Pear Pie with Dried Cherries
My friend
Melissa is a co-founder of the Sunrise Project here in Lawrence,
Kansas and as a fundraiser, they recently hosted a pie auction. This
lovely event was being held outdoors at a park and so all pies had to
be non-refrigerated. Anticipating a lot of apple, peach, and cherry
pie entries, I chose to go with this recipe because pear is a less
common pie filling. The bidding was quite exciting to watch,
especially knowing that the money was going to such a good cause.
Please take a moment to check out the website for the Sunrise
Project:
Crust
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup
flour
¼ teaspoon
salt
½ cup
butter
2
tablespoons vodka
+/- 2
tablespoons ice water
Place the
butter in the freezer. Stir together the flour and salt in a large
bowl. Using a cheese grater, quickly grate the butter into the flour
mixture. Massage everything together with your fingers until the
consistency has clumps of butter approximately the size of small
peas. Add the vodka and 2 tablespoons of the ice water and mix until
the flour will mostly hold together. If the dough seems to be too
dry and is not holding together, add another tablespoon of the ice
water. When it comes to water in pie crust, less is more, so proceed
cautiously to ensure a tender final crust. Knead the dough until you
can form it into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Wrap in
plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes at a minimum, or
overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it soften
on the counter for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how long the dough
was chilled, and the temperature of the kitchen.
Preheat the
oven to 375 degrees. Between two pieces of waxed paper, roll the
dough out into a circle slightly larger than your pie pan. Transfer
the dough to the pan, tuck the overhang under, and then crimp all
around the edge. (A thick crust around the rim of the pie plate is
less likely to shrink while baking.) Prick the dough all over the
bottom and sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Take an
approximately 12 inch by 12 inch piece of parchment paper and crumple
it into a ball, unfurl it a bit, and then place it inside the pie pan
on top of the dough. (The crumpling of the parchment paper makes it
fit inside of the pan more easily.) Fill the pan with pie weights (I
re-use dried beans specifically for this purpose). Bake for 10
minutes, then remove the weights/beans and parchment. Bake for
another 10 minutes, until the crust looks set and dry. Cool on a
rack. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Filling
Ingredients:
6 ripe
pears, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 ½
tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup
sugar (scant)
¼ cup
flour
¼ teaspoon
salt
¼ teaspoon
cinnamon
1/8
teaspoon nutmeg
dash of
cloves
¾ cup
dried cherries
In a large
bowl, coat the pear chunks with the fresh lemon juice. In a small
bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and
cloves. Add this mixture to the pears and then stir in the dried
cherries. Pour into the pie crust.
Streusel
Topping Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ cup oats
½ cup
brown sugar
¼ teaspoon
salt
½ cup
butter, melted
Combine the
flour, oats, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Stir in the
melted butter. Using your fingers, sprinkle pieces of the streusel
over the pears, covering the fruit completely. Bake for 30 minutes,
rotate pie 180 degrees, then bake for another 30-35 minutes until the
streusel is a light golden brown. If the top browns too quickly,
loosely cover it with aluminum foil.
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