Greetings Treat-A-Weekers,
Before I continue the blog next week with Mo’ Money, Part 2: Books, I thought it would be a good idea to shake off that theme for a week in favor of something more comforting that we should all enjoy this fall….making an easy, not-overly-indulgent (calories-wise) pie with the apples/pears or other homegrown (or orchard grown) fruit.
Now before those of you who know me well get all skeptical on me, no, I am not capable of growing apples and pears in my own backyard (I have absolutely no green thumb whatsoever) and who knows about our soil caliber/capabilities. But lucky for you, my Mom is a fruit and vegetable (and flower) growing guru! Ever since we were little she grew yummy things in our backyard. Growing up we had blackberries, crab apples, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, fresh mint (which she used in lots of her cooking) and often ran amok and rampant, every summer and fall. A few summers she even grew the Indian veggies kerala and kudu with great success [Mom, if you are reading this, I need that picture of us!] I loved picking the fruits of her and nature’s labor with my brother and sister when everything was ripe — to this day one of my favorite snacks is a homegrown tomato and/or a cucumber with a sprinkling of salt — nothing beats the undiluted, robust flavor of a juicy tomato or crisp, almost-sweet cucumber fresh off the vine. Yum.
But, as usual, I digress. Over labor day weekend, my kids and I were able to head to my old home of Columbus, Ohio to spend some time with my parents and family. It was a little early in the season for fruit picking, but as you can see, my Mom’s apple and pear trees were overrun with fruit! The kids were really eager to start picking and we were afraid by our next visit there might not be much left to pick, so my Mom invited us to get to it which we did with cousins and gusto!
As I mentioned in a prior post (Salads!), I am trying to eat a bit healthier so while I was craving apple or pear pie after our haul, the apples and pears were not fully ripe [so I didn’t know how they would taste in a pie], I felt too lazy to follow a too complicated/difficult recipe AND I didn’t want to eat too much crazy caloric pie a la mode which is one of my all-time favorites and weaknesses. Enter a recipe I found on the website, www.tasteofhome.com for pear crumble pie. I added some of our apples although the recipe did not call for them and used a butter substitute that tasted like butter for the crumble topping, but other than that, I followed the recipe pretty closely. Everyone agreed that with a touch of ice cream, the pie was delicious and was the perfect fix for satisfying our pie craving in a less toxic to the waistline way. Below please find the recipe which you can also find online here https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pear-crumble-pie/ that I followed:
INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups sliced peeled fresh pears
1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)
CRUMBLE TOPPING:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold butter
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, combine sugar and flour; add the pears and toss gently to coat. Spoon into pastry shell. In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over pie.Bake at 400° for 45-50 minutes or until pears are tender and topping is golden brown. Cover edges loosely with foil during the last 30 minutes to prevent overbrowning. Cool on a wire rack.
Nutrition Facts
1 piece: 300 calories, 10g fat (5g saturated fat), 13mg cholesterol, 131mg sodium, 51g carbohydrate (27g sugars, 3g fiber), 2g protein.
There you have it — a super easy, very tasty, not too indulgent easy to make and bake treat. Enjoy and let me know if you make it and like it.
Until next week, I remain, very truly yours,
M
