Considering that everyone says the difficult part of baking is that you have to be so precise, recipes use very imprecise wording. How much larger is a “large… crumb” than a “medium-fine crumb?” Because this was for my topping, it was not as problematic figuring out the “large” crumb, but I did have a difficult time figuring out when to stop pulsing my ingredients. The same was true for cutting up the cranberries. It said only to pulse five or six times until they were cut up well, but five or six times mostly just chopped them in half. Haven’t never baked with cranberries before, I wasn’t sure how small they should be in the pie filling.

Making the actual pastry wasn’t as hard as I expected. However, I think it’ll definitely be several more times before I can recognize the proper consistency on my own.

I was very excited to see it bubbling nicely at the end! (I can’t believe it cooked for 65 whole minutes.) I wasn’t sure how to tell if it was done, but I guess it’s just a lot easier when filling is sticking out a little than when it is completely covered with another pastry. In the notes, it said something about how cranberries can be bitter but balanced with the right amount of sugar. I have never had cranberry or pear pie, so I’m excited to taste it. I also discovered that I don’t like the smell of cardamon very much…

Tagged: basic flaky pastry, Cranberry, pear