Cranberry Ginger Pear Apple Pie

I made my first pie five years ago today.  I had been watching Pushing Daisies and was hungry for pie.  We had received a fruit basket from my in-laws for Christmas and some of the pears were about to go bad, so I decided to make a pie.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I mixed some flour, butter, sugar, and maybe an egg together and made something of a crust-like consistency that I then pressed into an eight inch cake pan.  The filling was pears, apples, dried cranberries, brown sugar, and ginger ale.

Today, I used actual pie making techniques and revisited the ingredients of the original pie.

Ingredients:

3 Granny Smith apples

3 red pears

8 oz of fresh cranberries

5 tablespoons of Pie Filling Enhancer

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger

Directions:
Peel and slice the apples and pears.
Toss them in the two tablespoons of sugar.
Pulse the cranberries, 1/4 cup of sugar, and ginger in a food processor five times.
Combine the cranberry mixture, the apple-pear mixture and the Pie Filling Enhancer.
Pour into a crust.
Place a lattice crust on top.
Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes at 425oF, rotate, reduce the temperature to 375oF and bake for another 30 minutes.
Allow to cool.

The original pie was more like fruit soup in a bread bowl as opposed to a pie.  My equipment has also improved.  I how have a Fruit & Vegetable Peeler, Corer & Slicer.  Instead of a cake pan that came in a bakeware set from Walmart, I have a handcrafted French pie dish from Emile Henry.  And I actually own trivets, instead of setting the pie on a pot holder to cool.

The new pie is really good.  The cranberries and ginger add a little bit of punch to flavor.  There is a bit of a crispness left to the apples and pears that add a variety to the texture.  There is nothing wrong with this pie.  I will probably make it again next year to celebrate the anniversary, but there is nothing outstanding about this pie that would make me want to make it all year round.

Piece out!

Justin

Happy Pi Day

I baked my first pie on December 29th, 2010, in the middle of binge-watching Pushing Daisies.  I used no recipe, an 8-inch cake pan, and the Anjou pears that had come in a fruit basket for Christmas and were about to go bad.

A lot has changed since then.

In 2011, I started a blog that can be found at http://justinpieman.blogspot.com .  It is a collection of recipes that I used that spring and summer.  (I have no idea which e-mail address I used or what the password was for this account, so here I am starting over.)  I started in a kitchen that had two 18” sections of countertop.  I now have about 10’ of counter top and a 3’x5’ table; so, not only do I have enough room to make a pie without putting a cutting board over the sink, but I also have a place to put the pie after I make it.

Since the first pie, I have bought or acquired actual pie dishes, tart pans, a rolling pin, pie weights, a lattice cutter, and pie cutters.   I now own more than 10 pie cookbooks and have over 200 more recipes pinned on Pinterest.

I have now made over 75 pies:  from American staples, like apple or strawberry-rhubarb, to the unique, like avocado, and from family recipes, like pumpkin chiffon, to ethnic fares, like tarte au riz or today’s μελόπιτα.  And, as of today, I am an Amateur Lifetime Member of the American Pie Council.

To celebrate Pi Day, I give you two different pies:

Pecan π

Lemon Meringue πr2

And later today, I will serve you up a π-sized piece of μελόπιτα, which is a Greek honey pie.  The choice of μελόπιτα is to honor Archimedes, the Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer from Syracuse, Sicily, with a traditional cheese-based pie from that part of the world.

Piece out!
Justin