I made a bacon and egg pie using bought filo pastry. Filo pastry is wonderful pastry to work with but you always, always end up having some leftover. I decided to make something sweet for afterwards and there were pears, wine, and crumble.
The pears were bought to go with cheese to go with wine. That never happened. The pears were forgotten until today. I peeled them and thought of poaching them in leftover wine. Nice. So the pears did match the wine eventually.
The pears were poached in red wine for about 10 minutes. I added cinnamon, cardamon and raw sugar. I had crumble leftover from making apple crumble and this was retrieved from the freezer.
Filo Pear Crumble Pie
Filo pastry
2 pears, peeled, cored, sliced
1/2 c red wine
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t cardamon
1/4 c raw sugar, more or less
vegetable oil
pastry brush or paper towel
crumble mix (see recipe below)
water, if needed
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
Place the pears in a pot on the stove with the wine covering with raw sugar, cinnamon and cardamon. Add water if needed.
Poach for about 10 minutes.
Remove the pears to cool.
Return the liquid to the pot and reduce down for 5-10 minutes. (Continue boiling.)
Prepare brush, oil and filo pastry, baking paper and 20cm round tin.
(If you don’t have a pastry brush, don’t fret you can use a paper towel to dab the pastry instead. Prepare a bowl with a little vegetable oil for the dabbing/brushing.)
Don’t worry about the sheets overflowing. Let them.
Place one sheet of filo pastry in the lined tin. Brush/dab with vegetable oil. Repeat.
I used about 5-6 uncut sheets. Place the pears on the filo pastry. Cover with crumble mix. Add 4-6 T of reduced juice over the crumble.
Fold the filo pastry up into the centre. It does not have to be neat. It should resemble crumpled up paper.
Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the filo pastry goes a nice golden brown.
The screwed up paper becomes a pie!
I did have photographs of a cut piece of pie with a dollop of ice cream but the results were blurry. Must have been the rush of not wanting to ruin the moment. You will just have to believe me that it was wonderful. Or do one better and try it for yourself.
I still have some filo pastry leftover. I think it will become a spinach pie but anything could happen.
Crumble Mix Recipe
3/4 c coconut
3/4 c rolled oats
3/4 c wholemeal flour
3/4 c raw sugar, more or less
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t cardamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
3/4 c melted butter
1 t vanilla essence
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the vanilla essence to the butter.
Mix all together. The mixture should be crumbly.
Set aside.
This makes a lot of mixture so freeze what you don’t use and bring it out when you want to make a quick dessert. Just place on top of fruit in an oven 180C (350F) for 25-30 minutes. Do not defrost the mixture. Just sprinkle on top.
Crumble recipe was adapted from all recipes au
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