I didn’t have high hopes for this pie. Actually, my hopes were about a low as you can get them.
As I’ve mentioned before, pie crust and I are mortal enemies. We do not get along, I haven’t been able to find a fool proof recipe that I can actually make without completely screwing it up.
Until now, thanks to Joy the Baker. Joy, you are my hero with this pie crust. It’s SO easy to put together. You just throw it into the pie plate, squish it down and you’re good to go.
When I took a bite, I swear I heard the hallelujah chorus from above. It’s good. Very good.
And so is the rest of this pie! Which I kind of just threw together, to be honest. I knew I wasn’t going to have a top crust, but since I wanted a picture for Still Life With (which you should check out!) I need something for the top. And I think it’s pretty well known on this blog how much I love crumbly toppings.
The pie filling is a combination of two recipes, one from Food and Wine, the other from All Recipes. It’s cinnamon-y, but the pear taste really shines through.
So if you, like me, are afraid of pie crust, you should try this out! You’ll be surprised by how good AND easy it is!
No Roll Pie Crust
From Joy the baker (check her out for step by step pictures! they are so helpful.)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (4 Tablespoon) frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used safflower oil, it was all I had.)
1 Tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons cold milk
In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Whisk together.
Add frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater and tablespoon of cream cheese. With your fingers, work the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture, breaking the butter and cream cheese up until they’re in well incorporated into the flour. Some butter bits will be tiny, other the size of small peddles. The dough may even begin to some together in a rough, sandy kind of way.
Combine the milk and oil. Whisk together. Add all at once to the flour and butter mixture. With a fork, begin to combine the ingredients, making sure that all of the flour mixture is introduced to the liquid. The mixture does not need to come together into a ball. Leave it a bit shaggy and dump the dough into a clean 9-inch pie plate. With your fingers, press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides. Try to get the dough as even as possible, but don’t worry too much about finger indentations. You can’t fight that.
Place the prepared crust in the freezer while you preheat the oven and prepare your filling. If you’re going to pre-bake your crust, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake for 10 minutes covered. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.
If you need an unbaked pie crust, simply remove the crust from the freezer once your filling is made, fill your pie and place in a preheated oven. Bake according to your particular recipe.
Crumb Topping
Makes 2 cups
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
In a bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup light-brown sugar, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and cinnamon.
Cut 1 1/2 sticks chilled unsalted butter into pieces. With your hands, work in butter pieces, until large clumps form. Place in refrigerator until you need it.
Pear Pie Filling
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
5 cups peeled and sliced pears
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon rind in mixing bowl.
Arrange pears in layers in a 9 inch crust lined pan, sprinkling sugar mixture over each layer. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
Top with Crumb topping.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.
Just a word of advice: cut your pears smaller than I did! Not all of mine were as soft as I would have liked.
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