Cranberry and Fudge Layered Pie

This cranberry and fudge layered pie is the perfect decadent chocolate dessert for the holidays. 

 

This pie consists of a flaky whole wheat crust filled with a layer of semi-sweet chocolate ganache and then topped with a sweet-tart layer of homemade cranberry sauce. 

It's a crazy-delicious dessert to serve at your next holiday dinner along with your favorite sweet potato and apple pies. I'm sure the chocolate lovers in your family would totally love it. 

I've been known to have leftovers for, "ahem," breakfast. After all, there's a serving of fruit in there, right? 

One of the best parts of making this pie, besides the fact that it's just plain delicious, is that you can make it up to three days in advance without losing any of its freshness and flavor. In fact, you really should make it at least the day before serving so that all of the ingredients can set and the pie is easy to slice. 

I recommend setting aside a half day for making and assembling this pie when you aren't worried about the rest of the holiday dishes. The hardest part will be to not cut a slice for yourself before serving this pie. 

If you do have leftovers, they will still be good for at least a few days, perfect for sneaking a slice when your sweet tooth is calling. 

How to Make this Layered Cranberry Fudge Pie:

First, make the crust for this pie. You will need white whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur), a bit of confectioner's sugar, salt, baking powder, unsalted butter, and vegetable shortening. To bring it all together, add some cold orange juice and ice water. 

Why orange juice? You can't taste it, but it actually helps mellow any bitterness from whole wheat flour. It's perfect for adding to 100% whole wheat bread for example. 

Mix the pie crust ingredients, chill them, and then roll them out and place the dough into a lightly oiled pie dish. Bake the crust for about 30 minutes. 

Next, make the ganache. This is super easy. Just microwave some semi-sweet chocolate chips with heavy cream, stir them together until smooth, and then pour the mixture into the baked crust and chill. 

Finally, make the cranberry sauce. You can use either fresh or frozen cranberries. Once you've made and cooled the cranberry sauce, pour it over the cooled ganache and then chill the pie overnight. 

Recipe Variations: 

You could add pecans or walnuts to the ganache for a nutty version. 

You could also switch the crust to a Graham cracker crust or use a pre-made crust for more convenience. 

Serve this pie with ice cream or whipped cream on top. 

Every year, I love buying fresh cranberries when they appear in the store and then freezing them for using all year long to make my favorite cranberry sweet and savory recipes. Why should cranberries be reserved for the holidays? 

Note: 

For this recipe I used unsweetened cranberry juice for the cranberry filling. You can usually find it in the natural or "healthy" juice section of the grocery store. If you can't find the unsweetened version, cranberry juice cocktail will work too in this recipe. 

More Cranberry Recipes You May Also Enjoy:

Cranberry Glazed Meatballs

Cranberry Shortbread Tart

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

Pork Chops with Cranberry Maple Pan Sauce

Welcome to #CranberryWeek where we celebrate all things made with those tastily tart, red berries! This is the third year for this event and I can't wait to see what the other 8 bloggers are sharing this week. We have over 15 recipes to share on Monday and Friday so make sure to follow #CranberryWeek to see all their delicious goodness.

More Cranberry Recipes:

• Apple Cranberry Cake from Palatable Pastime
• Cranberry and Fudge Layered Pie from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cranberry Apple Salsa from Magical Ingredients
• Cranberry Curd from Art of Natural Living
• Cranberry Jalapeno Dip from Cheesecurd In Paradise
• Cranberry Lemon Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Cranberry Orange Chicken Thighs from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spiced Cranberry Sangria from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

Cranberry and Fudge Layered Pie Recipe

Yield: 12 slices

Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories

This cranberry and fudge layered pie is the perfect decadent chocolate dessert for the holidays.

Ingredients

For The Crust

• 142 grams (1 1/4 cups) white whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 46 grams (1/4 cup) vegetable shortening, chilled in the refrigerator or freezer
• 57 grams (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cold from the refrigerator or freezer, and cut into small pieces.
• 3 tablespoons cold orange juice
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water

For the Chocolate Fudge

• 170 grams (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

For the Cranberry Sauce Filling

• 397 grams (4 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries
• 248 grams (1 1/4 cups) granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cranberry juice, divided
• 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin granules

Instructions

To Make the Crust

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the shortening to the bowl and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a large serving fork. The mixture should be crumbly. Add the butter pieces and cut them in as well. The resulting mixture should have no larger than dime-sized pieces of butter and shortening.
2. Drizzle in the orange juice while stirring the mixture with a fork. Drizzle in the water as well while stirring. Squeeze the mixture with your hand to see if it holds together.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and press it and slide it against your counter with the palm of your hand to incorporate the fat into the flour. Repeat until the dough just comes together. Use a bench scraper to fold the dough over itself and then form the dough into a 3/4 inch thick disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Heat your oven to 400 degrees F and grease or spray a 9-inch Pyrex-style pie pan with spray oil.
5. Place the unwrapped dough disk between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to a 13 inch round. Place the rolled out dough into the pan and fold and crimp the edges. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork thoroughly. Line the dough with parchment or foil and fill with pie weights. Bake the dough for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and pie weights and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

To Make the Ganache Filling

1. Place the chocolate chips and heavy cream into a medium bowl.
2. Microwave the mixture for 90 seconds and then stir thoroughly until the mixture is smooth and completely incorporated.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and then chill for at least two hours.

To Make the Cranberry Filling

1. Add the cranberries, sugar, salt, and 3/4 cup of the cranberry juice to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries begin to pop and the mixture thickens.
2. In the meantime, combine the rest of the cranberry juice and the gelatin and let sit for 1 minute. Stir. Stir this mixture into the hot cranberries and then remove the pan from the heat.
3. Transfer the filling to a bowl. Refrigerate for 30 to 40 minutes and chill, stirring every 10 minutes. Pour the mixture over the chocolate filled crust.
4. Cover loosely with foil and chill overnight before serving.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

274

Fat (grams)

19 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

10 g

Carbs (grams)

22 g

Fiber (grams)

2 g

Sugar (grams)

12 g

Protein (grams)

4 g

Cholesterol (grams)

27 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2023/10/cranberry-and-fudge-layered-pie.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

cranberries, chocolate, pie

dessert

American

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This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Baking's Sift Magazine, Fall, 2019. Sadly, this magazine is no longer available. I still have all of my copies!