To be honest, this recipe seemed like it wanted to happen. It’s not even a family remake of a recipe we’ve been enjoying for years…it’s just one that sounded good to me and that I wanted to enjoy for Thanksgiving this year. It’s not often I venture down the “create a recipe” path for myself, so it was kind of fun to experiment with flavors that I thought would work with one of my favorite fruits. I’ve always loved caramel, so I thought why not go down the salted caramel route and have the spices compliment that flavor along with the pear!
I used Bartlett pears, for this pie, which are very juicy. So if you use a different variety of pear like a Bosc or Anjous that aren’t quite as juicy, you may only need 4 tablespoons of cassava flour instead of 5. It really just depends on how ripe they are as well. I would suggest not using a super ripe pear…they’re harder to peel without damaging the fruit too much and super slippery!! Don’t want to go to all the effort of peeling this luscious fruit to then have it slip out of your hands and onto the floor. Anyways…choose your pear wisely and it’s ok if they’re still a bit firm yet soft to the touch. They’ll peel quicker and bake up like a dream…mostly because they’re baking in salted caramel…hahaha!
Speaking of caramel, be sure to make that sauce up ahead of time so it’s cooling while you prep the pie crust and fruit. As you know, once you peel a pear they can turn brown quickly! So have everything ready to go before you start peeling!
Hope this pie finds it’s way to your holiday table this year…happy Thanksgiving!!
salted caramel pear pie
salted caramel pear pie, ala paleo style
Credit: backporchpaleo.com
Ingredients
- our paleo pie crust recipe, doubled
- 5 tbl Otto’s cassava flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Redmond Real Salt
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 5-6 pears, firm yet soft salted caramel sauce
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup maple sugar
- 2 tbl grass fed butter
- 2 tbl coconut cream
- ½ tsp Redmond Real Salt Kosher Salt
Directions
- Prepare salted caramel sauce. Place maple syrup and maple sugar in a small saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a boil and let simmer to a soft boil stage (235°-240°). Try not to stir at all, if you do, you risk sugar crystals forming and you’ll have grainy caramel! The maple sugar will melt and get incorporated into the maple syrup. Once soft boil is reached, reduce heat to low and add butter, coconut cream and salt, whisk slowly to incorporate until fully combined. Pour into small glass jar and let cool while you prep the rest of the pie.
- Prepare pie crust dough. Since this pie has a top to it, you’ll need a double recipe. Double all the ingredients and make as directed. Separate dough into two balls, place one ball in bowl and cover with plastic wrap while you prep the other for the bottom of the pie. Follow directions for that here & once bottom crust is in the pie tin, cover with plastic wrap while you prepare filling.
- Pre-heat oven to 350°
- In a small bowl, combine cassava flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Toss together until well combined and set aside.
- Prepare fruit and cut into ½” pieces. I like to peel, core and cut up about 2-3 pears at a time, place in a bowl and sprinkle about half of the flour mixture on it and then toss to coat. Then finish up peeling, coring and dicing up the rest of the pears. Add to the pears already coated and sprinkle remaining flour mixture on, and toss to coat. This way, the pears you cut up first don’t start to turn brown before you’re finished up the last pear.
- Pour coated pears into the prepared pie crust, and drizzle approximately 2-3 tbl of the salted caramel on top. Cover with plastic while you prep the other pie crust dough ball. You can add a lattice top, cover with leaf cutouts, circle cutouts, whatever your favorite method is. Just be sure to leave some open space or cut slits so steam can vent during the baking.
- Egg wash the top of the pie and place in oven (on a baking sheet, just in case there is any spillage) and bake for anywhere to 45-60 minutes. You just want the inside to be bubbly! Watch those edges, if they start to get too brown, use a edge guard or cover the outer edge with foil.
- Remove from oven and cool for about 30-40 minutes before slicing, otherwise you’ll have the hot filling running all over the place. Also wonderful the next day!
- Slice and serve with the salted caramel sauce drizzled over the top!
