A delicious Cranberry Pie Recipe that is perfect for the holidays! This cranberry pie is perfectly tart and sweet. Easy to make and yummy!
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This sweet and tart cranberry pie is the ultimate holiday dessert.
A rich, buttery crust is filled with a perfectly tart cranberry filling and topped with a streusel that's deliciously sweet and crumbly!
Easy to pull together, and the beginner-friendly sour cream pie crust rolls out perfectly every time!
Topped with a sweet, crunchy streusel topping, this gorgeous pie will be a big hit at the dessert table!
We love Cranberry Orange Scones as another way to use up fresh cranberries!
You'll love this Cranberry Pie Recipe with Fresh Cranberries
- Festive: This cranberry pie is a stunning dessert for the holidays.
- Seasonal: Take advantage of the seasonal cranberries!
- Total Holiday Food: Enjoy this pie at the end of your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner alongside Gingerbread Cake, everyone will love it!
What does cranberry pie taste like?
Cranberry pie is beautifully tart and sweet. The buttery pie crust helps to balance the flavors.
Don't worry about this cranberry pie being too tart, it's blended with a wonderful mix of warm spices to tame the tartness.
Cranberry Pie Recipe Ingredients
To make this pie you'll need:
- Sour cream
- Egg yolk
- all purpose flour
- white sugar & light brown sugar
- salt
- salted butter
- Fresh cranberries
- Apple juice or orange juice
- vanilla extract
- ground cinnamon, ground ginger
- cornstarch
- pecans
How to make Cranberry Pie
To make the crust
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg yolk until combined, and set aside. In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt a few times to combine.
- Add the butter and pulse until butter is in pea-size pieces, about 10 pulses, do not over-mix. Add half the sour cream and egg mixture and pulse about 5 times until combined, add the remaining sour cream mixture and pulse/process until it comes together completely. Gather the dough together into a smooth ball, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
To make the cranberry pie filling
- Heat a medium-sized pot over low/medium heat on the stove. Add all the ingredients except the cornstarch. Stir to combine. Simmer for about 25 minutes or until the cranberries have burst and begun to reduce.
- Once the cranberries have burst, combine the cornstarch with enough cold water to dissolve it, and stir in the cornstarch mixture.
- If it is still liquidy, simmer an additional 5-10 minutes until thickened, remove from heat and set aside.
- While the cranberry filling cools, combine all streusel topping ingredients in a small bowl and mash with a fork until well mixed.
- Once the pie crust has chilled, roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it’s about 10” around. Place the crust in a 9” pie pan, and press into place gently. Trim excess dough from the edge, and flute the edges using your thumb and forefinger.
- Fill the crust with the cranberry filling. Grab handfuls of the streusel topping and squeeze tightly to form a large lump, break it apart over the cranberry filling, creating smaller crumbles of streusel. Cover as much of the pie as you’d like.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes. Check the pie at 35 minutes and make sure the edges aren’t over-browning.
- You can cover it with foil or a pie protector if it’s starting to get too brown. The filling should not be jiggly when finished cooking. Allow the pie to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.
How do you know when it's done?
The cranberry filling shouldn't be jiggly and the crust should be golden brown. Don't slice into it just yet tho!
Let your pie cool on the counter for at least 2 hours before serving. This will allow the filling to be set properly so each slice comes out nice and clean.
To Make the Pie Crust Without a Food Processor:
To make the crust without a food processor, use a pastry cutter for each step in place of the food processor.
Switch to using your hands after the second addition of sour cream mixture to bring the dough together.
Cranberry Pie Storage
Does cranberry pie need to be refrigerated?: Because the crust contains sour cream, butter, and eggs we do recommend refrigerating. If you don't plan on serving your cranberry pie right away, wrap it carefully and store it in the refrigerator after it's cooled.
The best practice is to not let baked goods with dairy or eggs in them sit out for longer than 2 hours. Check out this post on how to store pies after baking
Can I freeze Cranberry Pie?: Yes! Freeze the whole pie, or individual slices to enjoy at a later date. Let your pie harden in the freezer for 2 hours before wrapping it up and placing it in a freezer bag.
Your pie will last up to 4 months in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
Cranberry Pie Filling Substitutions
Butter: Butter is essential to this recipe. We haven't tried it with dairy-free butter but it might work!
Sugar: We don't recommend substituting white sugar unless you have to, but White sugar can be used interchangeably with brown sugar. You can add 1 teaspoon of molasses to white sugar to make brown sugar. Check out this post on Sugar Substitutes for Baking for other ideas.
All Purpose Flour: We don't recommend substituting the flour, but you can check out this article on Cake Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour or Substitutions for All-Purpose Flour
Baking Powder: Baking powder is essential for this recipe. Do NOT substitute with baking soda.
