Cranberry Meringue Pie

You already know how much I love my lemon and my lemon curd, my lemon meringue pie is probably my favorite pie ever (or anything featuring that filling tbh) so for a fall/winter twist I thought I’d cranberry the classic meringue pie. And double (triple???) the cranberry! 

This is a sharp filling, I have to warn you! It’s unlike my cranberry curd tart which has a softer filling as it’s made with orange juice and zest. For this pie I wanted to really hone in on the cranberry so I just used that, and more of it. It’ll send a zing to your jaw, just the way citrus loving people love it. 

Recipe Origins

The pie crust recipe can be found here. The filling is an adaptation of my cranberry curd recipe – I’ve kept the whole eggs and ratios the same but dropped the orange. It’s now double cranberry! The tartness of the filling is what makes this pie so perfect to me; paired with that sweet meringue it’s just wonderful – and gives homage to the iconic lemon meringue with its zing to your jaw flavor. 

That said you can still make the orange/cranberry curd recipe from my site for this pie if you prefer. 

The topping for this pie is a cranberry meringue, made italian style. You’ve seen a variation for it before in this blueberry cranberry meringue pie. Here we drop the blueberry powder. 

I have also made this with a hibiscus meringue and loved it: if you’d like to make it you’ll just steep about a half a cup of dried hibiscus leaves in warm water, for about 30-45 minutes. Then strain out the flowers and use the hibiscus (tea now!) in place of the cranberry juice. It does make for a sweeter meringue as the cranberry juice is much more tart but I found it quite nice paired with my strong cranberry curd. 

Recipe Ingredients 

Pie Crust: use this recipe. You’ll only need half of it. You can also use store-bought pie crust. 

Cranberries: fresh cranberries sold in the produce section of the grocery store. Sometimes you can find them frozen but this time of year (fall/winter) it’s best to use the fresh ones. 

Cranberry juice: 100% pure cranberry. 

Sugar: fine granulated sugar. Some for the crust, the filling, and for the meringue. 

Eggs: whole eggs for the filling and you’ll only need whites for the meringue. 

Salt: Fine sea salt. Table salt has a saltier flavor so if you are using it, halve the amount. 

Butter: unsalted butter. This makes the filling silky smooth. We’ll also need some for the crust. 

Vanilla:  for the meringue.

How to Make Cranberry Meringue Pie

First: the filling 

We’ll start by softening our berries so that we can puree them: place the berries, cranberry juice, and sugar in a pot and cook until soft: 

This can take up to 20 minutes, keep the heat steady at medium and wait until all or most of the berries have gone soft. Many of them will have burst by that point. 

Use an immersion blender (if you don’t have one, transfer the mix to a food processor to blend) to blend the berries until smooth. 

Then press this puree through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the cranberry skins. Rinse that sieve – you’ll need it again soon. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs together then whisk them into the cranberry puree. You can use an immersion blender again here, if you want to get ahead on getting rid of any egg bits. 

Now put the egg/cranberry mixture back in the pot and set it over medium to medium low heat. We’ll cook it until it thickens, stirring regularly as it will cook quicker on the bottom and we want it to thicken evenly. Add a pinch of salt as you cook: 

Once the temperature gets to 170 F, it’s done. It should cover the back of a spoon: 

Now set the butter (sliced) into a clean bowl and pour the cranberry mix again through a sieve – this time to get rid of any egg bits: 

Stir the cranberry with the butter, and leave it for a bit then let it melt and stir until smooth. 

Second, shape the crust

Make half of this pie crust recipe. It should be made at least two hours before baking but can be made up to 48 before baking if kept in the fridge. If you need to store it longer, chill it for two hours in the fridge then freeze it. 

Let the crust soften on the counter for 10 minutes (longer if it was frozen). Then flour the counter top and flatten into a disk with a rolling pin (you can smack it a few times). 

Roll out the pie crust, flouring the pin/dough as needed, until it’s about 11 inches diameter so that it has a little more edge for a 9 inch pie pan. 

Press the crust into the bottom and into the sides of the pan. Trim any uneven excess then fold the rim under itself and crimp it. 

Chill the crust for 30 minutes in the fridge (this will help it keep shape during the bake). 

Bake the Pie

Preheat the oven to 425 F and lay two overlapping sheets of foil over the chilled crust. Fill the pan with pie weight. 

We’ll pre-bake it for about 30 minutes, then remove the foil and pie weights, lower the temperature to 350 F and bake for another 20 minutes, until it is turning golden (and no longer is soft or doughy!). 

Then pour the curd into the pre-baked crust. Smooth it into an even layer. 

Now bake the pie again, until the outer rim (at least 2 inches) is set – the middle will stay wobbly. It’ll likely need about 15-20 minutes to set. Let it cool at room temperature until you can handle it, then set it in the fridge to chill fully, for at least 6 hours. 

Make the cranberry meringue 

If you’d like to make a vanilla meringue check out this page on how to make a swiss meringue on this “basic swiss meringue” recipe page. That recipe uses 4 egg whites, if you want to scale it down use 3 egg whites and 150g or ¾ cup sugar. 

For the cranberry meringue, whisk together sugar and cranberry juice then set over a pot over medium heat. 

This meringue is made italian style so we’ll cook the syrup until it reaches the candy point: at 245 F. When it’s close to temperature, start whisking the egg whites. 

