Blue Pear Pie Recipe

photos by g.t. barnes

Last summer I decided to try to make the most amazing pie I could imagine. And then I did it.

Pear-apple-blueberry pie with a coconut crisp topping. I call it Blue Pear Pie (because when you make your own recipe you get to name it, and I'm taking that opportunity!) I basically combined aspects of three different recipes + my own intuition and the desires of my heart, and a bit of trial and error.

At first I used a certain pie crust recipe that I learned in a cooking class a while back, but lately I've been using store bought crust. This time I baked the pie while on vacation with my family, so I used a Marie Callender's frozen pie crust and pre-measured the dry ingredients before we left.

I should note, Blue Pear Pie is more of a summer pie, BUT since pies are such a holiday staple, you can easily make this more of a winter pie by omitting the blueberries (they're quite expensive this time of the year anyway) and being generous with the cinnamon and brown sugar.

Filling

2 pears, skinned and cut into pieces

2 granny smith apples, skinned and cut into pieces

3 handfuls blueberries

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

about 6 tablespoons flour

Topping

1/3 c shredded coconut

5 tbsp oats

5 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 tsp salt

a pinch of cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Prepare pie crust and place in pie tin.

3. Combine fruits with the juice of 1 lemon in a medium sized bowl. Add salt, sugars. Add flour gradually to thicken the mixture (you don't want there to be a puddle of juice at the bottom of your pie). Pour mixture into pie crust.

4. Combine coconut, oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl. Evenly distribute over pie filling. Cut up about 4 tablespoons of butter and scatter over the topping. The butter will melt into the topping and filling as the pie bakes. (Delicious!)

5. Fold a piece of foil twice and cut a hole in the corner with the folds. Open up the foil and put it on the pie to cover the crust (this will help to keep the crust from burning).

6. Bake at 425 degrees for about 18 minutes. Remove the foil. Continue baking for about 25-35 more minutes, or until filling is bubbling and crust has browned.

7. Remove the pie from the oven. Let it cool. Serve warm.

Thanks to Gary Barnes (gtbarnes) for taking the photos, and for my whole family for helping me eat the pie! Yum!