Johnny Iuzzini's Apple Cranberry Pie

A possible first: I stumbled upon a recipe in the morning, made it in the afternoon, and it was gone by the evening. The source of the recipe was the Live! With Regis and Kelly TV show, where twists on favorite Thanksgiving recipes were being featured. I watched the pie being made in the morning and had a potluck to attend that evening. Why not? I like twisted.

I refer you to the website for the recipe with just a few comments about my pie-baking experience.

Let me first say, that I generally prefer making pies to eating them, but the reverse was true in this case. Also, please note that the pie-crust recipe given is for a single crust but two crusts are needed. Double the recipe, and use a full-size food processor.

I used Gala apples with much success. Additional varieties are suggested. Don't use Granny Smiths as noted.

Might as well use fresh-squeezed orange juice, since the recipe calls for the zest from an orange. I actually used two medium-sized oranges to get slightly more than 1/4 cup of juice. I used the extra juice to replace part of the water in the cranberry sauce used to make the Cranberry Whipped Cream, which is to die for. I put the zest of the second orange in the sauce after I had cooked it.

I substituted about a half-teaspoon of orange extract for the orange liqueur, which I didn't have on hand. The last change was not to fold all of the cranberry sauce into the whipped cream. Perhaps this wasn't necessary, but the Cranberry Whipped Cream was already such a lovely color, and I feared that too much folding in of too much sauce would take the air out of the whipped cream.

Do let the pie sit for a while after baking so that it won't be runny when served.