pears

More baking with pears

~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments

What are your favorite side-hustle ideas?

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Maybe…baking? Or blogging? Or painting watercolors? Or singing?

Nah.

Nobody would pay me money for any of my hobbies, which is fine. I’m no longer an earner. I’ve accepted that. According to my last Social Security Statement, I had reportable income every year from 1980 to 2023. That’s 43 years of paid work. According to financial planners, my husband and I have saved and invested enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement into our 90s, barring runaway inflation or a global financial meltdown—both of which seem highly likely in our current kakistocracy. I’m not really sure I believe the financial planners, but I’m going with it. However, we’re really trying to keep our spending down these days, which brings me back to baking at home.

We tried yet another recipe with our homegrown Bosc pears: America Test Kitchen’s Pear Crisp. I did that thing where I found the recipe on ATK but I didn’t want to pay for a subscription so I signed-up for a 7-day free trial, screenshotted the recipe, then cancelled the subscription before I got charged. Is that wrong?

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN PEAR CRISP

Ingredients

• ¾ cup coarsely chopped nuts (3 ounces/85 grams) I’m allergic to nuts so I substituted 3/4 cup of oatmeal (it was a genius substitution, if I do say so myself 😉)

• ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (2½ ounces/71 grams)

• ¼ cup packed light brown sugar (1¾ ounces/50 grams)

• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Table salt

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon

• 3 pounds (1361 grams) ripe but firm pears (6-7 medium)

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process nuts, flour, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about nine 1-second pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about five 1-second pulses, pausing halfway through to scrape down sides and bottom of workbowl. Set aside while preparing fruit.

Because I substituted oatmeal for nuts, there was no need to use a food processor. I used only a fork to make the topping.

2. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt together in large bowl. Peel pears, then halve and core. Cut each half into 4 wedges and then cut in half crosswise (pieces should be about 1 1/2 inches). Gently toss pears with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch-square baking dish.

Not gonna lie, this step was a pain in the neck. My husband bought a tool to scoop out cores of the peeled pears, but forgot he had it, so he did all this work with a paring knife.

3. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, 27 to 32 minutes. Cool on wire rack until warm, at least 15 minutes, and serve.

This is the unbaked version. We ended up leaving it in the oven for the full 32 minutes and pears were perfect. Tender and sweet.

VERDICT: Good. 👍 The topping works well with the pears. I had it hot with ice cream for dessert (yum) and also cold for a snack that actually felt relatively “healthy” with all that fruit and oatmeal. It’s not as exciting as the Dutch Pear Pie or Pear Cobbler, but I would make it again.

Related posts:

A Baking Post (Dutch Pear Pie) featured on Freshly Pressed

Another Baking Post (Pear Cobbler)

Stress Baking (Puff Pastry Apple Strudel)

Fruit Trees

A Jackson (Apple Pie)

Deer me

Another baking post

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

How do you write what people actually want to read?

One of my recent posts was selected for “Freshly Pressed” on WordPress and I got some nice comments and a few new subscribers. It’s a post about baking a Dutch Pear Pie with fruit from the trees in our yard. So, welcome to anyone new here. I assume you love dessert like me.

I post about a variety of things, including baking, but mostly I just talk about whatever’s on my mind, including whatever the WordPress “daily prompt” elicits from me. I like the community here on WordPress. Most people are very kind and supportive.

We finally harvested some of the Bosc pears on our tree because a big Nor’easter (windy rainstorm) is expected this weekend.

Over 15 pounds of Bosc pears harvested and there are still many pears left on the tree.

The Bosc is the last of our fruit trees to ripen (we also have a Winesap apple and an Asian pear) and honestly, I think we should wait a bit longer to pick the rest of the pears. I don’t think the ones we picked are fully ripe yet, but that didn’t stop us from trying out another new recipe.

This recipe—for Pear Cobbler—is one I found on YouTube. I was able to screenshot the relevant information. (I’m sorry I lost track of the original creator.)

FRESH PEAR COBBLER

Pear Filling

• 4–5 cups diced pears

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons corn starch

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Batter

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups milk

1. Combine the diced pears with the sugar, corn starch, water, and cinnamon.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and milk until combined.

3. Set the oven to 350°. Melt one stick of butter in a 9×13 baking dish.

4. Pour the batter over the melted butter (do not stir), then spoon the pear mixture on top.

5. Bake for 1 hour.

6. Serve with ice cream.

VERDICT: Very good. It think it’ll be even better next time with riper pears. We were wondering how this cobbler was going to “cobble together” since you don’t stir it, but it actually does. It’s definitely a bit of a pain to peel the pears, but you really have to with Boscs. We used a potato peeler.

Related post: Stress baking

A baking post

~ MaryG ~ 39 Comments

We are making the most of the big harvest we got from our fruit trees this year.

I had a recipe for “Dutch Pear Pie” printed out in a 3-ring binder. I had scribbled “good” in pencil across the top—and so it is.

My husband did the hardest job of chopping up most of our remaining Asian pears. The rest is pretty easy. Something about a streusel-topped pie that’s just so delicious. And it’s really not that hard. No special equipment required. I just softened up the butter for about a minute in the microwave on 50% power and then made the streusel with a fork.

How do you like my “staging” of my pie in this photograph? I feel like I really nailed it. I’m getting a lot of compliments from my friends on Instagram. So many, that I’m reminded of a Josh Johnson comedy bit about how much white ladies LOVE autumn. (Oh they do, they really really do. I’m a summer lover, but my friends love fall.)

Side view of a slice 😋

This is one of the rare baked fruit pies that doesn’t require ice cream or whipped cream. (I mean, they won’t hurt, but they’re not needed.) It’s a complete dessert on its own. I think the sour cream in the filling fulfills the dairy role.

Here’s the recipe:

Betty Crocker Dutch Pear Pie

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling

  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Gold Medal all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 3+ cups coarsely chopped fresh pears (6-8 pears, or as many as will fit in your pie shell)

Crumb Topping

  • 1 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup butter or margarine

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using a 9-inch glass pie plate; do not prick crust. Carefully line pastry with a double thickness of foil, gently pressing foil to bottom and side of pastry. Let foil extend over edge to prevent excessive browning. Bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove foil; bake 2 to 4 minutes longer, or until pastry just begins to brown and has become set. If crust bubbles, gently push bubbles down with the back of a spoon.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix the filling ingredients. Pour into the warm baked pie shell.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix the crumb topping ingredients with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filling.
  4. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown. After 30 minutes of baking, cover the top of the pie with foil to prevent excessive browning. Cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Store in the refrigerator.

Source: Betty Crocker / General Mills

Final note: we didn’t peel the pears