Pear Pies (Edit recipe)

These Paleo MINI PEAR PIES are certainly eye catching aren’t they!? If you watch The Great British Baking Show over on Netflix, these may seem familiar from "Show Stopper" challenge a few seasons back. One I knew I had to recreate with our OG PIE CRUST or our PIE CRUST MIX from Legit Bread Company. These would be absolutely lovely as a dessert for an intimate dinner party. While they of course would be AMAZING for your holiday dinner table, they are a bit time intensive to prep. So, maybe you're in charge of bringing dessert to a holiday meal, then these might be your contribution. You will need two pie crust recipes for this deliciousness, so prepare accordingly! This way you’ll have enough dough to wrap all six pears, having extra for those cute leaf accents and maybe a few pie crust cookies!

1 hour

30 minutes

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Show nutritional information

This is our estimate based on online research.
Calories:	150
Fat:	0 g
Carbohydrates:	42 g
Protein:	0 g
Cholesterol:	0 g
Sodium:	0 mg
Fiber:	0 g
Sugars:	11 g
Calculated per serving.

by Back Porch Paleo

View original recipe

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 whole Paleo/GF Pie Crust (click for recipe), or 1 bag of Legit Pie Crust Mix
6 whole Bosc Pear, or your favorite pear, ripe, but still firm
1.25 cups Maple Sugar, can sub coconut sugar but it will change flavor profile/colors
18 oz Pineapple Juice
14 oz Water
2 whole Whole Cinnamon Stick
1 whole Egg, whisked w/ 1 tbsp of water for egg wash, optional
1 Tbsp Vanilla Infused Sugar, we use Balanced Bites, optional

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Process

Note, these instructions are written assuming the standard serving size, since you have modified the number of servings, these steps may need to be modified for best results

Prepare pie crusts as directed, rolling into two dough balls. Wrap in plastic or airtight container and set aside while you prep pairs.
If you have a large enough pan, peel all six pears. Alternately, work on three pears at a time. Peel pears, leaving stems intact, set aside. Add sugar, juice, cinnamon sticks and water to a heavy bottomed pan. Bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved and boil for three minutes.
Add three pears to the pan, bring back to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes to lightly poach the pears*. Remove with a slotted spoon to a small plate and repeat with remaining three pears. Let them all cool.
While pears cool, boil syrup for 10-15 minutes or until reduced by half and thick, remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl or jar. Cool complelely. Preheat your oven to 400°.
When pears and syrup are cool, roll out one dough ball between two pieces of dusted parchment paper. You’re going to need 3 – 5” x 9” rectangles. DOES NOT have to be perfect here. You can cut out a pattern to lay on dough and cut around if that’s easier. Reroll scraps as needed to get three rectangles.
Take one pear and brush with cooled syrup. Carefully lay the pear down near the middle of the rectangle, positioning the stem near the top edge of the pastry, (see video on original post via link below) and using the parchment to help, wrap the pastry around the pear like you’re wrapping it up with a cape! Remove excess dough as needed and carefully press dough to the pear til it’s smooth. Try not to cover the bottom too much, as you want it to stand up straight to bake. Place pear on a parchment lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining pears. Use scraps of dough to cut out leaf shapes to decorate, and adhere with egg wash.
If you want a lovely golden bake, brush the entire pear with the egg wash and sprinkle with a little bit of organic sugar or maple sugar. Again, totally optional, but this step will provide a very lovely golden brown.
Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until nice and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes then serve with syrup.
TIP: the original recipe from The Great British Baking Show by Paul Hollywood instructed to core the pears after the poaching. We skipped this step intentionally as we feel like without the core intact, the pears shrink up when they bake and don’t have the best presentation after. Just remind guests that there is a core! Also, on the show contestants were instructed to make strips of pastry dough and wrap the pears. We tried that and feel like using a sheet of dough to wrap was easier to do.
*DO NOT OVER POACH, otherwise they will be too soft to remove and work with getting the pasty wrapped.