Brandy Butterscotch Pear Pie – by hand

No mixer pie crust with a gooey butterscotch & pear filling.
This pie crust can be made by hand with no kneading or heavy mixing.

What you’ll need

Pie crust

• 600g plain flour
• 90g white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 440g FROZEN butter – The ol’ frozen grated butter trick! For those who don’t know; cold butter is essential for a rich, flakey crust. Traditional pie crust recipes call for a mixer and cold, cubed butter. I find that the easiest way to put together pie crust by hand is to freeze and then grate the butter straight into the mixing bowl. The butter pieces come out smaller and therefore easier to work with! Weigh, cover and place the block of butter in the freezer at least an hour beforehand.
• 100ml brandy (can be substituted for vodka or water) -Another pie hack for extra flakiness. Not only is this a great way to add flavour to your crust but the alcohol reacts differently to water when reacting with the flour. The alcohol cooks off when baking, leaving behind a buttery, flakey crust. This can be subbed for vodka or similar spirits- vodka doesn’t retain its flavour in the crust. Measure out bourbon and place in the fridge to chill for 30 mins
• 100ml chilled water – the temp helps keep the butter solid while mixing together, place water in the fridge along with bourbon
• *1 egg & dash of milk for eggwash*
  

Butterscotch sauce

• 35g butter
• 100g brown sugar
• 75ml cream
• 2tbsp brandy

Pear filling

• 5 pears
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 50g brown sugar
• 1tbsp cornstarch

Equipment

• Mixing bowl
• Rolling Pin
• Cling wrap
• Pie Dish
• Foil
• Cheese Grater

The rundown – pie crust

• Add flour, sugar, salt to a large mixing bowl and grate butter straight into bowl, work quickly as you don’t want the butter to become room temp. Stir mixture through a couple of times to distribute butter through the flour
  
• Sprinkle water and bourbon onto the mixture
  
• Mix gently a couple more times- just enough so there is an even ratio of butter/flour. Do not form a dough. The mixture should look like a lumpy but evenly distributed floury mess! It may look crumbly and crazy but it’ll come together after it rests in the fridge.
  

• Lay down a sheet of cling film and place mixture on top, fold cling film over mixture and use your hands to press down on the mixture to form a disc. Wrap tightly and place in the fridge for 30 mins
  
• Use either your hands or rolling pin to flatten the dough to about 1/4 inch. Place crust in pie dish and trim off excess
  
• Pierce bottom of pie crust with a fork a half dozen times, set aside

Butterscotch sauce

• Melt butter in a saucepan over low/medium heat, add brown sugar to the pan and stir until sugar dissolves
• Add cream and stir to combine, stir continuously for 30 seconds
• Add brandy and stir again, take off heat and let sauce cool slightly before using
  Sauce will appear runny at first but will thicken once cooled

Pie filling

• Slice pears and add to a large bowl
• Add lime juice, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and corn starch to bowl and stir to combine, set aside

Assemble

• Add pear filling into pie crust and drizzle butterscotch sauce evenly over pie – you can save some to add to pie once cooked as well if you like
• Use the other dough disc to decorate the top of the pie; follow previous steps to flatten the dough out and decorate to your liking; I opted for the classic crisis cross pattern

• Mix together 1 egg and a dash of milk to make egg wash. Brush egg wash over all exposed pastry
• Wrap foil around sides of pie and bake at 190c/375f for 30-35mins or until pastry crust is golden brown

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