When the egg whites are frothy and the syrup has candied, turn the mixer to low and slowly pour in the hot syrup. Do your best to get it to go straight into the egg whites rather than on the side of the bowl. 

Once it’s all in, turn the mixer speed up to medium and whisk until you have a thick, glossy meringue that holds stiff peaks: when you turn the whisk attachment upside down the meringue won’t drop (or not much anyway). Close to the end, add the salt and vanilla. 

If you’ve left the pie in the fridge overnight, it may have developed some condensation; you can pat this dry with a paper towel. 

Dollop the meringue onto the pie then use a spoon or offset spatula to spread it into pretty swoops.

Now you can toast it, I like a kitchen torch for this task. 

The pie is now ready to serve but it’ll keep in the fridge without weeping for about 12 hours. 

Troubleshooting 

The filling didn’t or won’t set/is too runny

Don’t take the pie out of the oven until the sides are firm and do not wobble when you gently shake the pie, the center should still wobble a bit but that will firm up in the fridge.   

Can I make this ahead of time?  

The curd can be made and stored in the fridge (airtight container) for two weeks. The pie, once baked, will be fine in the fridge for a few days.  The meringue should be made the day of serving.   

How can I toast a meringue? 

I use a kitchen torch. You can also set it under the broiler in the oven, for just a minute or so until it’s got color on top.

Cranberry Meringue Pie Recipe 

Cranberry Meringue Pie

Homemade flaky all butter pie crust, a sharp cranberry curd filling (made with two types of cranberry), and a billowing cloud of cranberry marshmallow meringue on top - toasted!

Prep Time: 1 hour hr

Cook Time: 1 hour hr

Chill Time: 6 hours hrs

Yields: 1 tall 9 inch pie

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

Pie Crust & Cranberry Filling

• 1 pie crust recipe
• 510g fresh cranberries
• 300g or 1 ½ cups fine granulated sugar
• 180g or ¾ cups pure cranberry juice 100% cranberry
• 5 large eggs
• 113g or ½ cup unsalted butter cold and sliced

Cranberry Meringue Topping

• 4 large egg whites
• 200g or 1 cup fine granulated sugar
• 120g or ½ cup pure cranberry juice 100% cranberry
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Method

Make the cranberry curd

• Set the cranberries, cranberry juice and sugar in a large pot over medium heat. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, until most of the cranberries have burst and all are soft. Turn off the heat. Use an immersion blender (or transfer the mix to a blender or food processor) to blend the cranberries into the juice. Through a fine mesh sieve, pour the puree into a bowl (or back into the pot if you used a blender). Press to squeeze out all the juice from the berries and scrape the bottom of the sieve to get all the puree.
• Crack all the eggs into a separate small bowl and the yolk, whisk well then add them to the cranberry puree, whisking as you pour. Once all the eggs are mixed, whisk them with the puree very well and add a pinch of salt. Pour the curd back into the pot and set it over medium low heat. Cook until the curd thickens and covers the back of a spoon. On a thermometer it should reach 170 F. The curd will thicken on the bottom first, be sure to stir it every 30 seconds so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
• Set the butter in a large bowl and set a fine mesh sieve (you can reuse the one you used earlier, just rinse it well) over the butter. Pour the curd through the sieve, pressing to extract all the juice. This will remove any unwanted cooked egg white bits. Stir the butter into the curd until it fully melts. At this point you can transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for a few hours or up to a week. You can also freeze the curd for 2 months.

Blind Bake the Crust & Bake the Pie

• On a well floured countertop, roll out the pie crust to about 11 inches diameter. Place into a 9 inch pie pan, press into the bottom and sides.
• Trim any uneven excess on the outer rim and fold it under so that you have two layers on the rim - this will help it keep shape. Crimp by pressing your thumb into the inner rim of the dough with two fingers on the other side of the dough. Set in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 425 F. Lay two sheets of aluminum foil over the chilled pie dough, tighten the foil gently over the edges of the pie and fill with pie weights (dried beans work too). Blind bake the crust for 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven, remove the pie weights and foil and lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Return the dough to the oven to bake until it’s starting to turn golden, for another 15 minutes or so.
• Pour the prepared curd filling into the pie crust and smooth into an even layer. Set it in the oven to bake again (this time for the filling to set), until the pie only wobbles a bit in the center - about 15-20 minutes. Let cool at room temperature then transfer to the fridge to set, for at least 4-6 hours.

Make the Meringue (day of serving)

• Set the sugar in a pot and whisk in the cranberry juice. Cook it on medium heat, until the temperature reaches 240-245 F. This can take awhile, keep a close eye on it. When it’s getting close, set the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and affix the whisk attachment. Begin whisking on low then medium until the egg whites are frothy.
• When the syrup reaches temperature and the egg whites are frothy, take it off the heat. With the mixer whisking on low, slowly pour the syrup into the whites.
• Whip for 7-10 minutes until you have stiff peaks. While it’s whipping, add the extract and the salt. Stiff peaks is when you can remove the whisk, turn it upside down and the meringue won’t droop or will only just a bit. Spread the meringue over the cooled curd in an even layer.
• Use a kitchen torch to toast the top of the meringue. You can chill this in the fridge for a few hours before serving but the pie won’t keep well (meringue tends to weep) so best to eat it the day of making the meringue.

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