Countdown to the Holidays

Tomorrow kicks off my favorite time of the whole year. I freely admit that I am a holiday nut. I look forward to the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's practically every moment that precedes it. I just love the goodwill and happiness that saturates the entire season. I love settling in for winter with a hot cocoa, listening to carols and crafting away like mad to finish up my Christmas presents. I love the Nutcracker watching one of the many versions that I have in rotation over and over again. I love cider and cinnamon and being with family friends and sweaters and evergreen trees standing in the middle of my living room. I love looking at old ornaments and remembering where each came from and that each has a story behind it.

There are so many more things, I could go on and on! Instead I'll tell you about yesterday. My mom and I put together my harvest pie for Thanksgiving dessert. They're sitting in the freezer right now, and we'll bake them while dinner is being served so they'll be fresh and bubbly from the oven when we're ready to eat them!

I've been baking this pie for a couple of years now. The recipe is adapted from MS Living Christmas Cookbook. It's chock full of harvest fruity goodness. I'm going to include my version of a Pate Brisee pie crust as well. If there is anything that I don't shortcut when it comes to cooking it is pie crust. HOME MADE IS BETTER! It truly is. Once you get the hang of making pie crust you'll never go back!

Harvest Pie
Makes 2 9"-10" pies

7 baking apples sliced
7 Bosc Pears sliced
4 tablespoons flour plus more for work surface
1 1/3 cups of sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 cups fresh cranberries (12 oz)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons heavy cream


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl combine apples and pears with flour, sugar, nutmeg, and lemon juice and zest. Add cranberries; toss to combine. Set aside.

2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out pate brisee (recipe below) to two 12"-14" rounds. Fit dough into two separate pie plates*.

3. Fill pie shells with fruit mixture; dot with butter. Pull the edges of dough over fruit, I leave the edges rough, so that the pie is rustic looking. Brush dough with cream. Sprinkle with sugar lightly and evenly over filling. Place the pie plate on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

4. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 350F; continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, about 1 1/2 more. If crust browns too quickly, drape aluminum foil over the top. Let cool before serving.

* I have a great trick for getting a round of dough into a pie plate. Take your round and fold it gently in half. Now fold it in half again. You should now have a wedge of dough. Take that wedge and put it into one quadrant of your pie plate. Unfold twice and your dough is in the pie plate. No torn dough!

Pate Brisee

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2-3 teaspoons of sugar*
2 sticks of chilled unsalted butter cut into pieces.
4-6 tablespoons of ice water.

1. Place dry ingredients in bowl, stir to combine. I use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry mix by hand. I think that this leaves larger chunks of butter, thus a tastier dough than doing it by food processor. Do this until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

2. Add four tablespoons of ice water. Using your hands gather the dough and press it into a ball. If it does not come together, add more water a tablespoon at a time until it does. Divide in half and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Chill at least an hour before rolling out.

*The original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon. When making desserts I use 2-3 to make a subtley sweet dough.