I recently mentioned in my Facebook status that I had made a pear pie, and got several curious and interesting comments about it. So, I decided to post the recipe on dilChef(TM). I love making fruit pies, because they are deceptively easy and very delicious. I improvise a lot when I make fruit pies, experimenting with different spice profiles. I really liked this one, because it was so ridiculously easy and tasty. Here's the recipe:
PEAR PIE
2 9-inch pie crusts (best if you can make crust from scratch using butter)
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh pears, peeled and medium- to large-diced
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup raw, amber, or turbinado sugar (or, use 3/4 C white and 1/4 C brown)
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 stick of butter
After you have peeled and diced the pears, grate a fair amount of lemon zest (that's the rind) into the pears. Squeeze the juice from one half lemon in as well (make sure you don't get the lemon seeds). In a gallon zipper bag, add your dry ingredients -- sugars, flour, and cloves. Shake them up until they are well mixed. Add your pears to the bag and shake until all the pear pieces are well coated.
Dump the bag into the bottom pie crust. Slice your butter into pat-sized slices and layer over the top of the pears. Add the other crust on top, crimp around the edges, and trim off the excess crust. Poke plenty of steam holes in the top crust. Sprinkle just a little of the turbinado sugar over the top. Place the pie on a cookie sheet to catch any overflows and bake at 375-400 degrees until the crust is golden brown and flaky. Serve hot with a ginormous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
You can use essentially the same recipe for apple pie, but I prefer cinnamon over clove when spicing apples. If you try the recipe, let me know what you think. Enjoy the food!
PEAR PIE
2 9-inch pie crusts (best if you can make crust from scratch using butter)
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh pears, peeled and medium- to large-diced
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup raw, amber, or turbinado sugar (or, use 3/4 C white and 1/4 C brown)
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 stick of butter
After you have peeled and diced the pears, grate a fair amount of lemon zest (that's the rind) into the pears. Squeeze the juice from one half lemon in as well (make sure you don't get the lemon seeds). In a gallon zipper bag, add your dry ingredients -- sugars, flour, and cloves. Shake them up until they are well mixed. Add your pears to the bag and shake until all the pear pieces are well coated.
Dump the bag into the bottom pie crust. Slice your butter into pat-sized slices and layer over the top of the pears. Add the other crust on top, crimp around the edges, and trim off the excess crust. Poke plenty of steam holes in the top crust. Sprinkle just a little of the turbinado sugar over the top. Place the pie on a cookie sheet to catch any overflows and bake at 375-400 degrees until the crust is golden brown and flaky. Serve hot with a ginormous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
You can use essentially the same recipe for apple pie, but I prefer cinnamon over clove when spicing apples. If you try the recipe, let me know what you think. Enjoy the food!
Oh David, this is good. (Well, I did apple, not pear.)For apple pie, I like cinnamon also; but I also like more brown sugar than white.
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of tossing the apple slices in a bag with the sugar and spices. That makes a major difference. WOW!
(DO you ever use all of the various spices that are called apple pie spice, that is, a combination of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg?)
But even more, with apple pie, I always like to add raisins and toasted walnuts. Oh my, try that bit some day.