Pear Crumble Pie
I've had many types of pies in my day - rhubarb and juneberry are among my favorite - but I've never had a pear pie. I'd always assumed that the pear would get way too soft and mushy to hold up by itself. So when I saw this recipe in my new cookbook, it was intrigued by both the idea of a pear pie and a recipe that uses mace (an ingredient I'd never used before).
The spice mace, as it turns out, is unrelated to the self defense spray. Rather, it comes from the same plant as nutmeg. Nutmeg itself is the pit of a fruit and mace is a creepy red webbing that comes wrapped around the nutmeg, which is then dried and ground up. It seems like you don't see this spice in a lot of recipes these days, possibly because it's pretty similar to nutmeg.
The pie recipe was found in the St. John Lutheran Cookbook and was submitted by P. Schrautemyer. The pie crust recipe comes from the Aal Church Cookbook and is attributed to Mrs. G McClenahan, Mrs. A Moen and Mrs. D Loken.
Pear Crumble Pie
1 (9") unbaked pie shell*
Filling:
6 medium pears - peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon peel
Topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. mace
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 400°. Combine pears with sugar, flour, lemon peel and juice. Arrange in unbaked* pie shell. Combine dry topping ingredients. Cut in butter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle evenly over pears. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
* I recommend baking the shell a bit beforehand and then covering the edges with tin foil for some of the final baking process.
No Fail Pie Crust (makes two 9" double crusts plus one single 9" crust)
4 cups flour
1 3/4 cup shortening or lard
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 egg
1/2 cup water
Mix first four ingredients, cutting in shortening. Beat remaining ingredients and combine until everything is moistened. This refrigerates well and stays soft.
The part in the recipe about a unbaked pie shell concerned me a bit since it's only in the oven for 25-30 minutes. I didn't think this was enough time to cook the crust fully, and I turned out to be right.
If I were to make this again, I would bake the pie shell first, so the bottom isn't under-cooked when the rest of the pie is finished. Pears are juicy fruits, so there was also an issue with a lot of liquid. More flour in the filling might help to prevent it from being so watery. The pears I used (red d'anjou) were a little underripe, which I purposely chose to prevent mushiness. They did hold up well.
Overall, the flavor of this pie is excellent. The lemon zest and juice compliment the pear and cinnamon/mace combination beautifully, and the pecans add a lovely crunch. As for the crust, I always like a lard-based pie crust and this one did not disappoint.
Final rating: 4/5 the flavor is enough to make up for the soggy bottom