Cranapple Pie Recipe

Baking can be a fun, messy, exciting, and tasty adventure for young learners. It requires a lot of essential skills and provides many opportunities for educators to show their learners how useful skills like reading, writing, measuring, and math can be used in everyday situations like baking.

Try out our old family recipe and keep an eye out for opportunities for learning like: ​

• Reading the recipe and ingredients list.

• Take time to read to or let your learner read the recipe themselves. Ask them questions, ask them for the next steps.

• Working out the cost of ingredients.

• Work on a shopping list and take your learner shopping. Have them price out the ingredients. Give them a budget to stay in. Show them how different brands are priced differently. When it’s safe to do so, have them pay with physical money.

• Proper hygiene and sanitization.

• Before getting your hands into the flour, you’ll need to wash your hands. Show your learner how to properly scrub your hands. 20 seconds of vigorous scrubbing with soap and water, or two rounds of happy birthday will do!

• Measuring out ingredients.

• Cups, tbsp, litres — oh my! The world of measurements is especially confusing for Canadians. Your learner may need to know both metric and imperial measurements just to follow a recipe.

• Time.

• Time is simple, right? You Punch in 30 on the stove, wait till it beeps, then take the pie out. Bing, bango, simple like a mango. While that is true, it is also a great time to explain how time works as a measurement and a tool.

• Sensory play

• For this section, forget about that wooden spoon, it’s time to get those clean fingers into some dough — you’ve got flour on you anyways. Have you and your learner get into your mixing bowls and just start grabbing and mixing until that dough is too perfect to stop touching.

—Kraig Brachman

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Lattice-top Cranapple Pie Recipe

By Mariah Wilson

Ingredients:

• 450 ml (2 cups) of cranberries, fresh or frozen

• 400 ml (1 3/4 cups) of granulated sugar

• 75 ml (1/3 cup) of minute tapioca

• 60 ml (1/4 cup) of water

• 10 ml (2 tsp.) of grated orange rind (optional)

• 700 ml (3 cups) of cooking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (Granny Smith are good)

• 1-2 ml (1/4 - 1/2 tsp.) of granulated sugar

• Pastry for double crust pie (scroll down to the bottom for a homemade recipe)

Prep:

1. Take out two of the wrapped portions of pie dough. Lightly flour your work surface, then roll out dough until it's about 1/8 inch thick. When rolling, use light strokes and alternate directions. If dough has cracks or holes: you can fix it by placing water around the edge then use an extra piece of the dough to fill in the crack by patting it down along the edge and rolling over top.

2. Place pie plate over top of dough and trace a circular shape of the dough that's two finger widths from the edge of the pie plate. Cut out shape and then fold into quarters. Place the tip of the quarter in the center of the pie plate and unfold.

3. Roll out second portion of wrapped dough. Cut dough into 1/2 to 3/4 inch strips with a pastry wheel or sharp knife. Use a ruler to keep strips straight.

4. Wash cranberries, if fresh not frozen.

5. Wash orange, dry it, then zest the outside to create the orange rind.

6. Peel, core, and slice apples in small chunks. Add lemon juice to the apples at intervals to lessen the browning.

7. Fill the sink with 4 inches of cold water.

8. Place oven rack on the bottom shelf and preheat over to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Directions:

1. Combine cranberries, granulated sugar, minute tapioca, water, and grated orange rind in a saucepan. Heat and stir until it boils. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in apple. Set saucepan in cold water in sink for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Turn into pie shell.

3. Carefully lay half of the cut strips atop the filled pie, spacing strips at 1-inch intervals and all in the same direction. Fold back alternating strips (every other strip) and place a pastry strip in the center of pie at right angles to the pastry strips that are already in place. Slowly unfold the pastry strips and fold back the pastry strips that were straight. Add another pastry strip at right angles to the folded strips and 1-inch away from the last strip. Repeat this weaving process until the lattice top is complete.

4. Trim the pastry strips even with the bottom crust. Fold bottom pastry over the lattice strips. Seal with water and flute edge using fingers or fork. If your fork is sticking to much, just dip the fork into some flour.

5. Brush pastry with milk and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake on bottom shelf in 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 55 minutes or until fruit is tender.

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Homemade Pie Crust

By Mariah Wilson

Ingredients:

• 1 egg

• 1250 ml (5 cups) of all-purpose flour

• 454 g of shortening or lard

• 5 ml (1 tsp.) of salt

• 5 ml (1 tsp.) of baking powder

• 15 ml (1 tbsp.) of vinegar

Prep:

1. Slightly beat egg and set aside.

2. Sift flour, then measure out 1250 ml (5 cups) into a large bowl.

3. Cut shortening/lard into cubes.

Directions:

1. Measure salt and baking powder into your large bowl (one with the sifted flour). Mix all dry ingredients together thoroughly.

2. Use pastry blender or two forks to mix fat and dry ingredients until it resembles course oatmeal pieces.

3. Add vinegar to the slightly beaten egg in a 250 ml (1 cup) measuring cup. Mix with fork, then fill with water until it reaches the 250 ml (1 cup) line.

4. Make well in dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into the well.

5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients using a fork until the dry ingredients are moistened.

6. Gather into a ball and divide into 6 equal portions. Wrap each portion carefully. They can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days or placed into a plastic and put into the freezer for later.