Apple- Cranberry Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust

The 'Sea of Apples' from our family apple-picking venture is almost entirely depleted. It has been an apple-recipe-a-day around here for the past couple of weeks, and it's been fun selecting some new and unique recipes that utilize this fall fruit favorite. My family urged me to make a pie. Can't have a bunch o' apples without makin' a pie, right? I begrudgingly set forth to find a recipe. I'm crust-challenged, you see, so the pie recipes have not been calling to me. Because of this, here's a recipe that finally provided some pie inspiration: Apple- Cranberry Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust.

Oatmeal cookies in an apple pie? What could be better! Knowing we would enjoy the cookie part especially, I created a substantial crust base for this pie.

The original recipe calls for just apples, but I preferred to add a handful of cranberries... just because they added a splash of color and a little tartness to to counteract all that sweet stuff. I dug up cranberries that I froze last fall, using up the final bag just in time to buy some new ones to store for use during the next year. You could certainly use all apples to make this pie (but it wouldn't be nearly as pretty!)

The apples and cranberries are tossed with lemon juice & rind, as well as spices, a bit of flour, and a small amount of sour cream. More delicious cookie crumbs are sprinkled on top.

The baked product turns out one amazing pie. The crust is very much cookie-like, and its pairing with the apple pie filling is wonderful. Serve it warm, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you're feelin' a little wild and crazy. I would liken this to a really good apple crisp, rather than a classic apple pie.

There are just enough apples remaining to create a couple more recipes... I'll be scouring my cookbooks and magazines for more apple inspiration, and I'll be avoiding those crusty pies for certain.

This recipe can be found HERE.