It was the best of pies, it was the worst of pies. Well not really, but I thought I'd continue my salute to Charles Dickens. I guess this story really begins when a friend and I invited another friend over for dinner and he said that he would make a pie and be over in about an hour. I scoffed at him and said that there was no way in the world that he could make a pie in an hour. And so the challenge began: he had one hour to make a proper homemade pie and not a minute more. Exactly one hour later, I texted him to see if he was done yet. He was not. He was done about seven minutes later, which was still very impressive. Although he did cheat and use a canned pie filling, it was nevertheless quite tasty, most likely due to the crust. Apparently, it was a secret family recipe that had won many a pie contest. I did eventually get the recipe from my friend but was sworn to secrecy so it will not be posted here.
The first time I used this recipe was to make a pear pie for my dad's birthday. Not apple. Pear. Pear because my dad has always insisted that pear pie is better than apple pie and that he doesn't understand why apple pie is so popular. So I indulged him, and looked for pear pie filling recipes to use with my friend's pie crust. The one that I decided to use was published in the February 2005 issue of Bon Appétit. The full recipe can be found here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pear-and-Almond-Tart-231612
Pear and Almond Filling
Pears:
4 Bosc pears, peeled
4 cups water
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
*It is very important to use Bosc pears. I did try using other pears such as Bartletts, but they were not as juicy or as sweet.*
**I reduced the sugar from the original recipe.**
1. Add water, sugar and lemon juice to a large pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat and add the pears.
2. Cook until the pears are tender and you can easily pierce it all the way through with a fork.
3. Cool in syrup until ready to use.
Almond Filling:
2/3 c blanched slivered almonds
1 tbsp flour
7 tbsp sugar
3/8 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1. Add almonds, flour and sugar to a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.
2. Add butter and blend until smooth.
3. Add egg and almond extract and mix until well blended.
4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover and chill until relatively hard. This can be done for 30 minutes in the freezer or an hour in the fridge.
*I added almond extract to the recipe to bring out more of the almond flavour.*
For the pie that I made for my dad's birthday, I used Bartlett pears and they were not as juicy so I decided to make it again with Bosc pears, which were the pears that the original recipe called for. I also made the pie with my friend's secret recipe, but I was interested to see how that crust compared with a more flaky pie crust. I was really interested to try a pie crust that I saw on America's Test Kitchen that they described as being fool-proof. So the following weekend, I made another two Pear and Almond pies, one with the secret recipe and the other with the ATK recipe, also this time with Bosc pears.
ATK Pie Crust:
2 1/2 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c cold butter, in 1/2 inch thick pieces
1/2 c cold vegetable shortening, in 4 pieces
1/4 c water
1/4 c vodka
*I reduced the salt from the original recipe because I thought the crust was a little salty.*
1. Add 1 1/2 c flour, sugar and salt to a food processor and pulse twice to aerate and mix.
2. Add the cold butter and vegetable shortening and process until the dough comes together.
3. Add the remaining cup of flour and give the mixture 4-6 pulses.
4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the water and vodka.
5. Form the dough into a ball and divide it into two pieces. Wrap the pieces in plastic wrap and chill them in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.
Caution: This dough will feel completely wrong when you're making it, but trust me, it works. And it is completely fool-proof. There were a couple times when I was making it that I doubted it would turn out or thought that I had messed up, but the crust was perfect.
Assembly:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Generously flour your work surface and the top of one piece of dough.
3. Roll it out into a circle until it is big enough to fit your pie plate. This dough is relatively wet as pie doughs go, so don't be afraid to add more flour to the keep it from sticking.
4. Take out the chilled almond filling and with tablespoonfuls at a time, flatten it in between your palms and line the crust with the filling.
5. Cut the stewed pears in half lengthwise and cut out the stems and cores. Slice the pear halves crosswise and lay them on top of the filling in concentric circles.
6. Roll out the other piece of dough. You can either roll it out into a circle and cut out vents with a cookie cutter, or roll it into a rectangle and cut it into strips to make a lattice top.
7. Trim the edges and press them together to fuse them. You can also press the tip of a fork all around the edge to make it look nicer.
8. Bake for an hour until the top it nicely browned.
9. Cool and enjoy!
Both pie crusts were delicious but the ATK crust was more of a true flaky pie crust, while the "secret" crust was more like a giant cookie. I like both, but some people may prefer one or the other.
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