Nantucket Pie

Moist eggy cake's chewy/crispy crust doesn't last; best eaten same day. Some recipes for Nantucket Pie call for more butter, more sugar, greasing the pan... I don't know why.

2 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked free of any stems
1/4 plus 1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 tsp. almond extract, optional

Preheat oven to 325F. Put cranberries in an ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate. stir in the 1/4 cup of sugar. In a bowl, combine remaining cup of sugar with the eggs, melted butter, flour and almond extract. Pour this mixture over the cranberries. Bake until it begins to turn golden brown--about 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This simplified adaptation was published in the 2005 Jones Elementary School cookbook, Cooking the Severn and Magothy Way, for which I wrote the excellent preface. Laurie Colwin's original (?) version calls for nuts, which aren't always popular with the third-grade set.