Pear-Cranberry Pie

Yes, I’m enamored with cranberries and you will be, too, after you taste this Pear-Cranberry Pie. The sour flavor of the craberries combines beautifully with whatever sweetener you choose. And the color! Who can resist the bright, shiny reds of cranberries. No need to buy canned cranberries or canned cranberry sauce. It’s so easy to cook your own, starting with raw cranberries that can easily be stockpiled in your freezer.

Have you noticed the spot in the right-hand column that says “Looking for a recipe using a certain ingredient? Look here... ?” Well, type in ‘cranberry’ or ‘cranberries’ and you’ll find that Step by Step in the Kitchen already features several recipes using cranberries. Here’s one more to use up those cranberries in your freezer.

PEAR-CRANBERRY PIE
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients...

1/2-cup sugar
11 ounces frozen cranberries
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4-cup water
18 ounces Bosc pears
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1/2-cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons butter
double pie crust

Directions...

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, cranberries, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower heat if necessary. Stir gently. Boil one minute or until thickened. Set aside to cool.

2. Wash, peel, core and slice pears. Stir in lemon juice. Cover and set aside. Can be refrigerated.

3. Prepare your pie crust. Using a cookie cutter or some other method, cut small designs in the top crust. Or, cut several slits in the top crust after the pie is assembled.

4. Spread thickened cranberry mixture in pie pan on top of bottom crust.

5. Arrange pears on top of cranberry mixture.

6. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture on top of pears and then sprinkle with walnuts.

7. Divide butter into eight pieces and place on top of pie.

8. Add and attach top crust. Place pie plate on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, in case of spillover. Tear off four strips of foil and attach to each other, end to end. Use to cover outer edge of pie crust.

9. Bake in preheated 450-degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350-degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Remove foil and bake approximately 30 minutes more until golden brown and the filling can be seen bubbling through the openings in the top crust.

I chose Bosc Pears for this pie. Brought them home from the supermarket and let them sit on the counter for several days to ripen. At that point, they were just as firm as when I bought them. Peeled, they are lovely with no blemishes. A melon-baller came in handy for removing the core (a grapefruit spoon will work just as well). Although the Bosc Pears were just mildly sweet, I chose not to add any sweetener other than the sugar-cinnamon mixture being sprinkled on top.

I have to declare this my favorite dessert and my favorite overall next to the Scallop and Salmon with a Cranberry and Nut Sauce.