No Pan Pear Pie

Alton Brown

Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown

Show: Good EatsEpisode: Crust Never Sleeps

Picture of No Pan Pear Pie Recipe Photo: No Pan Pear Pie Recipe
Rated 5 stars out of 5
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Total Time:
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Yield:
1 tart
Level:
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Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided, diced
  • 3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate
  • 2 tablespoons cold water

For the filling:

  • 2 Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 pinch grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 teaspoon flour
  • 1 1/2 cups pound cake, cubed
  • 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Pulse to combine. Place dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and put the bowl into the refrigerator. Remove 1/2 stick of butter from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. In a food processor, add the 1/2 stick of butter to the flour mixture. Pulse until the fat completely disappears. Add the remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter in separate batches. Pulse until flour mixture resembles the size of a pea.

Combine the apple juice concentrate and the cold water. Using a spray bottle, spritz the dough with the apple juice mixture while folding the mixture with a spatula. After about three tablespoons of the liquid, check the dough for consistency. It should hold together when compressed but remain relatively dry to the touch. If it does not bind, add a little more water. Remove from the processor and form the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in wax paper or parchment paper and rest in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add pears to the pan and toss for 2 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue to toss for 30 seconds. Add sugar and cook until the pears have softened. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, and the butter and melt slowly. Fold in the blueberries. Remove from heat. Sprinkle on the flour and combine well. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Place dough on a floured piece of parchment and roll out to a 1/4-inch thick disk. Transfer to a baking sheet. Place cubed pound cake in the middle of the dough, leaving a 3-inch margin of crust on all sides. Spoon filling over the cake cubes and top the pears with 1 ounce of cubed butter. Lift excess crust onto filling and repeat in a clockwise fashion until a top lip has formed around the edge of the whole tart. Brush the tart with the egg wash and sprinkle the crust with the sugar.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the filling begins to bubble and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the sheet pan immediately and cool on pie rack.

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Newest Ratings and Reviews

Read all 25 reviews

  • on November 27, 2011

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    Dear Alton, or anyone else out there....

    I saw "Crust Never Sleeps" a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to try it out, so I decided to use the crust portion of the recipe for my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. In the end, it was the best pie crust EVER. But getting there was frustrating. I had to add a good bit more water and do a good bit more mixing than the instructions called for to get anything more than a large pile of crumbly flour. The video seemed to show the crumbly stuff going into the fridge, only to emerge 20 minutes later as pie crust, but it just didn't happen that way for me. Like I said, this ended up being a great recipe nonetheless, but if I'm unnecessarily complicating something I'd love to hear about it!

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  • on December 26, 2010

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    Wow! This was amazing! One of the best pies I've ever made. The filling is to die for. I think Alton complicates things a bit, but I think that's part of his schtick. Like instead of doing the apple juice concentrate thing I just used ice cold apple juice. I didn't use a spray bottle for it either. And the crust came out great. I used Sara lee frozen pound cake and I mixed cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on top. It was delicious with some vanilla bean ice cream for Christmas dessert. So awesome! The best thing I ate all day. Even better than my aunt's tamales - and that's saying something!

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  • on December 15, 2009

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    Not only was watching this episode very entertaining (my family loved the puppets, but the pie came out awesome and very tasty. I sub the blue berries for blackberries because my husband wanted blackberries, and it still tasted very tasty. I also recommended this to all of my friends and family and they feel in love with it.

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