This week I decided to brave it out, and put my excuses — small kitchen, no room in the freezer, no pastry blender, etc. — aside and bake a pie. My friend Becky had some ripe pears off of her tree, and I still had a few of the apples from geeksugar. So with fresh produce in hand, and a few recipes at my fingertips I decided to roll out some dough and make a pie.

Things were not so great. I'll admit it now, I'm not great with pastry crust. Pie eludes me and while I successfully managed to create a bottom crust, the upper crust was difficult and not easy to work with — I should have put it back in the freezer first. After ruining what was left of the dough, I went into panic mode until I remembered I didn't need a top crust and could make a crumble instead. So I whipped up a few ingredients and sprinkled the crumble on top.

Overall it ended up being a delightful pie — the pears and apples really play nicely together — and when paired with a scoop of ice cream, it was absolutely heavenly. Oh and I know it doesn't quite look like a slice of pie, but like I said, pie eludes me...

To check out the recipe I used, read more

Apple and Pear Pie
Crust from Jessica Appelgren's Huckleberry Peace Pie, Filling adapted from Diana's Desserts, and Crumble mixture from YumSugar

Crust
[Note: I cut this in half and used a crumble topping instead.]
2 cups butter
2-2/3 cups flour
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt

1. Chill the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes so that’s it’s really cold.
2. Pour the flour over the butter on a large work surface, covering the butter so that it won’t stick to your rolling pin.
3. Roll the butter out flat, collect the mixture with a scraper, and re-roll it two or three times.
4. Make a hole in the middle of the mixture and add the water and salt, cutting the liquid into the mix with the scraper until you have a workable dough.
5. Roll the dough out flat one more time, cut it in half, and place in the freezer.

Filling
1/4 cup golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 - 1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
5 firm but ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, stir together the filling ingredients, mixing till well-combined.

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup golden brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix the butter and flour with the fork until it is textured like breadcrumbs.
2. Add sugars and cinnamon to mixture and mix well.
3. If it is too dry, use the leftover liquid from the apple/pear mixture to help.

Assemble

1. Roll one piece of pie crust into a 12-inch round and gently lay it into the pie pan.
2. Spoon in filling. Do not add all of the extra liquid.
3. Evenly put the crumble mixture over the apples.
4. Bake pie in a preheated 425°F oven for 15 minutes.
5. Reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until the top is brown and filling is bubbly.
6. Remove from oven to cooling rack, and let cool completely before serving.

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