Poached Pear Pie

Last weekend, I received four beautiful Bartlett pears in my produce share. I love pears, but they always seem to go bad before I get around to eating them. So this time I decided to make them into a pie to avoid such a terrible fate, remembering that my mom made a similar decision last Christmas.

This pie is different in the one my mom made. I stumbled upon one pie online that poached the pears in wine and spices and I decided to try that approach. As you're on the hunt for a pie for your Thanksgiving table you should definitely consider adding this pie to your spread. Beyond the fact that this pie is absolutely delicious, you should make this pie for the wonderful smell that engulfs your kitchen during the poaching process. It smells like the holidays.

Still not convinced? The day after I made this pie a coworker asked for the recipe to use as her entry in a pie bake off contest at work. I thought that would be it for my involvement, until I was asked to be a judge for the bake off. So on my lunch break, I sat on a panel of three judges and tasted 10 pies. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. :) My coworker put her own spin on the pie and added fresh cranberries and brought home the second place prize. (And no, I didn't rig the contest, the pie was just that good!)

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Poached Pear Pie

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sweet red wine
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4-5 pears
1 cup fresh cranberries
2 teaspoons cornstarch.

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Peel, core and quarter all the pears.

In a large pot, combine the water, wine, sugar, vanilla, and spices and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, place the pears in the liquid and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 20 minutes uncovered turning the pears once midway.

After 20 minutes, or when the pears are tender, remove the pears and place in a chilled bowl to cool. Also remove the cinnamon and cloves from the liquid and discard.

Return the liquid to a boil and cook until it has been reduced to about 3/4 cup. At this point whisk in the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken into a syrup.

Pour into a measuring cup and let cool.

Once the pears are cool enough to handle, cut the quarters into cubes.

Line the pie place with the bottom crust and spread the pear cubes and cranberries out evenly.

Pour the syrup reduction over the pears as evenly as possible and top with pats of butter.

Place the top crust, either whole with slits cut in or latticed like in the picture at the top of this post. (Note: I needed larger slits!)

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.

Be sure to let cool before cutting into the pie, no matter how delicious it tastes or your pie slice will fall apart, not that I speak from experience!

Source: Adapted from the Queens Notebook

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: The Perfect Birthday Cake!

It was my fellow blog writer's birthday the other day! Staci decided to make her own birthday dinner and treat a few of her friends to her delicious cooking! What a treat! So, I decided that the least I could do was make the birthday cake. My only guideline from her husband was "chocolate." So, indeed, I went to town on the chocolate and made this rich and decadent Chocolate layer cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

The cake was rather easy to make. Once I had all of my ingredients set up and ready to go all I had to really do was mix them together in the bowl, pour into dishes, and bake! The frosting was equally easy. I enhanced the cake a little bit by using my Dessert Decorator (a gift from my parents...very useful and helpful!).

Before decoration...

After!

The number of candles you put on a cake can be a touchy subject for birthday girls. I was chatting about this with Bunker's grandmother the other day, and she had a simple and thoughtful solution. Rather than marking each year with a candle, she suggested that you use only three candles on a cake: one for yesterday, one for today, and one for tomorrow. I love this and I will always use this candle tactic in the future.

Happy Birthday Staci!

I found the cake recipe at My Baking Addiction, and the Buttercream Frosting at Savory Sweet Life, and I made only a few variations.

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Cake Ingredients:
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee (I used Texas Pecan from Central Market)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients: If you are going to decorate the cake...you should double this recipe.
1 cups unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (NOT melted)
3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons heavy cream

Cake Steps:
1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients.

2. Prepare two 9-inch round baking pans. I cut out circular pieces of wax paper to fit in the bottom of the pans to ensure not mess-ups!

3. Attach your whisk to your standing mixer. In the large bowl of the standing mixer, combine the 2 cups of sugar, 1 3/4 cups of flour, 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

4. To this dry mixture, add the 2 eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 cup of coffee, 1/2 cup of oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

5. Beat on medium speed for about two minutes.

6. Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared baking dishes.

7. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. To ensure that the cake is fully cooked, you can insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, that means the cake is done!
8. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes before you remove them from the pans.

9. Once removed from the pans, let them cool completely before you assemble and frost the cake.

Frosting Steps:
1 Gather your ingredients.

2. With the paddle attachment on your standing mixer, cream the 2 sticks of butter for a few minutes, until the butter is nice and creamy.

3. Combine the 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and the 1/2 cup of cocoa powder together in a separate bowl.

4. Slowly add the sugar and cocoa to the butter. Mix until the sugar and cocoa are fully absorbed into the butter.

5. Add the 2 teaspoons of vanilla, the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the 4 tablespoons of cream to the sugar and butter mixture. Beat for about 3 minutes.

6. If you are unhappy with the consistency of the icing try this: If the frosting is to runny, add more sugar. If the frosting is too stiff, add milk.
7. Frost the cake!