Thanksgiving Desert: Pumpkin pie & Cranberry Apple Pie

The pies were great this year:

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin Pie:
• Whole Foods GF Pie Crust
• Libby's Pumpkin Pie Filling
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Eggs
• Cranberry Apple Pie:
• Whole Foods GF Pie Crust
• Top Crust -use your favorite or:
• 1 cup Bob's Mill All Purpose GF Flour Mix
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 Tbs. quick tapioca
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups cranberries
• 1 1/2 cup apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 Tbs orange rind, grated
• 3 Tbs orange juice
• 2 Tbs butter, melted
• Whipped Cream:
• Heavy Whipping Cream
• Sugar
• Vanilla
• Ice Cream

Procedure:

Pumpkin Pie:

    For the pumpkin pie, I took the lazy way out:  store-bought GF pie crust, and canned filling that tells you what to do.  Libby's Pumpkin Pie filling is GF, so  just follow the recipe on the can.  Easy as Pie.

    We usually do a GF almond flour crust, I'll post that at Christmas - it's a great bottom crust, but doesn't really work as a top crust.  

Apple Cranberry Pie:

    This recipe was given to my family by my mom's cousin, Donna.  Hopefully she's OK with it being posted online.  Anyway, for the filling, mix the sugar, tapioca, and salt and set aside.  Then, mix the cranberries, sliced apples, grated orange rind, orange juice, and butter.  Add the first mix to the second and mix.  Immediately pour into shell, cover with top crust, and bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes - the top shell should be brown and the apples should be cooked (feel with a knife).  If you don't put the filling into the shell and bake right away, the sugar will cause the fruit to juice and you'll end up with way too much liquid and a mushy pie (but it will still taste great).

    For the shell, use your favorite recipe or the one above.  We used Whole Foods GF shell and the top crust listed above.  We didn't use one of our better recipes, or xantham gum, so the top crust was crumbly and didn't end up looking very nice.  But, it did the job and tasted fine.

Whipped Cream:

    Pour heavy mixing cream in mixer, whip until it starts to firm up, add a splash of vanilla.  Add a little sugar to taste, about 2-4 tablespoons, while still mixing.  Don't over-mix, it will turn to butter.  It should just stand up on its own.  

Resulting Deliciousness:

    These pies turned out fantastic.  The pumpkin was just your normal pumpkin, solid, tasty, needs to be there on Thanksgiving.  However, the Apple Cranberry Pie is pretty much the best pie ever conceived by mankind, and it did not let us down this time.  In addition to the whipped cream, we served ice cream from Kilwin's with the pie.  Many Kilwin's ice creams have no gluten ingredients, you can see a list of ingredients and an allergen list at most stores.