Author Notes
This weekend, my Farmer's Market was just teeming with an abundance of pears and figs, so I was thinking that together, they would make a lovely pie. I also bought the sweetest tasting raspberries that were calling out to me and bursting with color. After I assembled the fig and pear pie, I had just popped it into the oven and after a few minutes of baking, our entire neighborhood was hit with a power outage and boom - no more oven. one hour turned into six and before I knew it, the pie was no longer bake-able! The dough had collapsed into the filling and couldn't be lifted off. Onto plan B! Since I had so many pears and still had the beautiful raspberries, I decided to change course. I remembered how lovely poached pears in port with raspberry sauce tasted, so that's where I drew my inspiration from for this pie. Happy accident, indeed! Note: I know that everyone has a favorite way to make pie crust and this is mine, feel free to use your own recipe or store bought if desired. - TiggyBee —TiggyBee
Test Kitchen Notes
This is a nice pie -- "a very pleasant pie eating experience" as one of my dinner guests described it. The flavors were far more subtle than I expected. The port added a nice hint of spice and complexity, but tasted slightly medicinal when the pie was cold -- so I would definitely suggest serving it warm. The all-butter crust turned out beautifully with wonderful, rich flavor. – fiveandspice —The Editors
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Ingredients
- Pie Crust
-
2 1/2 cups
flour
-
1 tablespoon
sugar
-
1 teaspoon
salt
-
8 ounces
very cold/frozen unsalted butter (I used plugrá brand)
-
1
egg yolk - whisk yolk with tablespoon of milk
-
ice cold water
- For the filling:
-
6 cups
cored and peeled pears
-
2 cups
fresh raspberries
-
1/2 cup
good port wine
-
1/3 cup
sugar
-
3 tablespoons
tapioca starch
-
2 tablespoons
unsalted butter - melted
-
1/2 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
-
1 pinch
ground cloves
-
1 pinch
ground allspice
Directions
- Pie Crust
-
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and whisk together.
-
Cube the cold butter into smallish pieces (about 1/2 inch or so) and sprinkle the pieces into the flour mix. Begin working the butter quickly with a pastry blender in making sure to work evenly. When the butter pieces are the about the size of of a pea, stop.
-
Start to add the cold water a little at a time, over the butter and flour mixture and start to gather the dough together. Get your hands in there and gather the dough into one big ball and knead them together gently.
-
Divide the dough into 2 half balls and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (or 2) before rolling out.
- For the filling:
-
In a large bowl, pour the port over the sliced pear and let macerate for 30-45 minutes. They should have a nice pink stain to them.
-
After the 30 or so minutes are up, remove the pears from the port and set them aside. Add the spices, melted butter and tapioca starch to the port and mix thoroughly, then add the raspberries and stir (make sure they are well covered) and let sit for and additional 30-45 minutes or so, (you can do this while waiting for your crust to chill)
-
Preheat the oven to 400 and roll out the dough for the bottom crust.
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Once you have the dough ready to go and in place, combine the raspberry and port mixture with the pears and fill the pie. Roll out the top portion and carefully center it over the filling. Trim the edges of the dough and crimp them together.
-
Cut some steam vents in the pie and wash the top crust with the egg yolk and milk and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the crust is a nice golden brown and the mixture is bubbling.
-
Let pie cool and serve.
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