Streusel Pear Pie

My sister found out about Pie Therapy. We have another blog together, politically oriented. I thought she might feel like I was two-timing her, so I didn't tell her about it. Instead, she thought I was crazy (and she wanted some pie).

We were having friends over to decorate the tree. We had a bunch of pears left from last weeks market, and I wanted to try a pear pie. My mom said that I shouldn't use too ripe pears as it would turn to mush. She was also pretty negative about pear pie in general, not as tasty etc, as apple. But maybe, she thinks I am stepping on her pie toes. She too heard about the pie blog.

I had about 8 (small) Seckel pears that were very ripe so I mixed them with 2 pretty unripe Bosc's.

I have been getting much better at crust. I whipped it together pretty quickly and then got to work on the recipe. It came from Cooks.com I really like it as a resource. You can quickly scour a bunch of recipes to find one that suits your taste, what you've got in the fridge, etc. So, hear it is with my mods:

• 4 lg. pears
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/3 c flour
• 1/2 t grated lemon peel
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1/2 t ginger
• a squeeze of lemon juice

Streusel

• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c chopped pecans
• 1/3 c flour1/4 c. butter1 (9") unbaked pie shell

Core and dice pears. Toss with sugar, 1/3 cup flour, lemon peel, ginger, juice and nutmeg. Combine brown sugar, pecans and 1/3 cup flour. Cut in butter. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of brown sugar mixture over bottom of pie shell. Add pear mixture. Top with remaining sugar mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes until pears are fully cooked.

Everyone loved it. We served it to our friends with half vanilla and half ginger ice cream. We served it for breakfast to M-I-L, she thought it was excellent, especially the crust which managed to say crispy.

My husband thought, after poo pooing the lemon when I first added it, that there could be more lemon, more ginger and hazelnuts would have been better that pecans. But all in all he liked and in fact, hubby thought it have even developed more flavor from the evening before. Then the pie was gone.