FED Friendsgiving: Sonia's Kitchen

Sonia Turanski with Cranberry Meringue Pie

Nov 20, 2024

This week, FED’s Friendsgiving continues with Sonia’s Cranberry Meringue Pie. Never made pie crust? Or meringue? Don’t fret, Sonia pulled this recipe together for her son, and it comes complete with all the tips you need to bake like a pro!

Big love, Ashley

P.S. With our Fall issue, FED opens wide the doors for anyone and everyone to add their voice by contributing to a FED Friendsgiving. I genuinely hope that you will share your taste of home with us. The table awaits…

Send a recipe, an anecdote, and/or a favorite food plus an image. (It doesn’t have to have anything do with the U.S., Thanksgiving, history, etc.; it only needs to be your taste of home, however you define it.)

We’ll pull everything that arrives together and serve it up as FED dishes throughout the season. Yum!

Cranberry Meringue Pie

I invented this recipe in 2022. At the time, several recipes came around for Cranberry Curd Tart, and I put the recipe together by adapting the components from other sources, as noted. This pie is best served cold or cool, after preparing it a day in advance and then, resting covered overnight in the refrigerator.

Cook time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Cool on counter: 1 hr.

Refrigerate to set: Min. 4 hours/ Overnight is good

Read through the full recipe before beginning.

Ingredients—the complete list, see below for allocations…

1 x 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
½ cup fresh lemon juice (juice of two small lemons +/-)
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ sticks of butter (¾ cup)
7 large eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
Water

Instructions

A deep dish pie plate works the best.

IN ADVANCE (½ hr. or more)

Take 1 ½ sticks of butter (¾ cup) out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. 1 stick will be for pie crust and ½ stick will be for cranberry curd.
Separate 4 eggs for the meringue while still cold (the cold temp makes them easier to separate).
Place the whites into a VERY clean bowl (see notes about meringue further on) The bowl should be large enough for whipping the meringue when the time comes (I put mine directly into a Kitchen Aid bowl). Set aside to allow the whites to come to room temp.
Use a medium sized bowl to receive the yolks as you separate them; other ingredients will be added to this bowl later. Retain only 2 of the separated yolks in this bowl; the remaining 2 yolks will not be used and can be fed to the dog, tossed out, or used in some other recipe (I used mine to make Caesar salad dressing).

MAKE A QUICK AND EASY PIE CRUST / A 9-Inch Single Crust

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick (½ cup) room temperature butter, cubed
3 tbsp +/- cold water

Pie Crust Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°
Sift, then measure: 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
Resift it into a bowl with: ½ teaspoon salt\
With a pastry blender or fingers, work in: ½ cup room temp butter cut into small cubes. Until the grain in the mixture is pea size.
Stir in, 1 tablespoon at a time: 3 +/- tablespoons cold water until the mixture just holds together when you gather it into a ball. Better less water than more.
Flatten dough by hand into an approx. 6”- 8” pancake before rolling out with a pin to size of pie dish. The more you flatten the dough the easier it is to roll out without cracking. I use a stick-free silicone rolling surface, but whether you use this or the countertop, dust surface of counter and top of dough with flour to prevent sticking when rolling. When large enough, roll pie crust onto pin to transfer to baking dish. Unroll in place, and press gently into place. Create raised/deckled crust edges to your liking. Poke holes all over the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork.
To prevent the crust from rising too much while baking, some people cover the dough with parchment paper and fill it with dried rice or dried beans as a weight. If no weight is used, you can simply flatten the crust when it comes out of the oven with the bottom of a glass if needed. I have not used weights and often do not need to flatten the crust. Mostly, I use it as is.
Put the pie baking dish on top of a larger cookie sheet for easier handling. Put the crust in the oven on the middle rack and bake at 425° for 12 to 15 minutes (set timer), making sure the edges do not get too brown, as the crust will go back in the oven when baking the meringue, and you don’t want to burn the exposed edges.
While the crust is baking, start on cranberry curd.
When the crust is ready, remove from the oven and reduce oven temp to 350° in preparation for final baking with meringue.

CRANBERRY CURD

(Adapted from https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/cranberry-pie-recipe/)

1 x 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 ½ cups sugar, divided in half
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks (saved in refrigerator from separation of whites)
pinch of salt
½ cup fresh lemon juice (juice of two small lemons +/-)
4 Tbsp (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temp and cut in pieces
¼ cup water

Cranberry Curd Instructions

Put the cranberries, ½ of the sugar (¾ cup), and ¼ cup water and bring to a simmer in a saucepan on top of the stove. Keep an eye on this; stir often and scrape down sides to ensure that the bottom does not scorch. Lower the heat and simmer the cranberries, uncovered, for about 15 minutes until they’ve popped, and the mixture is quite thick. Let cool slightly; then, puree until completely smooth. (If available use an immersion blender – if not transfer to a blender and then back to the saucepan.)
At this time, the pie crust should be out of the oven – or close to it. Keep it nearby to cool.
In the medium bowl with the 2 yolks, add: 3 whole eggs, salt, lemon juice and the remaining sugar. Whisk them until smooth, and then add to the cranberries in the saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly,until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This will take about 10 minutes or so. Stay by the pan the whole time and stir! Note: let the mixture just come up to a bubble, and then remove from heat.
Push the curd through a mesh strainer or sieve into another medium bowl to make it very smooth. This will separate out the skins. Use the back of a spoon to push as much as you can through the sieve. There will be about ½ cup of skins left over in the strainer. Using a clean utensil to scrape as much of the smooth curd off the bottom of sieve as possible.
Add the remaining cut up ½ stick of butter into the curd, bit by bit, while you stir to melt it fully. The curd is now cooked.

MERINGUE RECIPE

(Adapted from https://addapinch.com/how-to-make-meringue-recipe/)

4 large egg whites, the ones separated at the beginning and now at room temperature.
¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
¼ cup sugar – no lumps!

Meringue Instructions

Pour eggs whites into a clean bowl for whipping.
Whip the egg whites until they are glossy and smooth (1-2 min) then add the Cream of Tartar to help the egg whites hold their form.
Slowly add the sugar to the whites, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until the sugar is incorporated. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

GENERAL MERINGUE TIPS

Separate your eggs while they are cold and then allow them to come to room temperature for the fluffiest meringue.
Make sure there is NO YOLK in the whites.
Always make sure the bowl and whisk you are using to make your meringue is scrupulously clean. Wash it and then wash it again, just to be certain. It is essential that there is NO GREASE!
Take care not to over whip your meringue, only about 1-2 min. on high in a Kitchen Aid. It should have a smooth and glossy look.
Use Cream of Tartar to help stabilize the meringue to hold its form.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Pour warm curd into the pre-baked pie crust.
Pile meringue onto the middle of the curd, and spread to edges, paying attention to the overall look. Use the back of a spoon to create peaks. Note – if the curd is still warm it helps bond the meringue to the curd and prevent the layers from separating. Also spreading the meringue so that it touches the edge of the crust all the way around prevents the meringue from shrinking inwards.
Place the pie (still on baking sheet) back into the pre-heated 350° oven, about 4 inches under the heat (middle rack) and bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden. Keep an eye on it to avoid overcooking.
Allow pie to come to room temperature (1 hour or so), and then, refrigerate (covered if you have a cake cover) for a minimum of 4 hours to set. Overnight is best.

Enjoy, and refrigerate uneaten pie!

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