Pear Pie

The Farmer’s Market has just been too attractive and I found myself with a basket of Bartlett Pears that were ripe and ready to use…what to do?

Bartlett Pears are at their peak…..very juicy, ripe and reasonable.

Pear Pie takes the sweetness of fresh pears and combines it with crystallized ginger for an amazing burst of flavour. This is truly a decadent pie and probably one that you will only make when pears are plentiful and cheap.

Enjoy!

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Serves

8 servings

Ingredients

5 Cups ripe pears (cored, peeled and sliced into wedges)
1 lemon (freshly grated)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 Tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 Tsp salt
2 Tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
Crisco recipe for 9 (or use your favourite pie crust)
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp whipping cream
Tbsp milk mixed with 1 tbsp water
1/2 Tsp white sugar

Directions


Make your favourite pastry recipe for a 9 inch pie plate, with both a bottom and top crust. (see Crisco recipe following). Roll out the pastry for the bottom crust and place in the pie plate

Peel, core and slice the ripe pears into wedge slices. Toss with the grated lemon rind.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and crystallized ginger together. Toss gently with the pear and lemon mixture. Place the filling in the pie plate. Slice the butter into 1/4 inch slices and place on top of the filling. Drizzle the whipping cream over the filling. Wet the edges with a little bit of milk mixed with water.

Roll out the top crust and place over the bottom, pinching the edges to form a scallop. Using your finger, dip into the water and milk mixture and gently place some on the top crust. Sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp of white sugar. Cut some vents in the top to let the steam escape.

Bake at 400 deg F for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 deg F and continue to bake for 40 - 50 minutes or until the filling starts to bubble through. Serve warm or at room temperature with or without ice cream.

Crisco Pastry

Print recipe

Serves

enough for a double-crust pie

Ingredients

2 Cups all purpose flour
1/4 Tsp salt
1 cup Crisco shortening
4 Tbsp water

Directions


Measure the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and cut it in using a pastry cutter or two knive cutting together until the flour/shortening mixture resembles pea sized pieces

Mix in the water and stir with a fork, just until all the ingredients are clinging together. Do not over mix or the pastry will be tough.

Flour the top of your counter and around the sides of your rolling pin. Draw together about 1/2 of the pastry mixture and liberally sprinkle with flour. Pat into a circle about an inch thick and then roll it out to about 1/4 of an inch thick.

At this stage, you can either cut the dough into circles to fit into tart tins or use this half of the recipe to fill the bottom of a 8 - 10 inch pie plate. If you are making tarts, you can probably re-roll the scraps one or two more times and then the remaining pastry will be too tough to work with. Repeat with the second half of the pastry.

Pastry needs to be baked at a high temperature (400 deg F) for at least 10 minutes for pies that are then reduced to about 350 deg F until the filling is cooked or for tarts you may continue to cook at 400 deg F for about another 5 minutes to cook the centre and finish the cooking of the pastry.