Pear Pies

We are getting to the last of our Asian Pear crop. Right now they are so crisp and tasty but they will disintegrate quickly with the forecast of stormy weather headed our way with high winds.

The pear tree has only begun to produce well in the last three or four years, but now has fruit growing in thick bunches, too thick to grow into the large size that you would see in the grocery store. To use the fruit while it is at its peak, I like to make pear bread. It is the same recipe as zucchini bread only replace the squash with pears by double the amount since I like my bread chock-full of pear chunks.

I’ve also been preparing and baking pies for the freezer. I used to make the pies and freeze them before baking but had trouble with the crusts either getting gooey or burning rather than baking up flaky as I like so I bake them before freezing as a rule of thumb. I find that completely baked pies hold up well in the freezer with a day of thawing in the fridge and nobody seems to realize that they were not fresh baked.

The last of the pears are the ones that did not mature or grow very big but they are still crunchy as of last night when I snagged one for my pre-dinner appetizer during the evening chores. These treats will be gone by the weekend.