Recipe: Kieffer Pear Pie

After harvesting 46.5 pounds (a new record!) of Kieffer pears in the last three weeks, it seems as if every dessert we make has some sort of pear thrown in. Of course, some of the pears made their way into the houses of friends and family, but the rest are either ripening on my counter until they turn a nice golden yellow or are in a chilled state in the fruit drawer of my refrigerator.

So it seemed like the perfect time to make pear pie! I modified my high-top apple pie recipe to work for Kieffer pears. It goes well with pie dough made from scratch, or if you need to save time you can buy a ready-made pie dough in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

Here is the filling:

8-9 large Kieffer pears (or 7 small Kieffer pears with 2 Granny Smith apples)
3 tbsp Minute instant tapioca
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp mace

You will also need:
2 pie crusts
milk
sanding sugar

Peel pears and slice them to roughly half inch thick pieces. I cut out any hard pieces near the core that may be too close to the seed. (If you leave it, it will make the pear slices gritty as they bake.) Add the instant tapioca, sugar, cinnamon, salt and mace. Stir well. Place into pie shell. Top with second pie shell. Pinch the edges and then lightly brush the milk on the top shell. Take sanding sugar and cover area brushed with milk. Use a knife to place slits in the pie crust so the pie can vent.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 minutes to an hour, or until bubbly.

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or by itself warm.

To know when a Kieffer pear is ready for picking, click here.