Two Pear Pies

Sometimes, I go on a baking craze. I have all the ingredients, time, and energy I need, not to mention a huge bag of pears from my voice student's garden, and I go, why shouldn't I bake two pies in one night? Sure, the first pie didn't go quite as planned, and I ended up baking until 10:00 at night, but the ending result was still quite rewarding.

These two pies compliment each other nicely. My first one, a Pear and Almond Tart, is mild, not too sweet, and nutty. I adapted this recipe to be gluten free by replacing the rather odd crust recipe (which involved grating the dough and pressing it into the pan...) with a regular gluten free pie crust. The tastes worked extremely well together. My second pie, a Rustic Pear and Apple pie, is a great burst of flavors and extremely simple to put together. The tart apples and dried cherries in this recipe go extremely well with the crust, and make a great contrast with the sweet pear tart. Not that you neccessarily have to make both of these pies at once, however.

Pear and Almond Tart

What you will need:

• 1 unbaked gluten free pie crust (Click here for the Rice-based pie crust recipe and instructions)
• 3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/6 cup blanched whole almonds (blanching optional)
  
• 2 eggs
• 3-6 ripe comice pears, cored, peeled, and halved.

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pie crust according to directions (place in 9-inch tart pan if desired) and bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

-Place pears facedown in the pan. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

-For the filling, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and light. Put the almonds in a food processor and chop until fine. Add the butter and sugar into the food proccessor and blend, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Pour over the pears. Place pie on a cookie sheet or other pan before putting in oven and bake approx 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the top is crisp and tests cleanly with a toothpick.



Notes: This was my first time using a tart pan as opposed to a pie pan, and I didn't really know what the difference was, so I thought I'd say for those of you who are also new to tart pans. Instead of pinching the dough to the edge, as with pie pans, you simply press the dough into the crimped edges of the pan and trim off the excess by wiping your finger along the top of the pan. It gives the tart a very professional look, though in this case, the filling tends to obscure the crust.

Also, I had read that working with the pie dough when it is cold makes shaping it much easier, but I had never really tried it. This time, I kept the balls of dough in the refridgerator for about 20 minutes before hand, until they were a little tough to maneuver, and the dough held together magnificently.

It is extremely important to place a cookie sheet or other pan underneath the tart pan. When the butter based filling is still relatively cool, it holds together and forms a mound. This mound liquifies during baking and will spill over the edge of the pan (as you can see in the picture above) and into your oven if you do not place a pan underneath to catch it. I learned this the hard way.

For those of you who don't know how to blanch an almond or what blanching means (I certainly didn't) my fellow baker, Vicki, informed me. This is how I understand it, though the internet may be able to explain more accurately than I can: You take a bowl of almonds and pour boiling water over them. The almonds will begin to slip out of their casings, and after draining the water, you can slip the casings all the way off with your hands. Repeat the process if neccessary. I did not blanch my almonds, as I felt two pies was ambitious enough, and the only effect it seems to have is a slightly bitter after flavor, but nothing drastic.

Lastly, I did not use comice pears, that I know of. I would imagine that if you want to make this recipe to its full potential, you should use comice pears, but any old ripe pears that you have should work fairly well.

Rustic Apple and Pear Pie

What you will need:

• 1 unbaked gluten free pie crust (Click here for the Rice-based pie crust recipe and instructions)
• 3 cups peeled, cored, peeled, and sliced apples
• 1 cup peeled, cored, peeled, and sliced pears
• 1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pie crust following directions listed above.

-In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the filling. Place in the center of the pie crust, spreading as evenly as possible.

-Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Cover the edges of the pie crust or the entire pie with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking until the fruits are very tender, approximately 40 minutes. The juices will be clear and bubbly.


Notes: For this recipe, I used the same unidentified pears as in the pear and almond tart and ripe fujii apples. The recipe recommends using Yellow Delicious apples and barely ripe pears, which I have used before, but unfortunately, the pie was a gift, and I never tasted it.

The original version of this recipe recommends rolling out the pie crust dough to about 15 inch in diameter, placing the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet, placing the filling ingredients in the center of it, and carefully folding the edges of the dough over the filling, making a more rustic looking pie. This turns out a little bit messier than a traditional pie crust, but surprisingly well, and if you are looking to break out of the traditional pie crust pattern, I'd recommend trying it.

(The source for the original Pear and Almond Tart filling recipe will be listed soon, which I halved and replaced the crust recipe with a gluten free one, and the pie crust recipe was taken from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." The Rustic Apple and Pear Pie recipe was a slightly adjusted version of Roben Ryberg's recipe also.)