Pear, Apple and Honey Cashew Pie
Prep time: 20mins
Cooking time:1 ½ hrs
Serves 6-8
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 Packham Pears 550g or other hard one
- 4 Granny smith apples 550g or fuji
- Juice of ½ lemon + zest
- 60g brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp sweet liquor
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 vanilla bean scraped
- 2 Tbsp honey
- ½ cup chopped honey cashews nuts
- 1 egg yolk + 1 Tbsp milk for brushing
PASTRY
- 400g plain flour
- 80g icing sugar
- 200g cold butter unsalted cut in small pieces
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- In a food processor, add the flour, butter and icing sugar and blitz until a crumb texture forms, it will take approx. 1 min. Start adding ¼ cup of cold water, while the mixer is still running, until a dough ball has formed. Remove dough from the food processor and knead into a disk shape; cover with cling film and place into the fridge to chill for 25mins.
- Meanwhile, peel, core and cut the apples and pears into small cubes, approx. 2cm in size. Place them into a large frying pan or casserole type dish, and cook on high heat; add the sugar, cinnamon, scraped vanilla bean, lemon zest, lemon juice, sweet liquor, chopped honey cashews, and honey; cook for 15mins. After 15 mins, add ½ cup of water and cook for a further 5 mins, until caramelised and sticky. Remove from heat and let cool.
- It’s time to roll the pastry; remove ¼ of the pastry dough and set this aside for later. With the remaining ¾, place onto baking paper and roll until it’s approx. 5mm thick. Grease a 20cm cake tin and gently place the pastry into the tin, spreading the dough across the base and the walls of the cake tin. Pierce the base of the pastry using a fork, and place baking paper on top of the dough, lined with pastry weights. Cook for 20mins, remove the pastry weights and place back into the oven for 2 more mins. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Place the apple and pear mix into the pastry shell, using a spatula to flatten the mixture down. Roll the portion of pastry that was put aside earlier, into a 5mm disk and cut it into 20cm by 3cm long strips. Arrange the strips in a lattice pattern on top of the filling, or simply just place the dough as a disk on top. To glue the pastry down, dip your fingers in water and firmly press down on the edges of the pastry base. Wisk the egg yolk and the milk and brush on top. Place the pie into the oven to cook for 25mins until golden brown, serve warm with dollop cream or vanilla ice cream.