Whoa, as in overkill. So, my fantabulous pear pie with raspberry coulis and a gorgonzola-stuffed crust was a little more frightening than fabulous all because of the gorgonzola cheese. Note to self: Pears and gorgonzola cheese...good on a fruit and cheese plate, not in a pie. Well, at least to my tastebuds. What I did like was the raspberry coulis in the pie and the pears were downright awesome. Not mushy, not crisp, just right with the sweet pear taste we all love. Another thing I liked is that I can taste the pear. I was reading that pear pie often ends up tasting like apple. Not this one. The raspberry compliments the pear taste, doesn't in any way overpower it, and the pie isn't too sweet.
Here's what I did (meshing up my own ideas with a couple of recipes I found:
this one and
this one):
Crust
See my recipe
here. But I made a big change, which I probably won't do in the future for this pear pie, but I'll do the technique again soon.
-- Preheat oven to 475. Double the recipe. Get a 1/2 cup of gorgonzola cheese ready.
-- Use a third of the dough to roll out a 9-inch pie crust and press firmly into pie pan. Do not flute edges (yet). Prick the crust thoroughly on the bottom and the inside edges with a fork. Distribute evenly the gorgonzola cheese on the bottom crust. Take half of the remaining dough and roll out another 9-inch pie crust. Place that crust firmly in the pie pan. Pinch together the edges of the bottom crust and the top crust. Flute as usual and make sure to prick the top of the crust and edges, so it won't bubble up. Cook for 10 minutes or until golden.
-- Roll out remaining dough to use for top of pie.
Although I may not have liked the taste, I did like the idea of a sneaky surprise in the bottom crust that you got a taste of every time you shovel in a bite of pie.
Filling
I followed this
recipe, but did not include the ground cloves (which would have been awesome, but I didn't have any in the spice rack, so whatevs) or the butter (because I forgot...lordy). The filling tasted great, and I think with the cloves and the butter, it would have been awesome. Because I did not have cloves, I poured a
raspberry coulis on top of the filling once it was in the pie crust; covered it with the top pie crust; and put it in the oven at 350 for 1 hr 40 mins. Yeah, that long.
When the crust was golden brown, I took it out of the oven and let it cool overnight. It held up great...see pic.
Again, need tasters (who live in Austin). This gorgonzola thing may not be up my alley, but it may be up someone else's. It sure looks pretty, though.
