Happy National Raspberry Cream Pie Day!
Any opportunity to celebrate our favorite dessert is ushered in with great delight over here at Agate. We like our pies savory or sweet, creamy or fruity, a la mode or with whipped cream. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find someone here who would deny a slice of such a delicacy.
So, naturally, the holiday has inspired us to share a seasonally-appropriate approach to raspberry cream pie from the Pie Queen herself.
Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama Pie Company talks farmers’ market, the collide of raspberry and pear season, and appropriate pie sprinklings. You can thank us while the pie is in the oven.
Pear-Raspberry Pie from The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie
This is a wonderful pie, made even more special by its short season. Each year, I look forward to the few weeks in early fall when the first pears and the last raspberries share table space at the farmers’ market. If you are patient enough to wait for perfectly ripe pears, the results are spectacular.
Makes one 9-inch (22.5-cm) pie
Ingredients
1 single-crust All-Butter Pie Dough shell (recipe p. 24)
10 All-Butter Pie Dough lattice strips (p. 42)
5 cups (750g) pears, peeled, cored, and chopped into bite-sized pieces (roughly 1 inch long by ¾ inch thick [2.5cm by 19mm])
2 (250g) cups raspberries
1 Tablespoon (16g) fresh lemon juice
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
2½ Tablespoons (22.5g) cornstarch
¼ teaspoon (.5g) ground ginger
Pinch kosher salt
Crust Dust (p. 21), for sprinkling
Pie Wash (p. 21), for brushing the top of the pie
Coarse-grained sugar, for sprinkling
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Place the pears, raspberries, and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Do not mix.
Place the sugar, cornstarch, ginger, and salt in a small bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.
Gently fold the dry ingredients into the fruit, until most of the mixture is absorbed. Take care not to break up the raspberries.
Sprinkle Crust Dust into the empty pie shell.
Pile the pears and raspberries into the pie shell and smooth the top with a spatula.
Finish the pie according to the lattice-top instructions (p. 42), then freeze for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Brush the lattice with Pie Wash and sprinkle liberally with coarse-grained sugar.
Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, rotating 180 degrees every 20 minutes, until the crust is dark golden brown and the juices are bubbling thickly.
Cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.
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The unbaked pie can be stored in the freezer for up to 1 week. The baked pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days and in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.