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Tuesday, December 04, 2012

pear cookie pie


I love pears.  They are so underrated and in my opinion, so much better than apples.

Last year, I accidentally made a pie with a cookie crust rather than a pie crust because I had leftover cookie crust and it was am-a-zing.  It has become my new thing.  I am not a huge pie crust fan and the cookie dough crust is SO much easier.  And better.

I have only experimented with putting this crust on the top of the fruit - not the bottom and top, so I am not exactly sure how that would work, but I assume it would be delicious :).



Pear Cookie Pie {makes one pie}
For the filling
-5 pears, diced
-a tablespoon of honey
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-1 teaspoon nutmeg

For the crust
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-a pinch of salt
-1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
-3/4 cup white sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 large egg
-2 teaspoons cinnamon

-a little extra sugar for dusting

1. First make the crust.  Use an electric mixer and mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg and vanilla extract and continue to mix until totally combines {another minute}.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
3. Form dough into a ball and stick in the refrigerator while you prepare the pears.  Dice the pears into bite sized pieces and toss with the honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
4. Spread the pears evenly in a pie dish and take the dough out of the refrigerator.  
5. Roll the dough out into a disc the same size as your pie dish.  This dough is a little sticky, so I roll it out in between two pieces of parchment paper.
6. Lay the dough disc on the top of the pears and crimp around the edges.  Don't worry about making it fancy. This isn't the prettiest pie, but it tastes really good :).
7. Dust the crust with a little white sugar and bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.  You will know it's done when the edges of the crust have browned a small bit.

If you have extra dough left over you can make it into cookies or just eat the dough.  Enjoy!