Apple Pear Ginger pie

12-16 slices

Experience

I made this for Thanksgiving dinner 2021, which was also a birthday party for Matthaeus, me and Melanie – Ilia’s wife. We had Ferdi, Elizabeth, Noa, Noam, Aryeh, Rachel, Ilia and Melanie over. People loved the birthday pie. Ferdi said – yeah the liquor is good but it’s nothing compared to this pie. Others said over and over again that it was amazingly good, asked about ingredients, etc… I thought the bottom pie was soggy though, but I cooked it very quickly.

03/2024: for Alina’s birthday. It tastes great. Parbaking the lower dough for 10 min works well. However I overlooked the fruits it became a liquid mush. Keep to the timing.

Ingredients

• 2 pie doughs
• 1/2 lemon
• 6 apples
• 3 pears
• 2/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• piece of ginger, maybe 1-inch?
• some cubes of crystallized ginger (no idea how much)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• 57 g (1/4 cup) butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Recipe

Filling

1. Grate the lemon zest.
2. Peel ginger, grate.
3. Peel, core and then slice both the apple and pear into 1/2-inch chunks.
4. Chop crystallized ginger into small bites.
5. Squeeze lemon juice over the fruit, toss with sugar, cinnamon, fresh ginger, crystallized ginger, salt and nutmeg.
6. Melt butter in a pot, medium-high heat.
7. Add fruit and cook, 2 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to medium, cook uncovered, 10 minutes (fruit softens, juices evaporate somewhat).
9. Mix the flour into the fruit. Cook 1 min to thicken slightly.
10. Add vanilla and lemon zest. Cool completely.

Assembly

1. Dust work surface with flour.
2. Roll dough into a glass pie (with paper below), hangs about 1/2-inch over edge.
3. Fill crust with prepared fruit so it mounds slightly in the center.
4. Cut out letters for “Happy Birthday” into the second dough. Make some leaves and decorations. Brush rim of the crust with egg wash.
5. Roll second dough onto the rolling pin and unroll it over the fruit, hangs over the edge by 1/2-inch.
6. Trim crust if needed, reserving the scraps for decorations or for patching.
7. Fold the top crust edge under the bottom one, then press the edges together to seal. Make a pie edge.
8. Refrigerate the pie for at least 20 minutes.
9. Oven: 220C.
10. Brush pie with egg, place decorations.
11. Brush again and sprinkle with sugar.
12. Make sure there are steam vents on top of the dough.
13. Cook for 15 minutes.
14. Oven: 190C. Bake another 50 minutes, until browned evenly (put aluminum if necessary).

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loosely based on foodnetwork