Poached Pear Pie

Usually you poach pears with a dessert wine. However, I’m not 21 and cannot procure specialty alcohol on short notice without my parents. Even so, poaching finds a way. Poaching finds a way because I saw people screwing up poached pears on GBBO and we had a lot of pears going bad in the fridge.

I used this FN recipe for the poaching syrup, it worked even though I only had six pears, which I forgot to core before poaching (didn’t make a huge difference, FYI). For the hypoglycemic, or those seeking a sugar alternative, I added some honey and that seemed to have a positive effect. Try replacing the sugar with honey and reducing the amount of water if you want to omit sugar entirely. I would also advise adding more spices, maybe some dried cloves and some slices of fresh ginger, since I didn’t find the recipe spices potent enough. If your pot doesn’t allow you to fully submerge the pears, flip them during poaching.

If you touch a poached pear when it’s still warm, it feels a little bit like touching another person’s hand. Creepy but true. Only the facts here at Probably Fine Dining.

As for the pie crust, Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend has a pretty good recipe on the back of the bag. If you want this vegan, just sub out all the butter for shortening. The crust is slightly tougher then, but it’s not a problem. Halving the recipe gets you enough for two mini pies plus a large tart, which is what I made with it. I blind-baked the pie crust for 5-10 minutes before plopping in the pears (which you can arrange artfully as shown below)

The leaves are just leftover pie crust that I cut with a knife and indented to look like leaves. Adds a certain kind of flair. For the featured picture, I used a large round cookie cutter to cut out a top, then filled up the sides with those leaves. It probably still needed a fork to score some holes in the middle, just a tip.

Cook time depends on how big your pie is, these took around 20 minutes to get fully done and they were about 5 inches in diameter. Big ones can take around 40-45 minutes.

I also made a free-form tart from left-over pie crust, which I then drizzled dark chocolate on. Melt down dark chocolate, add a tiny bit of coconut oil, drizzle, and harden in the fridge. That one disappeared first, hence the lack of a picture.

You’ll probably have leftover pears. Eat them in oatmeal, that’s some good stuff.