Wow your Thanksgiving dinner guests with this pie recipe from Back in the Day's Cheryl Day

Going to "Pie Camp" with Cheryl Day is akin to getting a master class in chemistry ― or maybe alchemy, the way she spins kitchen staples into golden layers.

Cheryl, co-owner and co-baker at Back in the Day Bakery with her husband Griff Day, and an award-winning cookbook author, to boot, shows me how to make a pie crust that ultimately produces the crisp, airy folds of a croissant with the downhome comfort of a biscuit. We get our hands in a bowl of flour, pressing cold butter into shards so that the shaggy dough just barely holds together as we sparingly add a sluice of apple cider vinegar, water and sugar.

She turns the dough onto the cold metal table and demonstrates how she pulls it together in a mound then presses it away from her, then folds the dough onto itself, slowly forming into multiple layers.

"Now, you try it," she says. A few presses and the stresses of the day start to melt away. She likens pie-making to therapy, and it is.

There's a bowl full of cranberries macerating in sugar and orange juice into which we zest orange peel. She's crafted a new recipe, she tells me, a cranberry pie. It's a fresh way to serve the traditional cranberries, Cheryl explains, except with all the sweet-tartness of a cherry pie.

We're making the pie two ways, one with a double crust and another with a brown sugar-and-oat crumble. No matter the crown, we want the fruit juices to grow thick and bubbly ― a little "jammy," as it would with a blueberry buckle or cobbler.

"Pure deliciousness," she says.

Indeed, it is.

Cheryl Day’s Cranberry Crumb Pie

1 disk All-butter Extra Flaky Pie Dough, unbaked (recipe follows)

For the Oat Crumb Topping:

1 cup (125 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup (90 g) old-fashioned oats

½ cup (100g) dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

4 cups cranberries

1 1/4 (312 g) cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out one disk of dough into a 12-inch round that is 1/8-inch thick. Transfer the dough to fit it into a 9-inch pie dish and relax the dough into shape of the pie dish, leaving a 2-inch overhang around the edge of the dish. Then crimp your pie crust.

Start by folding the extra dough under itself. Use your index finger and thumb of one hand to crimp to create a letter C, pushing the thumb of your opposite hand against it, pushing gently into the pie dish as you crimp, working your way all around the edges of the crust. Make sure that your crimp is resting on the outer edge of the pie plate. Freeze the crimped crust for about 10 to 15 minutes, and then define your crimp again, so that it will hold its shape when it bakes. Return your crust to the freezer while you make the topping and filling.

Make the crumb topping: In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and nutmeg with a fork until completely blended. Pour in the melted butter mixture and toss with your hands until butter is incorporated, creating a crumble texture from small to medium sized clumps. Once the mixture will hold different sized clumps in your hand, it’s ready! Scatter the mixture in a baking dish in a single layer and place in the refrigerator for 10 to15 minutes; this helps to ensure it will hold its texture when it bakes.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375° F.  Place a parchment lined baking sheet on the lower rack to catch all the juices that fall when the pie bakes.

Make the filling: Using a food processor or a blender, place 3 cups of the cranberries and pulse a few times until they are lightly crushed. In a large bowl, combine the crushed cranberries, remaining whole cranberries, sugar, cornstarch, salt, zest, and juice, and gently toss until combined.

If you don’t have a food processor, place the 3 cups berries in a large plastic bag and do your very best with the back of a sauce pan to break up those berries. This step acts as therapy, and also releases some juice that will help thicken the filling as it bakes.

To assemble the pie: Pour the filling into the chilled crust. Top the entire pie with crumble, making sure you have various size chunks on top to create texture. Place the pie in the oven. Bake until the crust is a deep golden brown and the juices of the pie are bubbling, about 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack, 2 to 3 hours.

All Butter Extra-Flaky Pie Dough

Makes two 9-inch pie crusts or 1 double crust

2 1/2 (312 g) cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup (355 ml) ice water

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 pound (2 sticks) (277 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes

In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a measuring cup or a small bowl, combine the water, brown sugar, and cider vinegar. Set aside.

Toss the butter in the flour mixture to gently coat it. Then use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. You should have various-sized pieces of butter, ranging from sandy patches to pea-sized chunks, with some larger bits as well. Drizzle in about half of the ice water mixture and stir lightly with a fork until the flour is evenly moistened and the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems dry, add a little more ice water, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. The dough will still look a bit shaggy at this point. If you grab a small piece of dough and press it slightly with your hand, it should mostly hold together.

Dump the dough out onto an unfloured work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough a little at a time, pushing it away from you and working your way down the mass of dough to create flat layers of flour and butter. Then gather the dough back together with a bench scraper, layering the clumps of dough on top of one another. Repeat the process once or twice more; the dough should still have some big pieces of butter visible.

Cut the dough in half. Shape each piece into a disk and flatten it. Wrap the disks in plastic and put in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight, to rest.

The dough can be stored for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or up to 1 month in the freezer. If frozen, defrost in the refrigerator overnight.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Thanksgiving cranberry pie recipe from Back in the Day Bakery's Cheryl Day