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December 23, 2010

Kitchen Conundrum? Just Make It Work!

I'm sorry to say it but at our house...fruits just aren't a fave. My husband and daughter will eat bananas and grapes but that's just about as far as their experimentation with produce will go. Ironically, fruit baskets are probably one of the most popular gift around the holidays...after fruit cakes, of course. A few days ago we received a basket filled with yummy cookies, nuts, chocolate covered popcorn and PEARS. Instead of just letting these beautiful fruits go to waste, I decided turn them into something my family would readily dig into-a sweet, flaky, home-made PIE! The hardest part was the crustand even that wasn't so complicated...just a little tedious trying to keep all the ingredients cold (I'll explain why later).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks COLD butter (cubed)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
6-8 tbsp. ice water
4 Forelle or Bartlett pears (peeled and sliced)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup flour
1/2 lemon zested & juiced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Add salt and sugar to flour. Cut in cold cubed butter until the doug resembles a crumbly texture. Slowly add water until it forms a soft, maleable ball of dough and refridgerate it for 15 minutes. Roll out half of the dough and place in pie dish. Use a fork or your fingers to crimp the edges. For the filling, combine pear slices, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, lemon zest and juice. Pour onto pie crust. Flatten second half of dough and cut into strips. Create a lattice top by weaving the strips of dough. Pinch edges together with the bottom crust. Flute the edges with aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

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