The other day I got a tip from my friend Livi. Her aunt, she said, makes the best cranberry desserts in town. So I called her—here’s Robena Malicoat.
Robena: Ok I have to just start off by saying that I make two different cranberry pies and they’re both big hitters. But I think the one that Livi was referring to is a recipe that came from my mother. And the first year she made this pie, and she brought it to the table, all our jaws just dropped.
It was a cranberry chiffon pie and gorgeous. Pale pink, full of airy custard, and flavored with fresh cranberries that the whole family has for decades gone out to find in the low spots of the dunes of Provincetown each fall.
Robena: My dad especially was a cranberry nut. I remember picking cranberries I think I must have been five years old and it was this beautiful late October day and we were all there and Brownyn was a little baby and at one point my dad just looked up. And he said, “Oh, this is exquisite.” And I heard that word exquisite and I didn't know what it was, and I asked him, “What does that mean?” And he said, “Well look around you.” And I understood immediately what he meant.
Robena still goes cranberry picking every fall that she can, but this year, she had some health issues that kept her laid low during cranberry season.
Robena: But I’ve got peeps who are going to give me some cranberries because you know, whatever, there's a romance of making the pies out of cranberries that you pick, you know you either hoof it out there or you drive out there if you’re lucky enough to be able to do that and then you hit the bogs the colors different, it’s kind of this reddish color amongst all the dunes and the air is so clean and you’re kind of usually in a little hollow, but they also—they're just superior cranberries in what you would buy.
For the chiffon pie, you start with a cranberry puree and then cook this with egg yolks, honey, and gelatin. Once the mixture has cooled you fold it together with whipped egg whites to make that light, airy custard.
Robena: Pie number two is a cranberry curd pie, and it has a lot of similarities to the chiffon pie, but it doesn't have the egg whites. So it's a denser pie. And it's kinda like this sweet and tart at the same time.
To make the curd for this second pie, you cook down cranberries with sugar, orange juice, butter, and egg yolks and then pour it into a sweet, crumbled hazelnut crust. For both recipes, Robena says she thinks you could probably use leftover homemade cranberry sauce—especially if you make it her family’s way.
Robena: When we would make cranberry sauce, we'd basically just cook cranberries in cider. And cook 'em down and then maybe add a little honey to them. And you could make a big batch of cranberry sauce that way and then take half of it or whatever and continue on with the chiffon pie. And I’m sure this would work for the curd pie too, it’s just a little different in the recipe.
I asked Robena which pie she would make if she could only make one and she said, it’s impossible to choose.
Robena: So the chiffon is like this beautiful airy lighter pink because once you fold the egg whites into it, it kind of dilutes the intensity of the cranberry sauce or the custard. And the cranberry curd pie is this really dark ruby color. They're both just beautiful looking pies. They're like little showstoppers.
What a way to celebrate the harvest of the dune bogs. It’s a banner year for cranberries—and I hope you get to spend some time out there thinking about this place and all the ways it truly is exquisite.
Here is a link about Swiss Chestnut processing: https://elspethhay.com/field-notes/2025/11/24/swiss-chestnut-processing
