It’s that time of year when pie is everywhere. This year, I’m making a Pear and Cranberry Pie for Thanksgiving—the one you see here. The one with the most buttery and flakiest crust ever.
I’m all about the crust. The filling is good, but the crust is great—it’s what makes or breaks a pie for me. That said, I have a few no-fail rules to share.
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First, always use top-quality butter. I use Organic Valley for its prize-winning flavor. It’s creamy, and well—buttery. It’s everything butter needs to be to produce a flaky crust. It’s also organic, so you know—no Frankenstein-like GMOs, no synthetic growth or breeding hormones, no antibiotics, no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers—just happy cows producing top quality butter.
- Along with the butter, I use some vegetable shortening to increase that flaky ratio. If you can find lard, use it. It takes the pie crust to a new level. But I know many people don’t like it or it’s just not easily sourced.
- Finally, here are my last two favorite tricks (1) I like to finish my crust with a heavy sprinkling of coarse sugar, twice. Once when I’m done rolling it out I’ll sprinkle some on top and then give it a quick roll over with the rolling pin to pack it into the dough, then one more sprinkling on top before it goes into the oven. It gives the dough such a great texture. (2) For an extra boost in flavor I’ll roll crushed toasted nuts into the crust. For this pie here, I used pecans.
Pie Crust: Tools and Ingredients
So I went crazy with this post and did a whole lot of step-by-step pictures to encourage you to make your own pie this season. And yes the final pie crust differs from what you see in the step-by-step set because I’m working on my pie skills. Practice. Practice. Practice. But you get the idea. To add to that, check out the awesome stop motion video David Schwen created for this recipe. Seriously, how crazy cool is that? For more of his work check out his site here.
You’ll notice, in the step-by-step pictures, I use parchment to roll my dough out on. Yes, it’s a bit unorthodox, but it saves me from using more flour to keep the dough from getting tough and extra helpful if you don’t have a chilled marble board to keep the dough from sticking to a warm counter top.
Step 1 – Dough making
Step 2 – Bottom crust roll
Step 3 – Line pan
Step 4 – Fill pie and roll top crust
Step 5 – Unroll top crust onto pie; seal and bake
Now get busy and let’s make some pie!
Pear and Cranberry Pecan Crusted Pie
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients:
Pie Crust
- 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoon cup finely ground toasted pecans
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening, frozen, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch piece
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, cold
- 4-6 tablespoons cup ice water
- 4 tablespoons coarse sugar, divided use
- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped toasted pecans
Pear and Cranberry Filling
- 2 cups Anjou pears, ripe but firm; peeled, cored and sliced (1lb. 4oz.)
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (3 ¼ oz)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
Directions:
To make pie crust:
Manual method: Add flour, pecans, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add shortening and butter into flour mixture and and using a pastry cutter, cut and blend to combine until mixture resembles cottage cheese size curds. Transfer mixture to bowl. In a separate bowl, mix and combine 4 tablespoons ice water and apple cider vinegar; sprinkle over flour mixture. Stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather and form dough into 2 balls; flatten each into disk. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour. (Pie crust can be prepared ahead and refrigerated up to 2 days.)
Food processor method: Add flour, pecans, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse until combined, about 3 two-second bursts. Add shortening and butter and pulse in two second bursts until mixture resembles cottage cheese curds. Transfer mixture to bowl. In a separate bowl, mix and combine 4 tablespoons ice water and apple cider vinegar; sprinkle over flour mixture. Stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather and form dough into 2 balls; flatten each into disk. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour. (Pie crust can be prepared ahead and refrigerated up to 2 days.)
To make filling:
- Stir pears, cranberries, sugars, lemon juice and cinnamon in large bowl to blend. Let stand until juices form, about 15 minutes.. Discard all but 2 tablespoon of juice. Mix in flour. Dot top with diced butter.
Assembly:
Preparation: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly cover 9 inch pie pan with non-stick spray.
- Remove 1 dough disk from refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured parchment sheet to 12-inch round. Place dough in prepared pie dish. Spoon in filling; dot with butter. Roll out second dough disk to 13-inch round. Sprinkle coarse sugar and pecan on top and using the rolling pin give it a quick roll over the dough to press in the add-ons. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and unroll unto pie, leaving 1 inch overhang all the way around. Seal top and bottom crust edges together; trim to 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang under; crimp edge or finish edge as desired. Lightly brush on the milk and sprinkle the remaining coarse sugar on top.
- Transfer pie to baking sheet; place in oven. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, then reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake with a tented top(if crust is starting to brown too much) for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before cutting into.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with Organic Valley Butter. All thought and opinions are my own.
Naomi, this pie looks absolutely wonderful! I always use parchment paper to roll out pie crusts and cookie doughs – much less messy!
Wow this is just a stunning pie and all the step shots, too…so nice! I wish I was having this on Thanksgiving! Pinned!
Absolutely gorgeous, love the pear-cranberry combo and the cutout crust – so pretty!
I struggle with pie crust so this is fantastic! LOVE your step by step photos! Pinned!
Those process shots are amazing!!!
I love the clarity in your step by step pictures! I could not wait to get pie tin out by the end of it.
Such a pretty Thanksgiving pie! I love the flavour too.
Such a gorgeous pie! I have got to try your sugar technique next time I am brave enough to make a pie! Happy Thanksgiving to you and Matt and the boys, Naomi!
Gorgeous pie!
Some day I would love to spend 30 minutes in the kitchen with you so you can show me your baking ways! Such a beautiful pie!
Love this!
Damn this is absolutely GORGEOUS!! I LOOOOOVe the wonderful holiday flavors in this and the crust looks PERFECT! Damn you good!
Just beautiful Naomi- I just made a vegan pecan crust- but it is not this pretty! I have to get back to work on it now, I am inspired!
What a pretty pie!
What a gorgeous pie!!
So flaky and buttery! I am challenging myself with pies this summer and I can’t wait to try your version! I also love the sweet pears and sharp cranberries in the filling, all so perfect! All you need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream now 😉
I stopped using organic valley butter. It just had a blah taste. I switched to Kerry from Ireland. Just like the other butter but the taste is superior. Can’t wait to try this!
Amazing recipe, Naomi! I love how different you made it by cutting circles instead of traditional shapes. 😀 And that technique of rolling coarse sugar and nuts in the crust sounds so interesting! Must try that soon.
What a beautiful pie.. And how much I love the animation video…
Your photography inspires me everyday! 🙂
What a beautiful pie! I like the coarse sugar on top.
So beautiful! Love that pecan studded crust too!
This pie looks like such a labor of love (especially with those step-by-step photos), and it’s making me wish I could’ve celebrated Thanksgiving with you this year! Instead, I went to my guy’s family’s party, and they only had frozen store-bought pies they reheated in the oven… I would’ve died for a slice of this with all that gorgeous sugar on top! 🙂 Pinned!
Going to try this for Christmas. I’m assuming it’s just tablespoons, but your pie crust ingredients say, “4 tablespoon cup finely ground toasted pecans.”