Auntie P'Gell's Pear-Apple Pie
4-5 large tart apples, Gala, McIntosh, Granny Smith etc
2 large bosc or other ripe pears
lemon juice
3/4 cup of brown or white sugar, or mix them
1 TBS of cinnamon
1 tsp of powdered ginger or 1 TBS of fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp of ground cloves (grind them yourself by using only the heads and crushing in a mortar and pestle)
1/2 tsp of fresh ground nutmeg (use store bough nutmegs and grind them on a nutmeg scraper, it looks like a little cheese grater)
1 tsp to 1 TBS of salt (I only use Kosher)
2-3 tsp of flour or corn starch
optional: a few TBS of raisins or dried cranberries
1 recipe for
pate brisee pie crust
2 1/2 unbleached flour
1 TBS salt (kosher best)
1 stick of butter (8 TBS) cold
8 tbs of vegetable shortening (all veggie shortening, 2 cups, if you are vegan)
1/2 to 1 cup of ice and water mixed
a pinch of sugar
Giant recipe for Streusel
2 cups flour
8 TBS butter or shortening
6 TBS brown sugar
1-2 tsp of cinnamon (I add some of the other spices as well)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Make
Pate Brisee Mix flour, salt, sugar and butter and shortening by hand with a pastry blender or better yet, in a food processor. Add ice water a little at a time. (I do it quickly in a food processor, using just enough ice water, a teaspoon or so at a time so it forms a ball easily) flatten into two discs, wrap and keep very cold.
Core peel and slice apples uniformly. Do the same with the pears, but slice thicker. Place in large bowl with lemon juice. After several minutes drain out excess juice (there will be more, too much juice ruins your pie, even with the flour to absorb it.)
Add the rest of the pie recipe ingredients.
Make streusel with cold butter or shortening, mixing with a pastry blender or two knives used like scissors (that's hard, just get a sharp edged pastry blender, the wire ones are mostly useless) until the pieces of butter are the size of large peas and are totally coated with flour and spices.
Roll ONE disc (half recipe) of
Pate Brisee large enough to cover a 9 inch deep pie pan. Roll between pieces of parchment paper, floured to prevent sticking while keeping very cold. Roll around rolling pin or fold into fourths and place in pie pan. DO NOT stretch crust, make decorative edges around top. (Or use second recipe to make cut outs to cover edge and glue to edge with egg after adding filling)
Drain Pear-Apple mixture one more time, add to pie crust. Cover with streusel, pat streusel down so it sticks to pie with both hands. Get it all the way to the edges of crust to seal. Place on aluminum foil or parchment covered cookie sheet to prevent drips. Cover edges of crust of pie with crust protectors (you can get them at the dollar store or grocery store) or molded aluminum foil to prevent burning. Pie will probably bubble over, so make sure you put it on a covered cookie sheet. I spray crust protectors with Pam to prevent them from sticking to the pies.
Bake for about 15 minutes, turn oven down to 375 degrees F and bake for approx 45 minutes or fruit is softened and until bottom of crust is brown (I use a Pyrex pan to make sure I can see if its brown) taking pie shields or aluminum foil off of crust about 10 minutes before pie is done.
Cool to room temperature. EAT!
Keep second half of
Pate Brisee for an other use. Freeze or keep in refrigerator.
