Vegan & Gluten Free Apple Cranberry Pie

This week turned really cold really fast. Fast enough for there to be thunderstorms the other night that were windy enough to knock down formerly happy trees. So I wanted something warm and comforting that was delicious, not overly complicated, and easily made without braving the grocery store. (Have you noticed that grocery stores get crazier and crazier the closer we get to Christmas? It makes me not want to go, and grocery shopping is my favorite chore. It's a bummer, but maybe I'll vacuum instead?)

Oh yeah, and sweet. I wanted sweet.

Official Taster is big into pies, and apple is his favorite. Apple is not my favorite, and I don't like crust that much, so the standard double-crust apple pie is relatively low on the dessert list. But, since I'm awesome, and since OT has been feeling a bit under the weather, I decided I could get on board with a baked apple pie-like thing.

I've mentioned before that fruit crisps are one of my favorite things, so I chose to use my favorite topping on the apples and dress them up with some dried cranberries. One of these days I'll make a homemade pie crust, but, in the meantime, store bought does just fine.

Vegan Apple Cranberry Pie

1 premade pie crust (both vegan and gluten free are available)
6 Cups-ish apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin (5-6 medium apples)
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C dried cranberries
lemon juice

For the topping:
1/2 C flour
3/4 C brown sugar
6 tbsp chilled vegan butter, cut into half inch pieces
1 C quick oats
gluten free: see the notes below


Prepare the pie crust according to directions on the package. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the apples and cranberries. Drizzle a little bit of lemon juice over the bowl and mix again. Transfer the fruit to the pie crust.


In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar, salt and butter with several on-off pulses or only until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Add the oats and pulse a few more times to break them up.


Spread the topping over the fruit and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is a nice golden brown. 


Notes:
I used the juice of about half a lemon since I had a fresh one left over. It's probably totally optional, and you could also use juice from a bottle. 


I didn't use enough apples because I was lazy. I only used four. As you can tell from the pictures, it's a pretty small layer, so you should use more. 


Want to make this gluten free? Click here for the post with the wheat free topping recipe.