Recipe Remix?: Pear and Walnut Pie

Tonight is my monthly Cookbook Club meeting and I thought I’d kill some time before it starts and post the recipe + pics of the pie I just made. I’m posting it as recipe remix QUESTION MARK because I only changed, like, two things, so it’s not much of a remix, but still.

This month’s featured chef is Tyler Florence. Although it seems everyone and their mom knows who Tyler Florence is, I did not. I don’t have cable so Food Network et al is out. I don’t know how I’d find out about new-to-me chefs anymore if not for Cookbook Club. I wish I had had more time to peruse his recipes and cookbooks, but as it turned out I just sort-of-randomly picked this recipe from the small dessert section in his “Tyler Florence Family Meal” cookbook, which my mom had picked up for the occasion. Because I can’t find any handy-dandy links, I’m going to go ahead and reproduce the recipe here, so you can recreate it if you want.

Tyler Florence’s Pear and Walnut Pie with Apple Butter Creme Fraiche

shared from “Tyler Florence Family Meal”

Makes 1 9-inch pie

I am not reproducing the pie crust aspect of his recipe because it is just your run of the mill pie crust recipe and I cheated and used Pillsbury ready-made crusts, anyway.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. walnuts

8 Bosc Pears (I used D’Anjou because the Bosc variety at my local grocery store were all in poor condition)

1 c. lightly packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. all purpose flour

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tbsp. dark rum (I used Whiskey instead and then added a tsp. of Pure Vanilla Extract to sweeten it a bit more)

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (you can squeeze this out of one lemon. Press down as you roll the lemon along your countertop, then cut in halves and squeeze – you’ll get more juice out of your lemons this way)

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1 egg, lightly beaten (for egg wash)

8 oz. creme fraiche (usually you can find this near the sour cream, yogurt, or specialty dairy at any grocery store, but I had trouble finding it this time, so I had to get it at Whole Foods)

1/2 cup apple butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until they are golden brown, about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Let the nuts cool for a few minutes, then coarsely chop. Leave the oven on.

2. Peel and core the pears and cut into 1/8 inch slices. Place the pears and walnuts in a large mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, honey, flour, cinnamon, rum (or whiskey + vanilla extract!), lemon juice, and salt. Toss gently to combine thoroughly.

3. Lay the dough in your pie pan and the fill with the pear and walnut mixture. Place the remaining dough over the filling, trim the excess dough to a 1-in overhang and use your fingers to crimp the crust/edges. Brush the crust with an egg wash. Cut a round hole in the center of the pie and make several 1-inch slits in the crust. Place the pie pan on a baking sheet to catch any drips (I did have some overflow, so def do this).

4. Bake the pie for 40-50 minutes, or until the crust is a beautiful golden brown. Let the pie cool for 15 minutes before serving warm or at room temperature. Serve the pie with dollops of creme fraiche.*^

*Whip the cream fraiche until fluffy. Add the apple butter and stir until somewhat incorporated; you should be able to see swirls of the apple butter (this did not happen for me).

^I highly suggest letting this pie fully set over the course of several hours before serving – otherwise, it is still delicious but basically soup, as I learned when I served it, still warm-ish, 40 minutes after baking. You can always warm it in the microwave if you want that “just out of the oven” sensation.