Best. Pie. Ever.

According to the hubster.  Last night I told him, bag of fresh cranberries in hand, that I was going to make a cranberry pie.  "Why?" he said with distress in his voice at the waste of a perfectly good pie opportunity.  I just smiled and continued mixing up the crust.

I like to make up the crust in advance and let it sit for several hours, up to a full day, at room temperature.  This allows the phytates to neutralize, allowing for better digestion and to allow for more nutrient absorption...particularly minerals.  Phytates are germination inhibitors present in all seeds.  These natural substances can be rather irritating to the digestive tract for some people and also block absorption of some key nutrients.  I soak all grains for us and for my animals for this reason.  Mixing the water into the crust mix and letting it sit accomplishes this.

Today, I rolled out the crust and assembled my ingredients while the oven was heating to 450 F.

After picking through the cranberries and discarding the mushy ones, I had about 3 cups, which my recipe for mock cherry pie called for.  This recipe came from one of my WWII era cookbooks that I just love for ideas for making real food on a budget.  I ran the washed and sorted cranberries  through the blender to coarsely chop them, in 4 batches.  Then I mixed in about 1.5 cups of organic raisins, 1.25 cups water, a half cup of sugar, two droppersful of liquid stevia extract, 2 Tblsp flour, and a few shakes of salt.  Oh, and a small glug of homemade vanilla extract, maybe a tsp or less.  This was thoroughly mixed and added to the bottom crust.

Next came the top crust, and here is proof that you don't have to be great with the rolling process....just trim later: 

I trimmed the excess and turned it under....I like a thick crust, but you can trim more closely for less crust.

Here it is, ready for the oven:

And before I could take a bite, the man who was buying some chickens from me showed up...by the time I got back in the house, my husband was raving over the pie, saying it was the best pie he's ever eaten!  Cranberry pie!

Must be the lard in the crust....