[My apologies to Karin of Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice who hosted this week’s SMS recipe – golden almond fruitcake. I didn’t have the ingredients on hand & didn’t get around to picking them up and making the recipe. If you’re interested, Karin posted the recipe on her site – you can also visit my SMS friends to see what they thought of the fruitcake.]
One of my favorite desserts in the world is a fruit crisp. I love warm, baked fruit, particularly when it’s got a sweet, crumbly topping! So, when I saw this pie in the October/November issue of Fine Cooking I knew I’d make it. It takes my love of fruit crisps one step further by adding a buttery, flaky crust to the equation. Plus, it utilizes pears, which are abundant at this time of year so it was the perfect dessert to share at Thanksgiving dinner with our friends a few weeks ago.
The pie starts with an all-butter crust, which is blind-baked before any filling is added to help avoid a soggy crust. Pie crust is still something I struggle with, but I actually had fairly good luck with this recipe. I had to add a bit more water than the recipe called for but I blame that on the dry winter air in my kitchen. The crust rolled out nicely and I must have avoided stretching it too much because it didn’t shrink when baked. I haven’t reproduced the entire recipe here but have included the link to the recipe on the Fine Cooking site below if you’d like to give it a shot.
The recipe as written called for pears and dried cherries in the filling but I decided to substitute dried cranberries for the cherries because that’s what I had on hand. The most time consuming part of making the filling is peeling and chopping the pears; after that it’s just a matter of tossing the pears with lemon juice, adding a sugar/spice mixture to them and stirring in the cranberries. Be forewarned – there is a TON of filling! You will definitely have to mound it in the pie plate. It bakes down quite a bit so the pie just has a nice domed shape when it’s removed from the oven. Because of the mound of filling you do have to carefully apply the streusel topping and press it down or else it tends to fall off.
Your hard work will pay off because this pie is terrific! The spices are subtle so the pears really are the star of the show. I liked the contrast (both in color and flavor) provided by the cranberries a lot too. Best of all, my crust was flaky and gorgeous – a rare occurrence for sure around here π Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. Onward to the Christmas season!
Fresh Pear Pie with Dried Cranberries & Brown Sugar Streusel
from Fine Cooking, October/November 2009 (also available online here)
Streusel
4 1/2 oz (1 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz (8 tablespoons, 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Filling
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/8 oz (1/4 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup dried tart cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 blind-baked All-Butter Piecrust
Position a rack in the center of the oven, set a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 350 F.
To Make the Streusel: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, sugar, and salt. Using your fingers, blend the butter into the flour mixture. The mixture will be moist. Set aside.
Mound the filling into the piecrust. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the pear mixture, pressing the streusel between your fingers into small lumps as you sprinkle.
Put the pie on the heated baking sheet and bake until the pastry is golden-brown and the filling is bubbly and thickened at the edges, 55 to 65 minutes. Rotate the pie halfway through baking, and if the pastry or streusel browns before the filling has thickened, loosely cover the top or edges of the pie as needed with a pie shield or a sheet of aluminum foil.
Transfer to a rack and cool completely before serving.
The pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
That looks fabulous! Makes me wish that I liked pears… I always make my apple pie with streusel topping. I’ll have to try this one to see how it compares.
I am seriously just considering cooking/baking from your blog. This looks so wonderful, and I will get around to this one as soon as I can. Maybe this week, yep, that soon. Gorgeous photos just add to the appeal…you win this week, this looks terrific!
Wouldn’t it be great if one perfect crust-making session would guarantee that all future crusts would also be perfect? Your pie looks fabulous; I don’t bake with pears nearly enough. Great job!!
This looks wonderful!
So glad I stumbled upon your site!
This pie looks fantastic! I love a good fruit crisp too! I made a similar apple cranberry streusel pie for Thanksgiving. I think I like your streusel better!
I didn’t get to make the SMS fruit cake this week either. I think it’s a busy time for all of us. I love pear pie and this one looks especially yummy with the topping!
looks so tempting i love the top streusel π
Another great success from your kitchen. You have such great pics and recipes. I have tried several of your ‘things’ even tho’ I haven’t mentioned it.
this pie looks wonderful with that great streussel topping.
Your pie looks wonderful! I’m so glad you had a successful pie-crust experience, it is such a disappointment when crust doesn’t turn out… I love crisps, and how can you go wrong with a crust and a streusel topping!
Man, your friends must have been loving this one! It looks incredible.
That. looks. delicious! Seriously!
That pie looks delicious! I may have to try that. I skipped the fruitcake this week. Not a big fan of fruitcake.
Pie plus crisp topping? Awesome!
I love fruit crisp too. And this looks heavenly… Great flavor combination!
that brown sugar streusel has me drooling! I just love this pie entirely looks so delicious!
Such a pretty pie! I love streusel topping on mine.
Dried cranberries make everything better! This looks heavenly.
This pie looks fantastic! I love the combination of pears and cranberries. The streusel looks like it really makes this one a winner.
Oh snap. I was just thinking of doing a pear pie, but wasn’t sure how to strengthen the flavor, but your post has inspired me! Thanks so much!!
I am so glad to hear that this pie is a winner, because I flipped when I saw it on the cover of fine cooking! You did such a gorgeous job! I know my streusel will look nothing like yours hahah!
Oh how I love anything with streusel topping and then you had to throw in dried cranberries?? I am totally sold.
I’ll take two…do you ship?
π amy
That topping is out of this world! Looks great!!
I love its height. More yummyness in every slice! After my recent success with dried cherries in apple pie, I can’t imagine pear with cranberries or cherries to be anything be divine. Thanks for the tips about applying the topping!
another one for my bookmark list π my, my. december is going to be full of sweets!!
i share your love for warm baked fruit!! isn’t it the best?
I made this last night… absolutely delicious! I had a frozen pie crust in the freezer, so I started with that, instead of making the one you suggested – but the streusel is so delicious and there is a perfect balance of sweet and tart in the pie.