Cranberry Pear Pie Recipe
Posted by The Pie Guy
Makes one 9-inch pie, double crust, fruit filling. Total prep
A Cranberry Pear Pie is almost a cousin to the cherry pie.
Cranberries give the pie a wonderful sweet and sour taste.
A little on Cranberry history.
A double crust cranberry pear pie recipe that is made with craisins and fresh pears.
By using dried berries no water is released in the cooking process and the cranberry flavor is intensified. The first prevents a soggy bottom pie crust and the later gives the pie a delightful kick.
D´ Anjou or Bartlett Pears are best for this pie. These sweet pears will complement the sour cranberries beautifully.
Cranberry Harvesting:
Most cranberries are harvested with water. The growers flood their bogs and use harvesting machines that loosen the cranberries from the vine. Cranberries float to the water’s surface due to their small air pockets in their center.
Growers push the cranberries like cattle in a corral to conveyors that lift berries from the bog onto trucks and then to processing plants.
Cranberry History:
Cranberries are a native fruit to North America. They were used as a staple as early as 1550. Cranberries are eaten fresh, ground, or mashed with cornmeal and baked into bread.
Maple sugar or honey was used to sweeten the berry’s tangy sour flavor.
In 1620 the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to use cranberries . The Germany and Dutch settlers named the berry “crane-berry” because it appeared to be the favorite food of cranes and the blossom resembled the neck color of an English cranes.
Later on cranberry was shortened to cranberry.
American whalers and mariners used cranberries onboard their ships to prevent scurvy.
Indians used cranberry poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds.
Cranberry tea was used to calm nerves as well as red dye for clothing
Cranberry Pear Pie Recipe
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—Ingredients—
Filling
3 pounds pears (Try with “D´ Anjou”)
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
You may add 2 to 3 tablespoons
of cranberry jelly sauce
for extra flavoring.
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 maple syrup
1 tablespoons tapioca
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pinches ground cloves
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter (dotting top)
Directions
1. Prepare the pastry: Roll the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust. Chill the pastry.
2. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
3. Pour the fresh-squeezed lemon juice in the bottom of a large bowl. Peel, halve and core the pears with a melon baller or corer. Be sure to remove the fiber in the center of the pear. Slice them evenly about a 1/4 inch thick into the bowl, coating them with the lemon juice as you go.
4. Pour the cranberries over the pears.
5. Toss the pears with the dried cranberries.
6. Drain the juices from the pear mixture into a sauce pan and allow to cook down about on medium-low heat.
7. Add cornstarch to the cranberry-pear juice to thicken it up a little.
8. Re-incorporate the cranberry-pear sauce with the pears and toss again.
9. Add your sugar and spices to this mixture, mix gently.
10. Pour the filling into your uncooked pie crust.
Dot with butter and top it with the second crust. Trim and crimp the crust; chill the pie for at least 10 minutes.
11. Cut vent slits in the top crust. It is your option to sprinkle it with sugar or brush the top with heavy cream.
12. Bake the pie on a baking sheet for 10 minutes or until the crust looks dry, and starts to blister. Turn the oven down to 350° F, and bake for at least 30 to 40 minutes more or until the crust is golden brown, and visible juices start to bubble.
13. Cool the pie completely before cutting for at least a few hours. Serve it at room temperature or slightly warm. Store the pie uncovered in a cool place up to three days.
