A sweet fruit pie with cheese? Classic with a twist! A little bit unconventional for my first foray into the pie-making game, but I figured, go big or go home, right? Plus, my favorite pie was apple, my partner’s was pear…it just seemed like the right call :).

[The Recipes along with some Tools of the Trade]

First, we began with a basic, flaky double-crust pastry for 9″ pies, BUT we included half a cup of shredded cheddar in there. BAM! The cheese was baked INTO the pie!

[Pastry for Crust with Cheese before Rolling]

While that was chilling out, we worked on the filling. Apples and pears (oh my!) that were peeled and cut into medium-small chunks, mixed with the dry ingredients and lemon juice, then left out to juice.

[The Fruit with Sugar]

Finally, we created the bottom crust, poured the filling in, folded in the top crust, and cut into it a tear drop design with a hole in the center. Classic!

[Raw Pie with Cling Wrap]

We then stored the pie overnight, baked it the next day, and served it with few slices of fresh-cut Sharp White Cheddar ontop. Mmm-mmm!

[The Finished Product]

Reflections: The crust became very brittle and hard to work with at a point, fracturing very often. This may have been attributed to the fact that we did not consider the extra dry mass of the cheese in the recipe, calling for more liquid than normal. Oh well, a lesson for next time. Other than that, I would say everything else worked out splendidly – the browning was good, proper bubbling was achieved, the two crusts formed well, our design stayed intact, and, most importantly, it tasted FANTASTIC!

I look forward to trying this recipe again, perhaps with a more spiced kick during the filling preparation process so that the natural sweetness of the fruits as well as the savory flavor of the cheese can be better complimented.

Bake on, readers!

 

Tagged: apple, cheddar, Pastry with Cheese, pear, Sweet & Savory