Apple Pie

Perfect for Christmas and Thanksgiving

Goes well with vanilla ice cream and hard sauce

Ingredients:

A. Graham cracker crust (you can make your own or use a pre-made one)
1 large egg white (slightly beaten)

B. 5 Cups fresh peeled apples
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (we generally add a bit more)

C. 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick melted butter (a bit over 1/3 cup)

Directions:

1. Brush egg white on crust, bake until light brown — about 6 minutes (if store bought)
2. Combine B — mix well, spoon into crust
3. Mix C — put on as the top of the pie in thin sheets
4. Bake at 375 for about 50 minutes
5. Cool for about 4 hours.

Thanks to Christian Riley

Cranberry Bread Recipe

Perfect for Christmas and Thanksgiving

I find it easier to double the recipe and make two loaves at once since we have so many elves to feed (not to mention Santa himself).

Sift: 2 cups flour (sifted), 1 cup sugar, 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt (I never use it), and 1/2 tsp baking soda.
Cut in 1/4 cup butter (I use Promise Extra Light margarine sticks-it makes the bread really moist) until mixture is crumbly (I use a mixer to crumble-ize it)
Add 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp grated orange peel (I use a grater/peeler doohickey and grate an entire orange for every two loaves.), and 3/4 cup orange juice. (If you can get your Elves to do the grating, it will help) mix until mixture is evenly moist.

Fold in as many light raisins as you think looks good (the recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups, I never measure) and about a half bag of chopped cranberries per loaf. spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan bake at 350′ for 1 hour and 10 mins or until toothpick in center comes out clean. I never use the toothpick test, but I suppose it is a good idea.

Cool out of pan on a wire rack. keep stored in aluminum foil, unless you eat it all before it cools.

If it doesn’t come out well the first time, that is OK, it took Mrs. Claus 3 or 4 attempts before she learned to make it consistently excellent.

[amazon ASIN=1930900635&text=Original recipe from the book, Cranberry Thanksgiving — a nice little tale for children with cute illustrations and a good story. Cranberry Thanksgiving, by Wende and Harry Devlin, Published in 1971.]

(The same authors have two other books which have similar recipes: Old Black Witch, “a nice wicked witch” (pancakes) and Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon, “a sequel to the first Witch book” (cake).)