I’ll bet you ten bags of cranberries that this is the easiest dessert in the world.
I first learned of it from Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite blogs). She calls it a pie.
She adapted it from Laurie Colwin (one of my favorite authors). She also calls it a pie, but admits it’s a cake.
It really is a cake. But it looks like a pie. And when you serve it to your friends they will really, really, really like it.
my arty nantucket-cranberry-pie-with-poinsettia photo
It’s so easy I just made four of them. The directions call for a 10″ pie plate, but I usually double the ingredients and divide them between all sorts of pyrex dishes. After you make it the first time, you realize it’s not an exact science. This time, because they are gifts, I baked them in 6 1/2″ disposable foil pans. But they look much lovelier when in glass pie plates.
(Everything does.)
So, here we go:
2 heaping cups of cranberries
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts or pecans)
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick of butter, melted
2 eggs
First you butter the pie plate. Be generous.
Then put the cranberries in the plate. Sprinkle with the nuts and the 2/3 cup sugar.
For the batter: Mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, melted butter, eggs and vanilla (if you like almond extract, feel free to use that instead) and gently stir until it is blended. Pour (it will be thick) over the berry combo in the plate.
Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. Sprinkle the top with sugar and bake another 5-10 minutes or so. The nice thing about baking in glass pans is being able to see the cooked bottom of the cake. Check to make sure it’s done (insert toothpick, yada, yada).
Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or plain. It’s really good warmed up.
I love it for breakfast with Greek yogurt. You could serve it in parfait glasses with a dollop of yogurt on top for a buffet brunch.
Here’s Laurie Colwin’s version (with thanks to www.themailifiles.blogspot.com, who found the original recipe by Colwin):
“When people feel they must make a REAL dessert they are usually looking for something simple and wonderful, two qualities often seen as mutually exclusive. I like a cake that takes about four seconds to put together and gives an ambrosial result. Fortunately, such cakes exist and are generally found at someone else’s home. You then purloin the recipe (because you have taken care to acquire generous friends) and serve it to other friends who in turn, pass it on to yet others. This is the way in which nations are unified and relationships are made solid.
My candidate for an easy, spectacular dessert is something called Nantucket Cranberry Pie, which is not a pie, but a cake. It was served to me in the country by a friend who lives on a dairy farm; she got the recipe from her mother, who can no longer remember where it originally came from. It is now a staple in their family, and the buck stops there.
In an effort to find the true roots of this cake I looked in The Yankee Cook Book by Imogene Wolcott, a classic tome that contains just about everything anyone needs to know about traditional New England fare. In the index was Cape Cod Cranberry Pie, but it turned out to be a real live pie. Our Nantucket Cranberry Pie is definitely a cake; furthermore, it is a snap to make, and, last but not least, it is delicious. If you wanted to try your hand at lily-gilding, you might put vanilla ice-cream, creme fraiche, or (if you have tons of time) custard on the side, but my friend serves it straight, which is, I agree, the best way.
Nantucket Cranberry Pie
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Chop enough cranberries to make 2 cups and enough walnuts to make 1/2 cup.
2. Put the chopped cranberries and walnuts and 1/2 cup sugar in a buttered 10-inch pie plate or springform pan.
3. Mix 2 large eggs, 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) melted and cooled butter, 1 cups sugar, one cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. Stir the batter until it is smooth and pour it over the cranberry walnut mixture. Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
There is something about the tartness of the cranberries and the smooth, sweet, buttery taste of the cake is irresistible. This dessert is so easy a child could make it, and so, if you happen to have a child or two around, I suggest you set them to work for your next dinner party.”
