A few factors set off a short burst of pie experimentation last week. One, a brand new countertop convection oven that arrived a few weeks ago. Two we had a number of leftover fruits – 3 huge Asian pears and 6 kiwis -- from the housewarming we held the weekend before last. Three, a good friend had dropped off some delicious homebaked cookies and I wanted to return the pie pan to her with something yummy in it. And four, the arrival of crisp cool pie-baking weather…
So, I made 3 pies. Two were pear pies and one was kiwi. For one of the pie crusts, I used the Baking Illustrated recipe. They recommend using both butter and shortening. The other two pie crusts were made with shortening only. The flavor of the former was better, but I liked the flakiness of the latter. Maybe some of that butter-flavored Crisco would work best. Oh well, I don’t think I can find that here.
As for the fillings, I preferred the pear to the kiwi. Kiwi is just too tart for a baked pie. Actually, I wouldn’t have baked it into a pie except for the fact that I’m allergic to kiwis unless they’re cooked, so that ruled out the possibility of making a kiwi tart, although I think that would have tasted better. For the pear pie, the pear was the Asian variety, which tends to be waterier and less sweet than, say, a Bartlett pear. As such, it made for a less flavorful pie. So next time I’m going to stick to the tried and true apple filling. But I think I’ll play around with the crust some more.
