Prepare pie dough. Roll and plate bottom crust, cover well and keep in refrigerator until ready. Roll top crust and place on a plate or baking sheet, cover well and keep in refrigerator.
Rinse cranberries, removing any irregular ones and set aside. A bag of cranberries has about 2.5 cups give or take, so if you love cranberries, you can skip measuring and just use one bag.
Peel and slice apples about 1/4 inch thick, placing them in a large skillet or dutch oven. I like to vary the size of my apples by cutting some of the slices in half.
Optional: place sugar in a small bowl and add zest of one orange. Using your hands, rub together sugar and zest until aromatic.
Add sugar and orange zest to apples and cook over medium heat for about 8-10 minutes. Stir often.
While apples are cooking, combine cornstarch, 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon and fresh grated nutmeg in a small bowl. I promise you, fresh grated nutmeg really elevates the flavor and is worth this tedious task.
When the apples are just starting to give, add the cranberries. This takes some judgement but don’t stress over it. The intention is for the cranberries to cook a little, but keep their shape. Cook for another two minutes or so until the apples have softened but still hold their shape. If they have released a lot of juice, you can pour some off. I find that Granny Smith apples don’t seem to produce too much juice.
When the apples have softened, increase to medium-high heat and add the cornstarch mixture. This is where the science happens. The cornstarch combined with the juice will thicken, creating your filling. This only takes about 30 seconds. Remove from heat as soon as it thickens.
Place mixture into a bowl to cool and add the juice of 1/2 of an orange. If you love orange flavor, go crazy here. Just keep adding to taste. You can also add some additional sugar here if you feel the need to. Cool completely before using or store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Baking the Pie
When ready to fill the pie, preheat oven to 425 and place oven rack on lowest level.
Fill the plated pie shell with the apple mixture. If you feel you need more volume, you can add some additional apple slices.
Choose your top crust adventure. You could do a full top crust with some slits in the middle to let the steam out, but we feel this pie is too pretty to hide. Find your favorite lattice tutorial on the internet (I am not your girl for this) and give it a go! Basically, you will want to try to have about 12 one-inch strips of pie dough for this. ALSO, I am not opposed to using a crumble top here. You could leave the middle open to show the pretty filling and make a cozy wreath of crumble around the pie.
Brush top crust with an egg wash (beaten egg with a splash of milk or water). Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Place pie on a baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 and bake for another 30-40 minutes until the juices are thick and bubbling. Be patient with this part – I always say that the pie will let you know when it’s done. Watch for those slow, thick bubbles coming from the edge of the pie.
Cool completely and enjoy a slice of the holidays!