Cranberry Apple & Pear Pie, with a Cinnamon Hazelnut Crumble

Dec 08, 2020

Hello friends! How are you this fine Tuesday? While I sat gazing at our Christmas tree the other day, something awful dawned on me. As of right now, there are only, like, three festive recipes up on the blog – and they were shared way back in 2013. Quite frankly, this realization unsettled me. Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year – there should be heaps of festive recipes! I’m setting out to right this wrong, starting with my favourite festive pie. It’s a Cranberry Apple & Pear Pie, and it’s heavily laden with a cinnamon spiked hazelnut crumble. Ultimately, it’s Christmas in pie form, and it’s so so good.

Oh, and I hope you find my Christmas tea-towel and little ceramic trees as adorable as I do, you’re going to be seeing a lot of them this month.

cranberry apple & pear pie with a cinnamon hazelnut crumble

I thought it would be a good idea to start off our Christmas recipes with pie. We’re just at that sweet spot when I want to bake all the cozy festive things, but I’m not quite ready for Christmas cookies just yet. That time will come, but until then I’ll be making pie.

This cranberry apple & pear pie ticks all of my festive boxes. We’re talking: buttery flaky base, a sweet-yet-tart fruity filling, and a cinnamon crumble laced with roasted hazelnuts. The sweetness of the spiced apple & pears is nicely balanced with the tart bite from the cranberries, and the crunch of the roasted hazelnuts adds a lovely nutty texture. To make it extra luscious, I added melted butter to the filling, and it feels sooo luxurious.

let’s make pie

Like most good things, this recipe starts out with my Perfect All-Butter Pie Dough. I might be a little biased, but it really is the most perfect pie dough around. I went for a traditional crimp for my pie, but you do whatever feels right for you.

Right before adding the filling to the pie dough, I sprinkle a mixture of 1 part cornflour & 3 parts caster sugar over the base. It’s a little trick I learned to safeguard against soggy bottoms and it truly works wonders.

The fruit filling goes directly on top of the cornflour-sugar mixture. I like to try and coax it around the tin as evenly as possible.

Some of my melted butter seized up into lumps because I was using frozen cranberries, but that’s okay because it’ll melt down again in the oven.

The filling gets doused with the cinnamon hazelnut crumble. We’re talking heavily doused: I get to the stage where I wonder if I’ve put on enough – and then I add another handful for good measure. We’re looking for true luxury in this pie!

It bakes up nicely in about 40-minutes. I like to let my crumble go deeply brown before I pull it out. By then, the pie crust is puffed up, the juices are bubbling up around the edges, and the smell is almost too good to believe.

Happy baking, friends!

I’ll be back at the end of the week with a festive cake! xo

Cranberry Apple Pear Pie

The most festive pie of them all. Juicy cranberries mixed with lightly spiced apples & pears, generously topped with a festive cinnamon hazelnut crumble. Perfect for the holidays!

Yield: 8 slices

Author: Passionate Baker

INGREDIENTS

1 quantity pie dough

for the filling

230 g pears (about 2 large conference pears, peeled)
205 g apples (1 large bramley apple, peeled)
100 g fresh or frozen cranberries
150 g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp cornflour
20 g salted butter, melted

for the crumble topping

125 g plain flour
45 g oats
100 g light brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
115 g salted butter, cubed – soft but cool
3/4 to 1 tsp ground cinnamon
60 g chopped hazelnuts

for assembly

1/4 tsp cornflour
3/4 tsp caster sugar

DIRECTIONS

Lightly grease a 9-inch pie tin with butter. Line with your pie dough, crimp edges etc. Place in the fridge.

make the filling

Fill a medium bowl halfway with water. Juice the lemon into the water and stir.
Slice the apples and pears into even slices, adding them to the lemon-water as you do. When all of the fruit has been sliced and dipped in the water, gently tip out the water and drain the fruit. Place the fruit back into the empty bowl.
To the bowl, add the caster sugar, cornflour, ground cinnamon, frozen cranberries, and lemon zest. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to macerate while you make the topping.

make the crumble

In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Using your hands, crumble all of the ingredients together until homogenous – this should take a couple minutes. Set aside

to assemble & bake

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Remove the pie dough from the fridge. Sprinkle the base of the dough with the cornflour & caster sugar, and spread these evenly around.
Pour the melted butter over the macerated fruit and stir together with a spoon, making sure everything is well coated. Using your hands/a spoon, lift the fruit mixture out of the bowl – draining off as much as you can & leaving behind any additional juice – and into the prepared pie dough.
When all of the filling is inside the pie dough, generously douse the top with the hazelnut crumble mixture. I like to leave some large clumps of crumble for a buttery bite. Place into the fridge until the oven is preheated.
Once preheated, bake the pie in the oven for 35-40minutes, or until the pastry is puffed up, the filling is bubbling, and the crumble topping is deep golden brown. Leave to cool completely before cutting.

NOTES

my very favourite pie dough ever is Perfect All-Butter Pie Dough.
any leftover crumble can be stored in the freezer well wrapped for a future pie adventure!

Did you make this recipe? I’d love to know! Please leave a comment & a rating below, or tag me on Instagram @imvcki. Thank you so much for supporting Passionate Baker!