Easy Nantucket Cranberry Pie
More like a cake than a pie this easy and absolutely yummy Nantucket Cranberry Pie is bursting with perfectly balanced sweet-tart flavors! The best part, it’s crazy easy to make, and no need to make a crust! Serve it warm with a dollop of ice cream on top for a heavenly dessert. You can also use both fresh or frozen cranberries. Perfect last-minute holiday dessert for Thanksgiving, Christmas or to welcome the New Year!
Looking for more delicious holiday recipes? I suggest you try this yummy and easy No-Bake Million Dollar Pie.
I am totally obsessed with cranberries! Of all the berry recipes I have here on the blog, most of them use cranberries. You’re probably wondering why?
The answer is in my ethnicity! Well, that’s what I think anyway!
All Filipinos (most for sure!) love sour, tart flavors! We love our soups tart (sinigang); we love our fruits tart (green mangos and green guavas plus tamarind!), we love our condiments and dipping sauces with sour flavors, too – these are just to name a few.
You can say we Filipinos have a penchant for all things sour and tart!
It’s no surprise that with its sharp sour flavor, I immediately fell in love with cranberries. I know that I could use it for many desserts to provide a delicious contrast to sugary sweet flavors.
So, I continue my quest to make more delicious cranberry recipes not just for you my dear readers but truly for myself too!
This pie (or more like cake really!) is indeed full of that sweet-tart flavors I crave in a dessert! I love that it provides just the perfect balance of such flavors and tends not to be too sweet.
I advise making it a day ahead for the flavors to fully develop. It is just so pleasing to the palate that way. But if you cannot wait, don’t worry – it would still be yummy!
Serve it warm with ice cream or pouring cream or on its own at room temperature. Make sure to freeze cranberries so that even in the summertime you can make this pie because frozen cranberries work perfectly with this dessert! Enjoy!
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS FOR EASY NANTUCKET CRANBERRY PIE?
- 2 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup white sugar – this is for the filling.
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar – this is for the cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
HOW DO YOU MAKE EASY NANTUCKET CRANBERRY PIE?
Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 10″ pie plate. Set aside.
Combine the chopped cranberries, nuts, and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl. Spread the mixture all over the bottom of the prepared pan.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, melted butter, 1 cup of sugar, flour, and salt, plus the vanilla and almond extracts. The batter would be thick.
Spread the thick batter all over the cranberry mixture. For convenience, use an ice cream scooper to place the batter all over the filling. Thereafter, I use a flat spatula to spread the batter all over, as near to the edge of the cake as possible.
Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the topping is done. Remove the pie from the oven. The pie’s flavor develops and gets better as it sits so this is perfect to make a day ahead. If pressed for time, it’s great to eat on the same day, too.
Serve warm, or at room temperature on its own but I highly recommend it with whipped cream or ice cream on top!
TIPS & TRICKS
Most recipes I found online list only 2 cups of cranberries for this pie. Since I love a good contrast of sweet-tangy flavors, I opt for an extra 1/2 cup of cranberries (even tried an entire pack of cranberries!) so the pie is not overly sweet. If you prefer it sweeter with just a hint of tartness then use only about 2 cups of cranberries. Either way, you’d enjoy this amazing pie that’s more of a cake!
It doesn’t matter as it’s absolutely scrumptious!!!
Easy Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup white sugar (for the filling)
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar, (this is for the cake topping)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, adjust amount if using salted butter (use about half)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 10″ pie plate. Set aside.
- Combine the chopped cranberries, nuts, and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl.
- Spread the mixture all over the bottom of the prepared pan.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, flour, and salt, plus the vanilla and almond extracts.
- The batter would be thick.
- Spread the thick batter all over the cranberry mixture. For convenience, use an ice cream scooper to place the batter all over the filling.
- Use a flat spatula to spread the batter all over, as near to the edge of the pan as possible.
- Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the topping is done. Remove the pie from the oven. The pie's flavor develops and gets better as it sits so this is perfect to make a day ahead. If pressed for time, it's great to eat on the same day, too.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature on its own but I highly recommend it with whipped cream or ice cream on top!
Notes
Most recipes I found online list only 2 cups of cranberries for this pie. Since I love a good contrast of sweet-tangy flavors, I opt for an extra 1/2 cup of cranberries (even tried an entire pack of cranberries!) so the pie is not overly sweet. If you prefer it sweeter with just a hint of tartness then use only about 2 cups of cranberries. Either way, you’d enjoy this amazing pie that’s really more of a cake!
It doesn’t matter as it’s absolutely scrumptious!!!
Nutrition
Last updated on October 16th, 2025 at 10:37 pm
Is there any way to use dried cranberries?
I haven’t tried it and won’t recommend. Use frozen cranberries instead and you don’t need to defrost them. Dried cranberries can significantly alter the texture and moisture content of the filling, making it too dense and not as juicy. There’s a chance it would come out dry because the dried cranberries would suck up all the moisture. It also won’t have the level of tartness required for this recipe to be so yummy. Most authentic recipes call for fresh or frozen cranberries for the best flavor and consistency.
Just came across recipe on Pinterest while I was surfing recipes and this one caught my eye immediately because we are fans of cranberries in any form. Had all the ingredients including frozen whole cranberries. I put cranberries in food processor to chop a little to breakup whole berries, worked fine just pulsed. Anyhow in oven now, smells amazing, hope it’s as good as it smells. Thank you for sharing, it’s a keeper
Thank you for your feedback! I agree, it’s a keeper and I don’t miss making it during the holidays. So good.
absolutely love this recipe and so does everyone who’ve tried it.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed this! It’s absolutely delicious!
I made this pie for a friend who loves cranberries. I mistakenly melted the butter and it worked just as well, got rave reviews! And it was easier to get it all into the pie plate! I had to cook it closer to an hour though.
Glad you enjoyed this! Such an amazing cake pie, right? Thanks for letting us know.