Cranberry Apple Pie

This is a great holiday pie recipe, and it's unique! My aunt introduced this recipe to us one year at Thanksgiving, and I have been in love ever since. For those of you who are not too keen on cranberries, the bitterness of them is actually balanced well by the sweetness of the apples. I must warn you though, cooking apples that you slice up yourself are always best. If you use the apple pie filling in a can, your pie will be a little bit, shall we say, liquidatious. I know this from lots of experience! 

Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
*Pie filling:
-9 inch pie crust
-1 egg
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/3 cup flour (or more to thicken if liquidy, if you are using canned apples instead)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-2 tablespoons butter (softened, not melted)
-4 cups peeled and sliced cooking apples (Cortland and McIntosh are good ones) or 1 can of apple pie filling
-2 cups fresh cranberries
*Pie topping:
-1/2 cup quick cooking oats
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup softened butter

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Separate egg yolk from egg white. Throw the egg white away and keep the yolk.

3. Place pie crust in a pie tin. "Paint" the inside of the pie crust with the egg yolk, using a cooking brush.
Make sure to coat the entire pie crust to prevent cracking.

4. Place pie crust in oven and bake for 5 mins to seal egg yolk. Remove pie crust from oven and set aside.

5. Wash, peel, and slice apples into small chunks (I would say for me that translates to half the size of a golf ball) and put in large bowl, along with washed cranberries. Set aside.

6. Mix all ingredients (minus the fruit) well in a large mixing bowl. Butter may not mix as well if it is not softened, so break it up with a fork into small pieces.

7.Once mixed well, add in the apples and the cranberries slowly, and gently mix until all fruit is completely covered.

8. Put all ingredients into the pie crust and set aside. Now prepare pie topping.

9. Mix pie topping ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Again, butter may not mix well, so break up with fork into small pieces.

10. Once mixed well, sprinkle topping over entire pie until covered well. Bake for 40 minutes at 425 degrees.