Apple and Pear Pies beware the hungry cat

Remember how I received this fabulous Mystery Box? Well, here's something else I made with the ingredients, although how the final product ended up also became a Mystery.

These little Apple and Pear Pies are an irresistible combination of delicious and adorable. While they are a fiddly to make - lots of rolling of pastry and waiting for it to chill - the end result will give you that feeling of being a domestic goddess. That's how I felt, at least, when the pies came out of the oven. 

Some time was spent admiring these golden morsels (does that sound like Nigella or what??) before we tucked in and ate a couple of them for afternoon tea. A few more were had for dessert (with whipped cream!).  A single pie remained, which I had dibs on. So, wrapped in foil, it waited for me to take the next day. 
Until *da-Da-DAH!* it became the focus of "The Mystery of the Purloined Pie".


What happened next? Read on to find out...



Apple and Pear Pies
makes 12

Ingredients

2 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks

2 small apples, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks (from Mystery Box)

30g unsalted butter

10 fresh dates, pitted, roughly chopped (from Mystery Box)

55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar, plus extra, to dust

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped (from Mystery Box) or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon cornflour

1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs 
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tblsp milk, to brush

Pastry

2 cups plain flour

50g ground almonds

1/4 cup caster sugar 
1/2 tsp salt

250g cold unsalted butter, chopped
1/4 cup chilled water 
  
Method

1.  For pastry: put all the pastry ingredients, except the water, in a food processor and process until the butter is incorporated and the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the chilled water and process until mixture just comes together. Divide pastry into 12 pieces, shape each into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2.  For the filling: Peel pears, core and cut into 1.5cm pieces. Melt butter in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, add pears, apples, dates, sugar and vanilla, and cook for 5 minutes or until pears and apples are tender. Add cornflour and stir to combine and cook until very thick. Cool, then refrigerate until chilled.

3.  Roll out the pastry discs on lightly floured baking paper until 3mm thick, then cut into 11.5cm rounds. Gather scraps together and refrigerate. Grease a 12-hole (1/3-cup) muffin tin, line with pastry rounds, then refrigerate for 20 minutes. Roll out pastry scraps, cut out 12 x 7cm rounds, then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

4.  Place a heavy-based oven tray in the oven and preheat oven to 200°C.

5.  Mix the cinnamon with the breadcrumbs and spoon into the pie cases, then top with apple and pear filling. Place a pastry round on top, fold in edges to seal, then cut a slit in the top. Brush tops lightly with milk, dust with extra sugar, place pies on heated oven tray and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden. Cool for 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ripe pears, crunchy apples and luscious dates make up the filling.

The pastry is shaped into discs before refrigerating.

Cut the pastry to fit into the holes of a muffin tin. Then, fill with the apple/pear/date mixture and top with a pastry hat.

These are just like mince pies in shape, but are much lighter and easier to eat, in my opinion.

There was one pie left over which I securely wrapped in aluminium foil, to be taken to work the next day for morning tea. But I forgot to take it and it was left on the kitchen benchtop.

Then this was encountered when one of us got home...

Forensics was immediately called to photograph evidence of the crime (though they forgot to adjust the camera settings, which is why the photo is a bit crappy).

After some investigation, the pie-stealing culprit was revealed. No guesses who it was.

Looks like Tabitha cat had enough of the pie after a couple of bites, but rest assured that uneaten pies will no longer be left unattended in this household!