It's time for Pie

Thanksgiving Day (and turkey day!) are only 2 days away.  That means I've got to get my pie crusts made and the sherry cake baked.  Andy's requested a sherry cake, which is my grandmother's recipe, and which I usually make for Christmas.  I've also got a cherry cream pie in the works, which I will post later today, and a pumpkin pie (or two), and I may even try this Old Fashioned Honey-Apple Pie.

This Pear Crumble Pie is one of our favorite pies.  (There's a link to the original post here and on the recipes page above.)  It is similar to a Dutch Apple Pie, but made with pears.  Any variety will work, but I used some locally grown Bartletts for this pie.  The pears take on an almost buttery flavor and texture.  Of course, that might also be from the stick of bUtter in the crumble topping.

Pear Crumble Pie

Use your favorite pie crust recipe.  I used Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust recipe from Pioneer Woman, and it got rave reviews from the pie testers.
I am obviously not a pie crust perfectionist.  I don't have the patience to expertly flute the edges, and I usually have to do some patching after lifting the crust in, but the pie tasters care not about the aesthetic appeal of the crust as they're wolfing it down.


Filling:

3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
dash of salt
1 teaspoon of shredded lemon peel
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (basically the juice from one large lemon)
6 to 8 pears, peeled and cored, then thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon peel and juice.  Toss with the pears and arrange in pie shell.

 

I do not spend my time arranging.  The pears are dumped in and shoved to fit.

Topping:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)(I cube it up while it's cold and let it sit in the bowl til it is room temperature.)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I grate from a whole nutmeg and it's delish!)

1 cup flour

Combine the topping ingredients until it's crumbly.  Sprinkle over the pie filling.  Make sure you don't pat it down, it will make a crust and not a crumble.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 425.  Wrap the crust edges in foil for the first 1/2 hour then remove and cover just the crumble for the last fifteen minutes to prevent overbrowning.  (This one got a little bit too brown, but it got eaten just as fast.)

 

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Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom  sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom,  Harvard Common Press and Pillsbury!