipe. You just mix it all up and pour it in the pie pan. And then after you let it cool, just cut out a little stencil and dust some powdered sugar on and it’s so pretty.”
It’s one of 70 pages of recipes in her updated popular “Christmas Clinic” cookbook, available at My Favorite Things in Hamburg.
“Everybody that’s tried just absolutely loves it,” she said. And it will work for just about any holiday, as long as you can get fresh cranberries.
Harper Bach said that the original from a decade ago was so popular she did several reprints before deciding in the last year to do an updated version.
“I put all the best recipes from the old one and the new good ones in there,” she said.
Besides the cranberry pie, she said a snack recipe for Christmas crackers is always a big hit.
As is the Christmas brisket, which came from her friend Ada Martin, another great Lexington cook.
This one’s the perfect main dish to do all the work for you while you do other things.
“It’s so easy, but it takes a lot of time. You marinate it overnight, stick it in the oven, just let it slow cook all day either in slow cooker or the oven, then you add barbecue sauce,” Harper Bach said. “It’s fabulous, just a great alternative to turkey when everybody’s tired of it after Thanksgiving.”
Nantucket Cranberry Pie
From Barbara Harper Bach’s “The New Christmas Clinic”
1 stick butter, melted
2 heaping cups cranberries
3/4 cups pecans, chopped
12/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
1. Generously butter a deep dish 9-inch pie plate. Add the cranberries to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle on the pecans then ²/3 cup of the sugar.
2. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl, whisk in the melted butter slowly and the almond extract. Stir in 1 cup of the sugar and the flour and salt until combined. Pour the batter over the berries and spread to the edges.
3. Bake at 350 degrees until golden and pick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Five minutes before removing from the oven sprinkle the top with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
4. Let pie cook 1 hour and dust the top with powdered sugar over a stencil. Good served with whipped cream too.
