We had lovely pears this summer, so I devised this recipe to make the most of them. We ate ithe pie before I could take a photograph!
For the dough:
7½ ounces of unbleached all-purpose flour
4½ ounces or 9 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter (= 1 whole stick plus an extra pat)
3 Tbs ice-cold water
¾ teaspoon of sea salt or other high-quality, medium-fine salt
¾ teaspoon of sugar (optional but recommended)
For the glaze: One beaten egg of any size with granulated sugar for sprinkling.
For the filling:
3 ripe (yielding to the touch) pears (about 1 lb before peeling and coring)
up to 6 oz blackberries, gently washed
½ cup / 60 grams slivered almonds
2 Tbs Galliano liqueur, or other fruity/herby liqueur as available.
1 tsp cornstarch (or 2 tsps all-purpose flour) mixed in with liqueur-pear juice.
A well-mixed bowl of:
2 generous heaping tablespoons / 35 grams light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground mace
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Spoon liqueur over pears and add the almonds, then the spice-sugar mix. Gently turn to distribute ingredients evenly.
Set oven to 375° to blind-bake bottom crust, 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before spooning pears and almonds. Put no more than half the berries in gaps between pear slices.
Roll out second half of dough, cut into one-inch lattice strips, and cover pears with them. Glaze trips completely with beaten egg. Roll the rest of the blackberries in sugar, then pop them in the square gaps between strips, creating a pin-cushion effect.
Chill pie and pre-heat oven to 375°. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or till the lattice is golden-brown. Serve hot as-is or with vanilla ice cream.