Baking with Dad: Pear Glazed Pie

Wherein Dad and I find some pears deep within the fridge, then bake an awesome Pear Pie with them. Now with pictures!

Visiting Dad while we both have time off work has it’s advantages – Tiger Woods golf – and it’s disadvantages – boring Friday afternoons. So, in a effort to lift the lethargy I decide there are far too many uneaten pears in the house, and that they deserve the honor of being even tastier.

You’ll need.

• 200g of Brown sugar
• 30g of Corn flour
• 1/2 a Teaspoon of nutmeg
• 15ml of Lemon juice
• 30ml of Water
• 450g of Peeled pureed pears
• 400g of Peeled sliced pears
• 9inch Pie crust

Step one – Firstly combine the sugar, nutmeg and cornflour in a medium sized pan. Set that aside.

Step two – Peel and cube the 450g of pears for pureeing, then add those to the blender, along with the 15g of lemon juice and 30g of water. Blend until you get a nice liquid.

Step three – Peel and slice the 400g of topping pears. I recommend about 5mm slices. But then I’m a control freak. Set those aside.

Step four – Place the pan over a medium heat. Begin stirring and then add your puree mixture. It is important to constantly stir the mixture now for 5 minutes or until it comes to your desired thickness.

Step five – Pour all but 1/2 a cup of the mixture into the pie crust, arrange the sliced pears on top of this mixture. Push down gently if needed.

Step six – Take that 1/2 a cup of mixture you set aside and use either a basting brush or spoon to gently cover the top of the pie with the glaze.

Step seven – Add the pie to the fridge for at least 3 hours – I recommend over night – to cool and fix the mixture.  For best results serve chilled.

Notes

Thickening – We originally used only 15g of corn flour, but we weren’t getting the thickness we needed. So in went another 15g, which did the job. Remember though if you’re going to add corn flour to an already wet mixture to add it to a little water in a cup first. If you don’t, you’ll end up a lumpy mess!

Pear topping – I recommend you peel and slice the pears that you’ll use for the topping before you start cooking the mixture. As once that starts everything will move fairly quickly and you don’t want your glaze to sit there cooling while you chop!

Pie crust – Just a quick note that while I’m sure a sweet crust would work just as well, we actually used a savory crust. Savory crusts are usually a little more low profile.

The final result

Posted: Sunday, December 21st, 2008
Tags: baking, cooking, pear, pie, quick