Friday Pie-Day: Peach-Pear Pie

Here in Florida, we are still on the brink of autumn with traces of summer. This pie is a wonderful bridge between the two.

With ingredients like fresh peaches, fresh pears, and walnuts, how could it not be good?!

This pie was one of the more elaborate ones I have made in our 4 years of family pie-making, but it was definitely worth the extra effort!

I began with the chopping of the fruit. As you could see in the ingredients picture, I didn’t know what 2½ cups of sliced fruit translated to. It turns out 3 pieces of each fruit was the lucky number.

The slicing of the fruit took the longest, but using fresh fruit is quite rewarding in a pie like this.

I have made peach pies (here and here) before, but this was my first time slicing pears. They are very similar to apples, but not quite as firm. These Comice pears were fragrant and the perfect ripeness.

Next, mix together the thickening agents for the pie filling – sugar, brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and allspice.

Blanket the fruit with it all…

…and toss it with lemon juice until the fruit is all coated.

Let the pie filling sit to wait awhile while you toast the walnuts to bring out extra flavor…

…and make the pie crust. I trimmed off the edges with a knife because I had something good planned for the top.

Doesn’t it look delicious? I could almost eat it unbaked!

Confession: I do not like butter (until it is baked into things and I can’t taste it).

But it was a necessary ingredient in the walnut streusel topping.

Can you see any pieces of fruit peeking out from the streusel?

The last step was adding some garnishes. From the pie crust I trimmed, I used a mini leaf cookie cutter to make a border and centerpiece on the top of the pie.

The recipe says to remove when it’s bubbly. And boy, was it bubbly!

 

We let it simmer down and gel together for an hour, and if it had cooled more, it wouldn’t have been quite so runny.

The flavor of baked pears was subtle, but they were definitely present among the peaches. And cinnamon and walnuts just make everything better.

The only thing missing was vanilla ice cream!

Bon appétit!

Peach-Pear Pie (recipe from Taste of Home)

2½ cups sliced peeled fresh peaches

2½ cups sliced peeled fresh pears

1 T. lemon juice

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

3 T. cornstarch

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. allspice

pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie

TOPPING:

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

3 T. brown sugar

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

¼ cup cold butter

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a bowl, sprinkle the peaches and pears with lemon juice. Combine the sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, and allspice. Add to fruit, toss gently to coat. Pour into pastry shell.
2. For topping, combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl; cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over filling.
3. Cover edges loosely with foil (or pie crust shield). Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.