Baking Soda: Baking soda is essential for this recipe. Do not substitute with baking powder.
Eggs: We don't recommend substituting eggs, but you can read this article on Egg Substitutions for Baking if you need to substitute. Try it at your own risk!
Cranberries: Frozen cranberries can be substituted for fresh.
Vanilla Extract: Helps to add flavor, we don't recommend substituting.
This filling is tart. Taste the filling once it’s slightly cooled, and adjust the sugar if needed. Keep in mind that the streusel and crust will both be sweet, do not over-sweeten the filling.
Fresh Cranberry Pie Tips
- Be sure the pie crust ingredients are very cold!
- This pie crust recipe doubles really well for a double crust recipe, or to make two pies.
- If you have leftover streusel, store it in the refrigerator for a few days and use it for another purpose.
- Streusel can be baked on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 350℉ and sprinkled on other desserts, like pumpkin pie.
- To make sugared cranberries to garnish the pie: Dip fresh cranberries (do not use frozen for this) into a beaten pasteurized egg white, wipe excess off, and roll in white sugar. Place on a baking rack to dry, for about 2 hours. These will keep at room temperature for about 24 hours.
Fresh Cranberry Pie Recipe FAQ
Cooking your filling before baking allows for excess moisture to be cooked out and not released into the pie. This also helps to develop that rich flavor. Cooking the pie filling also lets the cornstarch start to do its job by creating that jammy textured filling.
It isn't necessary to blind-bake a crust for a berry pie. Since this recipe calls for cooking your pie filling you shouldn't have any extra liquid or moisture that would seep into the crust preventing it from cooking through.
Cranberries do soften as they bake so it isn't necessary to chop them up prior to baking. Though you can! Once heated through they'll burst open and become soft.
How do you keep a bottom pie crust from getting soggy?
There are a few things you can do to keep the bottom of your crust from getting soggy.
Keep the moisture out to begin with: Cooking the liquid out of your fruit, or using sugar to draw the moisture out before putting it in the pie crust will prevent excess moisture.
You can also bake your pie on a preheated pizza stone. The extra heat from the stone will crisp up the bottom of your pie.
It's best to preheat the stone with a baking sheet on top to collect any overflow from your pie.
Lastly, brush the surface of the crust before filling it with either a beaten egg, egg white, or chocolate. Create a moisture barrier to protect to bottom of the pie.
More Tasty Pie Recipes:
- Mini Cherry Pies
- Egg Custard Pie
- Fresh or Frozen Peach Pie
- Homemade Fresh Peach Pie Filling
- Homemade Apple Pie Filling
- Blueberry Pie Bars
- Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes (No Bake)
Fresh Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- ¼ cup sour cream cold
- 1 large egg yolk cold
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons white sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons salted butter cut into small cubes, chilled
Filling
- 4 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple juice or orange juice
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch needs to be dissolved in a splash of water before adding
Streusel topping
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons flour
- ¼ cup light brown sugar packed
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter melted
- 3 tablespoons pecans finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
Make the crust
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg yolk until combined, set aside. In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt a few times to combine.
- Add the butter and pulse until butter is in pea size pieces, about 10 pulses, do not over mix. Add half the sour cream and egg mixture and pulse about 5 times until combined, add the remaining sour cream mixture and pulse/process until it comes together completely. Gather the dough together into a smooth ball, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Make the filling
- Heat a medium sized pot over low/medium heat on the stove. Add all the ingredients except the cornstarch. Stir to combine. Simmer for about 25 minutes or until the cranberries have burst and begun to reduce.
- Once cranberries have burst, combine the cornstarch with enough cold water to dissolve it, stir in the cornstarch mixture. If the mixture is very thick, remove from heat and set aside.
- If it is still liquidy, simmer an additional 5-10 minutes until thickened, remove from heat and set aside. Once mostly cooled, the filling should be the consistency of a thick jam.
- While the cranberry filling cools, combine all streusel topping ingredients in a small bowl and mash with a fork until well mixed.
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Once the pie crust has chilled, roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it’s about 10” around. Place the crust in a 9” pie pan, press into place gently. Trim excess dough from the edge, and flute the edges using your thumb and forefinger.
- Fill the crust with the cranberry filling. Grab handfuls of the streusel topping and squeeze tightly to form a large lump, break it apart over the cranberry filling, creating smaller crumbles of streusel. Cover as much of the pie as you’d like, I recommend leaving a small area around the edge uncovered so you can see the cranberry filling.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes. Check the pie at 35 minutes and make sure the edges aren’t over-browning.
- You can cover with foil or a pie protector if it’s starting to get too brown. The filling should not be jiggly when finished cooking. Allow the pie to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.
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