living in the woods and making stuff

Pears, and more pears. My friend Clint planted this tree in 5th grade, and now look at it! We spent all day picking pears and apples, wandering through the fields, peeling pears, and baking pies. And wearing aprons!

This has to be the best way to pick pears! At least the lower ones. The tree is absolutely loaded. There are so many pears everywhere. We filled our entire bucket, but barely made a dent in the pear population.

Here is a general recipe for pear pie. I am not the most precise cook, so hopefully the directions are clear enough..

Pear Pie

Filling

8 large pears, or a mixture of pears and apples (The pears were a little unripe so we decided to add apples to them when we were baking.)

1 teaspoon vanilla, or a snip of a vanilla bean

3/4 cup sugar (more or less depending on the tartness of fruit)

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup flour

several dots of butter

Pie Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1 stick unsalted butter

a little salt (I use salted butter and a bit of salt, and so does my mom..)

1/2 cup ice water

Mix flour, salt and butter with a pastry cutter until texture resembles cornmeal. Add ice water a bit at a time until mixture comes together to form a ball. Divide dough into two balls and chill at least 1/2  hr in fridge.

Meanwhile, peel, core and slice apples and pears. Place in pot, with a little water and vanilla bean. Cook until pears are soft. This step allows you to fit more fruit in the pie! Add sugar, salt, and flour. You can let the pears cool a little before you put them in the pie shell (we didn’t, but it is probably a good idea..).

Roll out pie dough, place one in pie pan, fill with filling, and place top on. Seal the edges, and poke the top with a fork.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, and then bring temp down to 350. Bake for an additional 35-45 minutes, until top is nicely golden. You might need to cover the pie with some parchment paper if it gets too brown on the top early on. Remove, and cool as long as you can wait.

Yummy with vanilla ice cream!