Pure Hunger

I may get ripe tomatoes thrown at me if I say it out loud but I think it is officially Fall in the Pacific Northwest. The temperature is cooling down, the rain is drizzling and the apples and pears are falling from the trees. I can’t honestly say I’m all that disappointed. I love the crisp, cool mornings of fall that bring apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, gingerbread and egg nog. I love the rosy color of my cheeks when I return from a long walk in the cool autumn, admiring the beautiful display of changing fall leaves on trees and around my feet. We haven’t made it that far yet, but the transition is occurring and I’m really excited.

Ingredients

Pie Crust
1 egg, beaten

4 small pears, sliced
4 small apples, sliced
3 Tbsp crystalized ginger, diced
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon

I recently made zucchini bread inspired by Heidi from 101 Cookbooks and one of the optional ingredients was crystalized ginger. At our garden harvest I obtained quite a few pears and apples and became obsessed with putting all three ingredients together in a pie.

I sprinkled some sugar, molasses and spices and plopped it into my favorite pie crust. It borders orgasmic. Pair it with vanilla ice cream and it puts you close to a coma, food induced of course.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out one disk of pie dough as thin as possible. Place in pie pan carefully.

Mix together apples, pears, crystalized ginger, sugar, molasses, corn starch, vanilla, ginger and cinnamon in separate bowl. Spoon into crust.

Roll out second pie crust as thin as possible and carefully place on top of apple and pear mixture. Press sides of dough together with fork and leave one inch space hanging (it will shrink as it bakes). Cut three slits in middle of top crust. I like to take the extra pie crust, roll out thin and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place on the top. Brush top crust with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Remove from oven, let cool at least one hour. Tastes best if allowed to cool for a few hours or even the next day after being refrigerated. Eat with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream and try your best to keep it to one piece.