FESTIVE PEAR & FIG PIE
Pie is a big Thanksgiving tradition in the US. The first pie I encountered after we moved to New Orleans in 2000 was a store-bought pumpkin pie and I must admit, I did not like it at all. Cold, sweet pumpkin with a cinnamon-like taste was not something I enjoyed as a dessert. I could not even stand the texture. Usually I am a huge cake crust fan but this one was completely tasteless in my opinion. So after that first try, I gave up on pies, instead focusing more on producing a perfect turkey so we could adopt the foreign Thanksgiving tradition. Over the years, we formed a German Thanksgiving group that got together annually for this occasion and we started digging deeper into making delicious homemade thanksgiving dishes. This lead automatically into trying homemade pie recipes and besides the pumpkin version, I finally became fond of pies too.
Changing my diet for health reasons (you can read about my former health problems in the About Me section of the website) robbed me of all those newly accustomed treats. Once more I encountered the problem of finding desserts free of grain, gluten, lactose, and refined sugar that assisted our gut health without feeding inflammation.
A couple of years later, the Basic Grain Free Pie Crust was born and first published on the blog for the Walnut Caramel Pie recipe and then altered a bit for this Festive Pear & Fig Pie recipe and so far, nobody has left the crust on their plate!
The filling for my Festive Pear & Fig Pie is made with fresh pears, dried figs, and walnuts that are precooked on the stovetop to shorten the baking time and prevent the dough from getting too mushy from the fruit juices.
You can easily substitute the pears with apples if you’re more in the mood for a traditional apple pie. As with all almond flour or honey baking, you have to make sure it doesn’t get too dark while baking in the oven. To prevent that from happening, I loosely cover the dough with a sheet of aluminum foil for the remaining baking time once it achieves the perfect golden color.
INGREDIENTS
for the filling:
4 tart pears such as Anjou, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4” wedges
3/4 cups walnuts
2/3 cup dried black mission figs, stemmed and quartered
1 whole star anise
3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp sea salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
for the egg wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp fermented heavy whipping cream
for the crust:
1 basic grain free pie crust
coconut flour to prevent the dough from sticking
tools:
9” pie plate, fall cookie cutters, rolling pin, pastry brush
INSTRUCTIONS
for the dough:
Roll out half of the dough to a 13”circle (you can do this on a parchment paper dusted with coconut flour or inside a small, clean, unscented garbage bag). Move the dough to the greased pie plate (you can use the rolling pin to carefully transport the dough), make sure it’s centered, then gently push it to the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim to a 1/4” overhang. Refrigerate until the filling is ready. Roll out the second disc into a 13” circle, cut out the vent in the middle and refrigerate. If you want, you can make a couple of decorative cutouts with the leftover dough.
for the filling:
Bring the apple cider, figs, and star anise to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the figs for 10 minutes until soft. Remove the figs with a slotted spoon and discard the star anise.
Keep simmering the cider until reduced to a syrup. Add the pears, honey, and sea salt and simmer until the pears start to soften. Remove the pears with a slotted spoon. Reduce the juices to a syrup and pour over the pears and figs. Add the nuts and lemon juice and stir until well combined (make sure not to have too much liquid so the dough gets mushy).
Add the pear fig filling to the pie plate. Brush a little water over the sides of the dough then center the second disc over the filling, trim to have a 1/2” overhang. Gently push the dough onto the filling then press the upper and lower dough rims together to form a seal. Brush the bottom side of the decorative cut outs with water and press gently onto the top crust.
Mix the egg yolk with the heavy whipping cream and brush over the pie crust using a pastry brush.
Freeze for 30 minutes.
Bake at 350°F / 180°C for 30 minutes. Cover loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil once it has the perfect golden color to prevent it from getting too dark. Remove from the oven and let cool.
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Welcome to CREATING HEALTHY TIMES!
My name is Ulrike. I created this website to share my dietary approach to natural healing and delicious sugar, grain, and lactose-free recipes. I found that, provided with the right nutrition, the body itself is one of the greatest healers.
Find out what I learned on my nine-year journey with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and get valuable information about natural healing
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