recipe: for dualbunny
Intimidate Your Not-In-Laws Pear-Pomegranate Pie
For filling:
-4 lbs. pears (any kind, really), ideally still firm
-1 cup or so pomegranate arils (or seeds, there's your vocab word for the day)
-2 cups pomegranate juice
-1 cup brown (or turbinado) sugar
-lemon zest strips (optional)
-6 TBS. cornstarch
-4 TBS. water
-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
-1/4 tsp. salt
[eventual oven temp: 375 degrees]
*Combine the juice, sugar and lemon zest (cut into large strips for ease of fishing out later) in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium. Keep cooking until it reduces by half and gets syrupy. I spent idle time wondering how much "reduced by half" would be exactly, because sugar dissolves into liquid and therefore 2 cups (juice) + 1 cup (sugar) would not equal 3 cups. You could be OCD and measure the "solution" right after it dissolves if you wanted, I suppose. Or just taste when it seems to be at about half to see if it's sweet enough for you - the cornstarch that comes in later will thicken the filling regardless - but blow on that spoon, blow, don't burn your tongue!
*Meanwhile, peel, quarter, and pit the pears and slice about 1/4 inch thick. Also, liberate the pomegranate arils by filling up a big bowl of luke-warm water, cutting your pomegranate into quarters (this will look like a bloody mess) and plucking the arils from the white membrane-stuff with your hands submerged in the water. The seeds will sink to the bottom and extraneous white stuff will float. You'll still have to sort through the seeds a bit, because invariably a few of them are squishy-brown or transparent instead of lovely and firm and red. You also want to make sure that there isn't still white stuff stuck to the seeds, because it is bitter and disgusting. The juice reduction will take at least half an hour if not more, so depending on your speediness or number of kitchen minions, you could be preparing the crust(s) during this time as well. If not, skip below the lj-cut and do it ahead of time.
*When the syrup has become syrup-esque, whisk the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl, then whisk this into the still-hot syrup and cook for a minute or so until it starts to get thick--it'll get thicker as it cools. Don't forget to take the zest out! Once the syrup has cooled off a bit, mix the ginger and salt in. I mixed the ginger in a little water first so it wouldn't clump. I also secretly "enriched" the filling with a couple tablespoons of butter when no one was looking. This is not strictly necessary - I've probably just been watching too much Julia Child.
*Finally, mix the syrupy-sauce-business with the pears and pomegranate seeds, then pour into prepared bottom crust and cover with crumb topping (see below). Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until topping is browned and there is apparent bubbling beneath the surface (you'll smell it in the other room). Let cool for at least half an hour, then nom with vanilla ice cream or some other such accompaniment in order to cut the sweet-tartness. I really do advise eating this pie warm.
For (one 9-inch) bottom crust:
-1 1/4 cup flour. I use spelt, because I am a sensitive flower, but you'd probably go for all-purpose white wheat flour, or perhaps 1 c. white + 1/4 c. whole wheat for tasty rusticness or whatever. However, note: spelt flour actually works very well for pie crust because of its low/weak gluten content, but if you don't have a wheat sensitivity it's more expensive, so.
-3 TBS. sugar
-pinch salt, more or less depending on if you're using salted or unsalted butter
-8 TBS. (one stick) of butter/margarine/crisco/lard/solid-fat-of-some-kind, COLD
-1 egg yolk, beaten with a couple tablespoons of ice water, plus more ice water if needed
*First, mix up flour, sugar and salt. If you have a cuisinart, you put this all in there with the blade attachment, toss in the COLD butter (cut into chunks) and process until all is the consistency of coarse cornmeal, then transfer to a bowl and quickly mix in the ICE COLD yolk!water just until the dough will hold together into a still-kinda-crumbly ball-thing. If you are cuisinart-less, start out with the bowl and mix the butter into the dry stuff with your hands or a pastry cutter. Now, if you were to roll this dough-ball out with a rolling pin and make an enormous floury mess of your kitchen counter, you'd want to put the dough in the fridge for awhile first for coldification, but since this is only a bottom crust, I generally just press the dough right into the pie pan. Then put it into the fridge while you work on the filling, etc.
A Pie Crust Interlude:
People have this tendency to hold up one's pie crust making abilities as the ultimate indicator of one's cooking acumen/womanhood/blah. I don't one hundred percent understand this, but then I have pretty much always made flaky crust, and therefore don't think it's really all that hard. From what I can tell, the "secret(s)" are these: everything should be super-cold; don't overwork the dough; but mostly, don't try and skimp on the butter. Just don't. People also debate what's the best fat to use-supposedly, 70/30 butter to lard is the ideal, but I've always just used butter, because I was raised by ovo-lacto vegetarians. I like the egg yolk and sugar for flavor-enhancement, but they aren't required. I did, however, recently come upon this recipe that has magical VODKA in it and am v. curious. Will report back at a later time.
For crumb topping:
-3/4 cup flour
-2/3 cup sugar. I use turbinado or raw sugar because I am a hippie, but you could use brown or regular. Brown would be tastier, I think.
-4 TBS. butter/margarine, soft
-1 tsp. almond extract
-1/3 cup sliced almonds.
*Put all this stuff in a bowl and mix until it's crumbly. If you don't have almond extract, it's not the end of the world, but I'd put some cinnamon or nutmeg in instead for flavor. This "dough" also goes into fridge-purgatory until it's time to assemble the pie.
*
Gosh, I really didn't think this was going to take as long to write as it did. *pause* I used to want to be a cookbook writer once upon a time, did you know?
