Country Pear Pie with Streusel

I thought that gluten free pies would be one of the most difficult things to come across or make, and even more difficult to make ones that really tasted like pie. The truth is, pies are one of the more involved desserts to make, but they are extremely worth the effort. This recipe (which was inspired when my voice student gave me a huge bag of fresh pears) is one of the more advanced ones, in that there are three parts to this recipe and pie crusts are a little challenging. However, the result is extremely rewarding and delicious and had all but disappeared between just me and my roommate in a few days. The pears are slightly sour, the streusal has a nice sweet and nutty taste, while the fresh ginger adds a nice bite and surprise to the filling. The crust is slightly sweet and a wonderful substitute for real pie crust. It is also a great recipe to make with a friend, so that one can be responsible for the pie crust, one for the filling. The streusel, which is optional, produces a very pretty finished product and a little extra sweetness to this mild pie, and is very easy to make.

What you will need:

Pie Crust:

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup rice flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Filling:

• 4 cups sliced and peeled pears (takes about 1 pear per cup)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoon rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoonfresh minced ginger (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 tbsp crystalized ginger)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sliced or chopped almonds (to sprinkle on top)
  

Streusel topping: (optional and delicious)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon milk
  

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

-Combine all the ingredients for the pie crust in a medium sized bowl. Make sure butter and cream cheese are cold, not softened. The mixture will first become a fine crumb, then finally a ball (clump) of dough. Using your hands helps.

-Place the dough on a sheet of baking parchment (or two sheets of wax paper). Cover with another sheet of paper and carefully roll out into a large circle, 12 to 13 inches in diameter.

-Pull off the top sheet and carefully flip the dough upside down into a 9-inch pie plate. It's okay if it ends up off center. Peel off the remaining sheet of paper. Gently adjust the dough so that it is touching the pan as much as possible. Trim, tuck, and pinch the dough at the edge of the pie plate. Pinching the dough between your fingers will help adhere it to the pie plate and reduce the chance of the crust's slipping into the plate during baking. If you have some gaps in some places in extra dough on some edges, trim the extra dough off, roll it into a ball, place it between the parchment papers again, and roll it out a second time, using the new piece to patch the gaps. Simply pressing the dough together with your fingers will smooth out the edges enough.

-Prick the crust all over with a fork to deter air bubbles and slippage.

-Bake for 10-15 minutes until slightly solidified and golden in color.

Here's a pie crust before it has been baked:

For the filling:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

-Combine sugar, rice flour, nutmeg, and ginger in a medium-sized bowl. Add pear slices and lemon juice and toss until coated well.

-Once pie crust is baked (it does not necessarily need to be cooled), place filling inside crust, spreading the pears as evenly as possible.

For the streusel:

-Combine all the ingredients except the milk, and mix until crumbly. Add the milk and mix. Streusel will be slightly creamy.

-With your fingers, take small clumps of the streusel and cover the surface of the pie generously with them. (The clumps will look a little strange at this stage, but they will solidify into more normal looking clumps after baking).

-Sprinkle the top of the pie with the chopped almonds.

-Before baking, cover the exposed edges of the pie crust with strips of tin foil. This will prevent the crust from over-browning.

-Bake pie for 40-45 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the crust golden brown.


Notes: In most of my pie recipes, the pie crust and filling are fully cooked separately and then combined. If you are inventing a pie recipe based on one of your old gluten-filled favorite, it is necessary to pre-bake the pie crust at least most of the way, to prevent the filling from leaking through.

Making gluten free pie crusts takes a little practice and a lot of patience. Only once have I managed to flip my crust onto the pan and not use any dough patches and I often collect all the dough into a ball and roll it out a second time if I want better results.

Some tips: If the dough feels a little warm after being mixed, put it in the fridge for a bit until it is cold again. Using baking parchment is advantageous in that it is wide enough to only need one sheet for either side of the dough, however, while you need two sheets per side with wax paper, it does not wrinkle like parchment paper does, which lessens the likelihood of cracks breaking out in your circle of dough. When you secure the dough to the edge of the pie pan, you can simply pinch it between your fingers wherever you want, or if you want a more regular look, after you have initially secured the dough to the pan, carefully pinch it between your thumb and your fore finger at regular intervals to make peaks, careful not to disturb your previous peak and depression as you go around.

Also, the recipe for stresel that was in my book clearly had a few problems. It's first direction was "Combine all the ingredients except the milk..." and no milk was listed in the ingredients and even with a little milk, what I made did not come out the way the book described. I have adjusted the recipe here to say what happened when I made it. I am on the look out for a more traditionaly functional version of a gluten free streusel recipe.

And for the dairy intolerant, I am interested in trying this pie crust recipe using margarine and a dairy free product called "Better than cream cheese" which I enjoyed as a kid.

(The pie crust was the rice-based pie crust recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. The filling was a gluten free converted and slightly adjusted version of the Country Pear Pie filling recipe from "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 14th Edition." The streusel recipe was a halfed and corrected version of the rice based streusel recipe, also from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free.")