Maple Walnut Cranberry Pie

This is a recipe from Cooking Light. I shared a few ideas for changing it up a bit during a recent Holiday Entertaining demo I did for teachers. Bottom line is that it tastes so good.

Serves 10

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie dough from a package of 2

Cooking spray

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray 9 inch pie plate with cooking spray

Roll dough out enough to fit into a 9 inch pie plate

Line bottom of dough with a piece of foil and arrange weights or dried beans on top to keep pastry from puffing up.

Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove pie weights and foil and cool on wire rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Combine maple syrup and next 6 ingredients through eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gently stir in cranberries and walnuts.

Pour cranberry mixture into prepared crust.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until filling is just set. If edges of crust begin to get too dark, cover around the edges with foil.

Remove from oven and cool.

Cooking Wiser

If you don't have maple syrup on hand you can use a full cup of the dark corn syrup and substitute the vanilla extract with maple flavoring.

Make mini tarts for a different presentation. There are mini pie crusts in the freezer section or cut your own from a regular size pastry using a cookie cutter. Place in a mini muffin pan. Pre cook the pastry as before, about 5 minutes.

You can use pecans but the walnuts give the traditional pecan pie a new twist. The cranberries cut the sweetness creating a flavor explosion. I love this dessert! And as many know, I am not a dessert lover.