For filling:
-4 lbs. pears (any kind, really), ideally still firm
-1 cup or so pomegranate arils (or seeds, there's your vocab word for the day)
-2 cups pomegranate juice
-1 cup brown (or turbinado) sugar
-lemon zest strips (optional)
-6 TBS. cornstarch
-4 TBS. water
-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
-1/4 tsp. salt
[eventual oven temp: 375 degrees]
*Combine the juice, sugar and lemon zest (cut into large strips for ease of fishing out later) in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium. Keep cooking until it reduces by half and gets syrupy. I spent idle time wondering how much "reduced by half" would be exactly, because sugar dissolves into liquid and therefore 2 cups (juice) + 1 cup (sugar) would not equal 3 cups. You could be OCD and measure the "solution" right after it dissolves if you wanted, I suppose. Or just taste when it seems to be at about half to see if it's sweet enough for you - the cornstarch that comes in later will thicken the filling regardless - but blow on that spoon, blow, don't burn your tongue!
*Meanwhile, peel, quarter, and pit the pears and slice about 1/4 inch thick. Also, liberate the pomegranate arils by filling up a big bowl of luke-warm water, cutting your pomegranate into quarters (this will look like a bloody mess) and plucking the arils from the white membrane-stuff with your hands submerged in the water. The seeds will sink to the bottom and extraneous white stuff will float. You'll still have to sort through the seeds a bit, because invariably a few of them are squishy-brown or transparent instead of lovely and firm and red. You also want to make sure that there isn't still white stuff stuck to the seeds, because it is bitter and disgusting. The juice reduction will take at least half an hour if not more, so depending on your speediness or number of kitchen minions, you could be preparing the crust(s) during this time as well. If not, skip below the lj-cut and do it ahead of time.
*When the syrup has become syrup-esque, whisk the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl, then whisk this into the still-hot syrup and cook for a minute or so until it starts to get thick--it'll get thicker as it cools. Don't forget to take the zest out! Once the syrup has cooled off a bit, mix the ginger and salt in. I mixed the ginger in a little water first so it wouldn't clump. I also secretly "enriched" the filling with a couple tablespoons of butter when no one was looking. This is not strictly necessary - I've probably just been watching too much Julia Child.
*Finally, mix the syrupy-sauce-business with the pears and pomegranate seeds, then pour into prepared bottom crust and cover with crumb topping (see below). Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until topping is browned and there is apparent bubbling beneath the surface (you'll smell it in the other room). Let cool for at least half an hour, then nom with vanilla ice cream or some other such accompaniment in order to cut the sweet-tartness. I really do advise eating this pie warm.
For (one 9-inch) bottom crust:
-1 1/4 cup flour. I use spelt, because I am a sensitive flower, but you'd probably go for all-purpose white wheat flour, or perhaps 1 c. white + 1/4 c. whole wheat for tasty rusticness or whatever. However, note: spelt flour actually works very well for pie crust because of its low/weak gluten content, but if you don't have a wheat sensitivity it's more expensive, so.
-3 TBS. sugar
-pinch salt, more or less depending on if you're using salted or unsalted butter
-8 TBS. (one stick) of butter/margarine/crisco/lard/solid-fat-of-some-kind, COLD
-1 egg yolk, beaten with a couple tablespoons of ice water, plus more ice water if needed
*First, mix up flour, sugar and salt. If you have a cuisinart, you put this all in there with the blade attachment, toss in the COLD butter (cut into chunks) and process until all is the consistency of coarse cornmeal, then transfer to a bowl and quickly mix in the ICE COLD yolk!water just until the dough will hold together into a still-kinda-crumbly ball-thing. If you are cuisinart-less, start out with the bowl and mix the butter into the dry stuff with your hands or a pastry cutter. Now, if you were to roll this dough-ball out with a rolling pin and make an enormous floury mess of your kitchen counter, you'd want to put the dough in the fridge for awhile first for coldification, but since this is only a bottom crust, I generally just press the dough right into the pie pan. Then put it into the fridge while you work on the filling, etc.
A Pie Crust Interlude:
People have this tendency to hold up one's pie crust making abilities as the ultimate indicator of one's cooking acumen/womanhood/blah. I don't one hundred percent understand this, but then I have pretty much always made flaky crust, and therefore don't think it's really all that hard. From what I can tell, the "secret(s)" are these: everything should be super-cold; don't overwork the dough; but mostly, don't try and skimp on the butter. Just don't. People also debate what's the best fat to use-supposedly, 70/30 butter to lard is the ideal, but I've always just used butter, because I was raised by ovo-lacto vegetarians. I like the egg yolk and sugar for flavor-enhancement, but they aren't required. I did, however, recently come upon this recipe that has magical VODKA in it and am v. curious. Will report back at a later time.
For crumb topping:
-3/4 cup flour
-2/3 cup sugar. I use turbinado or raw sugar because I am a hippie, but you could use brown or regular. Brown would be tastier, I think.
-4 TBS. butter/margarine, soft
-1 tsp. almond extract
-1/3 cup sliced almonds.
*Put all this stuff in a bowl and mix until it's crumbly. If you don't have almond extract, it's not the end of the world, but I'd put some cinnamon or nutmeg in instead for flavor. This "dough" also goes into fridge-purgatory until it's time to assemble the pie.
*
Gosh, I really didn't think this was going to take as long to write as it did. *pause* I used to want to be a cookbook writer once upon a time, did you know?