This past week a friend from Montana, during a phone chat comprised of about 20% business and 80% tall tales about redfish and tarpon fishing in Louisiana and Florida, reminisced a little bit about Father’s Day on his family ranch in Montana growing up in the late 40’s.
Bobby said back in that day his family had struggled through the Great Depression very literally by tightening their belts, harvesting fish and game, and scrimping by and making do with what they could build or fix in terms of physical possessions. He remembers many a meal of bacon and biscuits; even putting up a big garden’s worth of food every year meant that by late winter “there wasn’t a vegetable, mush less a piece of fruit, anywhere within a 100 miles, and besides, we often didn’t have two nickels to rub together then…”.
Apparently one year a wealthy distant relative (he thinks it was a great aunt) traveled out in mid-June by train from Atlanta, bringing with her a wooden trunk full of Southern treats, including a bag of 8 or 9 pears. There were jars of sorghum syrup and molasses, pralines, hard candies, and other regional treats, but Bobby said the pears amazingly ended up being the prize of the trip.
The story goes that Aunt Penny (Penelope in formal settings) baked this Down Home Butterscotch Pear Pie for Father’s Day that year, gifting his family with the first fruit they’d seen on the table in some time, and forever linking rich, golden butterscotch with delicious baked pears in young Bobby’s and his father’s minds.
The pie that year made such an impression that Bobby said it’s been on the table for their family Father’s Day celebrations every single year since, and will be again this year as they gather at their family headquarters nears Twin Bridges on Sunday.
5 large Bartlett or Anjou pears (firm-ripe), cored, peeled, cut into 6 wedges (each one)
3 tbsp AP flour
1 tsp (generous) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp dark brown sugar (packed)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp good vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg + 1 tbsp water, beaten together
1-2 tbsp Demerara sugarDouble recipe of your best family-secret pie crust recipe
Fire the oven to 425 and place a baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven while it’s heating.
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, then the brown sugar, working to make sure it’s very well mixed. Ease the prepped pears into the bowl, add the lemon juice and vanilla, and toss/stir gently to coat the pears.
Let the pears rest for 15-20 minutes while you roll out the pie dough into two rounds; drop one of the rounds into a 9-inch pie plate and position it.
Now carefully spoon in the filling, smooth it and dot with the butter, then cover with the second pastry round, seal and crimp the edge, and cut 4-5 vents. Lightly brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes on the hot baking sheet, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake until the filling is really bubbling and the top crust is a rich, golden brown (another 40-45 minutes – most pies come out of the oven too early…).
Cool that beauty to the “warm” stage or room temperature and go to it.
Enjoy.
