Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie with an elegant braided crust is bound to be a delicious, impressive dessert at any holiday celebration.
With this Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie, I’m circling back to my July baking bucket list where I failed to create a braided pie crust. In July, my pie dough was just too soft, the temperature in my kitchen much too hot for such delicate pastry, and after multiple attempts and a loss of patience, I surrendered to the pie crust and made just a traditional (yet very tasty!) blueberry pie without a braided crust.
This time, however, I reigned supreme over the braided pie crust! With a sturdier pie crust recipe, a sense of calm, and a whole lot of time, I not only braided my pie crust but I made a lattice topped braided pie crust and it turned out beautifully. It was sheer perfection (if I do say so myself!) and one of my prouder baking bucket list moments.
Pie Crust Recipe
My initial pie crust recipe used straight butter, an ingredient that can cause the dough to quickly become soft and lead to breakage and, as I had mentioned in my original post, something I assumed to be a culprit in my original failure. This time around, I used a combination of both chilled butter and vegetable shortening to make my pie crust.
The addition of vegetable shortening gave my pie dough more stability and it was able to withstand longer times are room temperature while I was braiding it than if it was just a butter-based pie dough. I still used the same food processor method to combine the dough ingredients then finished the dough on the counter, working quickly to combine the last remaining bits of flour that didn’t come together in the food processor. Lastly, a step I didn’t do last time around, was that I allowed the pie dough to rest overnight in the refrigerator. Please do this, so plan to make the dough 1 day prior to braiding and making your pie.
I also liked the end baked pie crust better than the all-butter dough. This pie crust was flakey, tender and delicious. I couldn’t stop picking it off of the pie! I also used the same trick from my original blueberry pie bake to keep the bottom crust from becoming sogging by adding a thin layer of panko breadcrumbs between the crust and pie filling. This is 100% something I’ll be doing forever with any pie I make, it makes a huge difference in the bottom crust.
Time to Chill
When it came time to braid my pie crust, I chose to braid the strips on a metal cookie sheet. This allowed me to easily transition the braids (mid-braiding) into the fridge to chill up when I felt them becoming soft. The added benefit of the metal trays was that it acted as a ‘cold conductor’ and allowed me to move faster in-between chillings since the dough chilled more quickly.
So I could work continually, I actually had two trays of dough I worked off of and while one was chilling, I braided the other. The other thing I picked up on while braiding the pie dough was that the strips should be loosely braided together. Then, once the braid was finished and sealed together on both ends, I’d ‘squish’ the braid together to make it appear tighter.
Texture & Depth
The key to creating a braided lattice pie crust is to add texture and depth to the design. I did this by using the braided pie strips and by incorporating different widths of plain pie crust into my design. These different widths with the braided texture helped break up the design, making the braids stand out more on their own. The unintentionally added benefit here is that this also meant I didn’t have to braid as many pieces.
To help the lattice top bake up beautifully and denote the braided pieces, I added an egg wash with a sprinkle of sugar to the top right before baking. This helps create the beautiful golden color on the crust and the egg wash sinks into the nooks and crannies where it will turn even more brown, helping give the pie crust even more depth and crunch once baked.
Need a quick tutorial on how to lattice pie crust? Check out this YouTube video for an easy demo.
Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie
My original intent with the braided lattice pie crust was to make an apple pie. But truthfully, I only enjoy crumb topped apple pie. So at the last minute while grocery shopping, I decided to make something a bit more festive and went with Cranberry Perry & Ginger since it seemed seasonally appropriate for both Thanksgiving and Christmas baking.
When making this pie filling, make sure you choose ripe pears. Hard pears will never bake up in the oven will result in a tough pie. I really enjoyed the Cranberry, Pear & Ginger Pie filling because it wasn’t overly sweet and it had a bit of tart & spice to it from the cranberries, ginger, and cinnamon. I found it to be a perfect flavor for holiday celebrations and it was easy to make.
Interested in more baking bucket list recipes? Check out the full list here.
- 2½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable shortening
- 12 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into cubes
- ¼-1/3 cup ice water*
- Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add in the shortening and butter and process until the mixture is crumbly.
- With the machine running, drizzle in the ice water, starting with a ¼ cup until the mixture forms a dough. Add more, 1 tablespoon at a time as needed until the dough comes (mostly) together.
- Turn the dough out onto the counter and press it together to form 1 ball, don't work the dough too much.
- Split the dough in half, form into a thick disc and wrap each half tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
- Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes prior to rolling.
- 2 unbaked pie crusts for the top and bottom, about ¼ inch in thickness
- 3 large, ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut int ¼ inch pieces, about 6 cups
- 1 cup fresh cranberries, washed and dried
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 egg + 2 teaspoons of heavy whipping cream*, for the egg wash
- additional granulated sugar for the top, optional
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Place one pie crust in the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, ginger, and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, toss together the pear pieces, cranberries, and lemon juice.
- Sprinkle the sugar-flour mixture on top of the pear mixture and stir to combine.
- Place the pie filling inside of the prepared bottom pie crust.
- Top the pie with the remaining pie crust** and crimp the edges
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and 2 teaspoons of cream. Brush the top of the pie crust with the egg wash and lightly with granulated sugar.
- Bake the pie for 30-minutes. After 30-minutes, you may want to cover the edges or top with a pie crust shield or foil to keep it from burning and continue baking until the filling is soft, an additional 25-30 minutes (total bake time is 55-60 minutes).
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- While the pie is cooling, make the whipped cream by placing the heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, and confectioner's sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high using the whisk attachment for ~5 minutes until stiff peaks form.
- When ready to serve, slice the pie and garnish with a dollop of the homemade whipped cream.
- Whipped cream can be kept in the fridge for 3 days and the pie can be stored covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.
**When placing the top pie crust, you can choose to make a simple flat-topped pie, a lattice crust, or whatever of your choosing.