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EVG
Dec 17, 2005

If I Saw It, Here's How It Happened.
In the spirit of the season, and in consideration for PUMPKIN FAMINE 2015, I decided to switch things up and try something new! Finding a recipe for a pear-ginger pie on CI which included a recipe for the crust (which I have never been great at) I figured it was worth a try.

Pie Crust Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 ¼ ounces)
½ teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (¾ stick), cut into ¼-inch slices
¼ cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces
2 tablespoons vodka, cold
2 tablespoons cold water



Pie Filling Ingredients

3 pounds of Bartlett or Bosc pear, peeled, halved, cored, and sliced ¼ inch thick
½ (3 ½ ounces) cup granulated sugar
¾ (3 ¾ ounces) cup all-purpose flour
¼ packed (1 ¾ ounces) cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm
8 ounces fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (2 cups)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger



Peel and Halve the Pears

Chop chop.



Core the Pears

Coring is easily accomplished with a paring knife, making sure to remember to get the bit that runs up the top of the pear to the stem.



Slice the Pears

1/4" slices, por favor.



Add the crust ingredients to the food processor

Process 3/4 cups flour, salt, and sugar together in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 10 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds with some very small pieces of butter remaining, but there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade.



Chop 'em together with a bit more flour.

Add remaining 1/2 cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.



Fold and mash the dough.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.



Turn out and smoosh into a disk

Flatten dough into 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes.



Nuke the Pears

Meanwhile, toss pears with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in large bowl. Microwave, covered, until pears turn translucent and release their juices, 4 to 8 minutes, stirring once halfway through microwaving. Uncover and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.



Chop up the Crystalized Ginger

Yes, folks! Here we are, with GINGER #1!



Aw yessss. Tender pears.

Pro-tip: wait until they are cooled at least a -little- before tipping the bowl to pour the delectable pear nectar into your gaping maw. Discard liquids, my arse.

(Bonus puppy hoping for dropped pieces.)



Grate some Fresh Ginger

You guessed it, boys and girls! That's right - GINGER NUMBER 2!



Combine Topping Ingredients

Combine flour, brown sugar, crystallized ginger, ground ginger*, salt, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in medium bowl. Add melted butter and stir until mixture is completely moistened. Let cool completely, about 10 minutes.

(Note: I accidentally put the fresh grated ginger in here too, and had to grate some more for the filling. The more the merrier - no harm done!)

* DING DING DING, that's Ginger Number 3!



Oh Right. Bring back the crust.

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on generously floured (up to ¼ cup) work surface to 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.





Ignore the little Cat.

He just wants to lead you astray



Lay the dough out onto your 9" pie plate. Get ready to wait again.

It is at this point, gentle readers, that I realized I had a 10" pie plate. It worked, but my edges were rather ragged.

Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9‑inch pie plate, letting excess dough hang over edge. Ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with your hand while pressing into plate bottom with your other hand. Wrap dough-lined plate loosely in plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough is firm, about 30 minutes.
Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang on each side. Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Leave overhanging dough in place; refrigerate until dough is firm, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile... CRANBERRIES

Combine cranberries, fresh ginger, and remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar in food processor and pulse until cranberries are roughly chopped, about 5 pulses.

It will look like this, even if you forget to take a picture before dumping them out into a bowl atop the pears.



Drain cooled pears and discard liquid (OR DRINK IT, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO). Return pears to now-empty bowl and add cranberry mixture, stirring to combine.

Bring back the crust (final go)

Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of pie plate. Tuck overhang under itself; folded edge should be flush with edge of plate. Crimp dough evenly around edge of plate using your fingers. Wrap dough-lined plate loosely in plastic and refrigerate until dough is firm, about 15 minutes.



Fill 'er Up

Transfer mixture to dough-lined plate. Try to make sure that the layer is fairly even.



Top 'er off

Sprinkle topping over pear mixture, breaking apart any large clumps.





LET'S BAKE!

Place pie on rimmed baking sheet and bake until juices are bubbling and topping is deep golden brown, 45 to 55 minutes, rotating pie plate halfway through baking.



A LESSON LEARNED

Let pie cool completely on wire rack, about 4 hours, before serving.

Alas, gentle readers, here I leave you without a money shot for the nonce. For you see, not only did I neglect to read the recipe thoroughly to understand how much waiting was required between steps to allow dough to chill, fillings to cool, etc, that by the time the pie came out of the oven, it was 8:30pm. And only now do I notice the 4 hour cooling time before I can shove it in my face. Rest assured as soon as I get the chance to cut out a slice, a final picture will be forthcoming.

..What's that? You say that all-in-all, that was only three types of Ginger? Fret not, but turn your gaze upwards to Image The Second. Within a sharp eye will spy my surly ginger cat, watching over the preceedings. That, my friend, is why this is a Quadruple Ginger Pie.

Final Pie Pic, post cool-n-slice:



THINGS I HAVE LEARNED!

* READ THE loving RECIPE. ALL OF IT. TWICE. BEFORE you start!
* I should have blind-baked the crust before filling it, the bottom went a bit soggy.
* Chop up the crystalized ginger small, those bits pack a punch and are really sticky/gummy and too large of a piece will have you making weird faces as you try to pry the treacle from your teeth.
* Let your pears ripen. I wanted to make a pie this weekend so I started with rock-hard pears fresh from the grocery store. A couple days on the counter to soften up would have given the pie a stronger pear flavor, I think. As is, it's tasty but I couldn't tell you if it was pear or apple without knowing.
* Fresh cranberries are not very good to eat.

I hope that you all enjoyed this adventure in baking.

EVG fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Oct 19, 2015

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Suspect Bucket
Jan 15, 2012

SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR
My sinuses cleared up just reading that. I wanna try that.

Brawnfire
Jul 13, 2004

🎧Listen to Cylindricule!🎵
https://linktr.ee/Cylindricule

oh. my. god.


you won my mouth

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




That looks really tasty! I would be tempted to combine it with a cranberry orange relish instead of the fresh cranberries, because cranberry/orange/pear/ginger sounds marvelous.

Cavenagh
Oct 9, 2007

Grrrrrrrrr.
Wanting to make this for Thanksgiving. Really reminded me of one of my favourite things to make which is a rhubarb crumble where the rhubarb is gently poached in ginger wine, with orange zest and slices of ginger. Maybe poaching the pears in that manner would get rid of the under ripe problem?

EVG
Dec 17, 2005

If I Saw It, Here's How It Happened.
Hmmm. I think it really just needed to ripen natually. It was soft enough, it basically poached in the microwave I think. It just didn't have that lovely ripe pear flavor. But please do try that and report back, because I hate waiting for the 5 minute perfect ripeness window on a pear, and then missing it and having overripe ones sitting around.

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Kenning
Jan 11, 2009

I really want to post goatse. Instead I only have these🍄.



Looks gingery as gently caress. Ginger rules.

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