Fresh Pear Pie
This pear pie with a touch of cinnamon and lemon zest is delicious served plain, or with whipped cream or ice cream.
Yields:
8-10 servings
Time Required:
- prep: 30 mins.
- baking: 45 mins.
- total: 75 mins.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup1 sugar
- 3 Tbsp. flour
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon2
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 5 cups peeled & sliced pears
- 1 Tbsp. (14.2 g) butter
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- two pie crusts (example recipe below)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Place a baking sheet on bottom oven rack. Line bottom and sides of a 9" pie pan with one pie crust. Set second crust aside.
Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon zest, and salt in a mixing bowl.
Arrange pear slices in layers in prepared crust, sprinkling sugar mixture over each layer. Dot with butter, and sprinkle with lemon juice.
Moisten rim of bottom crust with some water, then cover filling with remaining pie crust and flute edges to seal; trim off excess pastry and cut several slits in top crust, to allow steam to escape.
Bake in preheated oven on baking sheet for 10 mins. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (175°C); bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, 35-40 min. longer.
Gluten-Free Pie Crust:
This crust has a flaky texture that can be difficult to achieve without wheat. Be sure to bake it thoroughly: Cooking to a golden-brown colour gives it a wonderful toasty flavour. This recipe is for one 9" crust.
Time Required:
prep: 20 mins.
Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups (195 g) gluten-free flour
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- ½ tsp. xanthum gum3
- ½ tsp. salt
- 6 Tbsp. (85 g) butter, cold
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar
- (optional) 2 tsp. Instant ClearJel4
Preparation:
Whisk together flour or flour blend, sugar, xanthum gum, salt, and (optional) Instant ClearJel.
Cut cold butter into pats, then work pats into flour mixture until crumbly, with some larger, pea-sized chunks of butter remaining.
Whisk egg and vinegar or lemon juice together until very foamy. Mix into dry ingredients. Stir until mixture holds together, adding 1-3 additional Tbsp cold water, if necessary.
Shape into a ball and chill for an hour, or up to overnight. Allow dough to rest at room temperature for 10 to 15 mins., before rolling. Roll out on a piece of plastic wrap, on a silicone rolling mat, or in a pie bag that's been heavily sprinkled with gluten-free flour or flour blend. Invert gluten-free pie crust into prepared pie pan.
Fill and bake as your pie recipe directs; note yolk makes this crust brown quickly in oven. Shield crust edges with aluminum foil, or a pie shield, to protect them from burning while baking. Store unbaked gluten-free pie dough, well-wrapped, in refrigerator for 2 days or in freezer for up to 2 months.
Cook's Notes:
Equipment needed: mixing bowl, whisk, and pie pan.
I've elected to use (and include above) King Arthur Baking's gluten-free crust recipe, but obviously any other will do. (Gluten-free flour works fine in the filling.)
1 Cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are as defined in US Customary Units, not to be confused with differing British imperial, "legal", "coffee", Commonwealth of Nations, Canadian, Latin American, Japanese, Russian, or Dutch defintions — further proof that everyone needs the metric system.
2 After a lifetime of not knowing one cinnamon from another, I learned that true cinnamon comes only from the inner bark of the "Cinnamonum verum" tree native to Sri Lanka, and has milder, more interesting, citrusy flavour compared to bulk, grocery-store cinnamon, which is made from cheaper, harsher-tasting non-verum Cinnamonum species grown largely in southern China, Vietnam, and India, and which technically isn't cinnamon at all, but rather is properly called cassia. I'm unsure whether favouring true cinnamon for this recipe would improve it noticeably, but the possibility bears pondering.
3 Xanthum gum is a thickener that's particularly handy in gluten-free cooking, where a small amount both thickens and add structure, much as wheat does. It's created by fermenting glucose using Xanthomonas campestris bacteria. In sauces and other liquids, one uses a ratio of xanthum to liquid of only about 0.1% to 0.3%.
4 Instant ClearJel is another thickener, produced by King Arthur Baking, and made from modified food starch, that activates upon contact with liquid. I've not tried it, at this writing.
Collected and re-published at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/recipes/pear-pie.html by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> on Mar. 12, 2025. Individual recipes are free from copyright. Share and enjoy!
Special thanks to "Carol" for her generosity and talent. Carol's original recipe appeared at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12275/fresh-pear-pie/.
King Arthur Baking's Gluten-Free Pie Crust Recipe is taken from https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/gluten-free-pie-crust-recipe. King Arthur Baking is a superb and generous source for recipes and practical information on all aspects of baking, and I'm mirroring its recipe not because I fear it might vanish (though of course it could), but rather to further promote a cherished and endlessly useful recipe.
(If I have any copyright title in my own very minor contributions to this page — not my intention — they were created in 2025 by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> and licensed for use under CC0. The image file (photograph) was taken on Mar. 21, 2025, also by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> and licensed for use under CC0. I have thereby waived all copyright, compilation copyright, and related or neighbouring rights to this work. This work is published from: United States of America.)