The filling is yummy - the only thing I did was to mix the sugar mixture together with the pears as others have suggested. But since I am not a baker and the thought of making the top crust look nice was terrifying I made a crumble topping: 1/2 cup each butter and brown sugar mixed together with 1 cup flour. Pour the crumbles over the pears and bake at 350 for about an hour. I took it to a party tonight and everyone raved even hubby who claims to not like pears. Thanks!!
I followed the recipe as written. Our neighbors gave us pears from their tree and I found this recipe to make. I took the pie over to their house and you should have seen the looks on their face. Pear pie? I think I will pass. They tried and said "it doesn't taste like pears it tastes like apple pie. This is really good." I will definitely be making more this weekend as they gave me more pears. I will freeze and take several to work for a treat. I'm sure everyone will love it. Thank you. This is really delicious!!!
My family has been making pear pies for generations so I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the subject. The reason your pear pies are tasting like apple pies is the CINNAMON!!! Do what our family does and use NUTMEG! Other reviewers are correct: make sure your pears are ripe almost to the point of being soft. Also, don't be afraid of using salt in your dessert recipes! This recipe says use 1/4 teaspoon salt. That's not enough to even bother with! I would at least double that, and the reason is: SALT MAKES SUGAR TASTE EVEN SWEETER! We also traditionally sprinkle some white sugar over the top crust before baking. This always helps us differentiate it from an apple pie at a family meal.
I have made this pie at least 10 times now since we are hooked on it. Originally came upon recipe because we have a pear tree that gave us an over abundance more than we could give away or store. The first time I made the recipe I followed exactly as written until I came to the lemon zest and realized I didn't have a whole lemon. I did have fresh ginger and grated some of that in. My pie was wonderful! Since then I've made a few variations of this original recipe and my winning one is I use the lemon zest AND fresh grated ginger - at least a good heaping tablespoon. And I have changed the 3 tablespoons of flour to 4 tablespoons of corn starch and changed the 1/2 cup of white sugar to 1/4 cup Splenda and 1/4 cup brown sugar!. Wonderful - the ginger gives it a taste that is not over powering where anyone can put their finger on what it is - but it makes it most unique. The corn starch allows the cutting of the pie to come out picture perfect
This pie was a great hit with my family. I did add a half cup of cranraisins and sliced one green apple into the pie. Also I used Spendor which is a sugar substitute that you use the same amount that the recipe calls for.
This pie was wonderful! I forgot to dot with butter but it was fabulous anyway. A simple recipe with a great fruity taste. I made a deep dish pie with about 8-9 cups of pears and a little extra lemon zest and it was just right. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
This pie recipe was a hit! It tasted like an apple pie but it was not as tart. The recipe was easy to follow. The only thing I would do differently is mix the sugar mixture with the pears since I followed the directions and sprinkled the sugar between the pear layers it really did not blend with the juices from the pear. All in all I will definitely make this pie again. It was very yummy!
I was trying to figure out what in the world to do with all of the pears that came off of my grandmother's tree this year when I found this recipe and boy am I glad that we found it. It really is quite tasty! As per other reviews I mixed the dry ingredients with my pears before dumping them in the crust and I used a crumb topping on the top instead of the second crust. If you're interested my crumb topping it is 1/4 c. butter melted 1/2 c. light brown sugar and 3/4 c. flour. Oh if you use a crumb topping there's no need to mix any butter in with the pears.
There is nothing wrong with this recipe...I used my own family pie crust and it was great. The cinnamon is not overpowering. It took about 5 d'Anjou pears sliced thinly. This tastes A LOT like Apple Pie only a bit different but use it when pears are in season. Nice and sweet - and it thickens perfectly. Going in my recipe book.
