Cranberry & pear pies

Cranberry & pear pies

These cute and festive pies make a good warm dessert or a tangy alternative to mince pies

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

plus chilling

Method

  1. To make the pastry, tip the flour, almonds and sugar into a food processor then pulse in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Pulse in up to 5 tbsp cold water until mixture comes together as a dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hr.
  2. To make the filling, tip the cranberries into a pan with the sugar and cornflour and stir well. Stir in the orange curd, then cook for a few mins until thickened. Add the pears and cook a few mins more, stirring frequently. Cool.
  3. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 with a large baking sheet inside. Roll out the pastry and use to line 8 x 10cm individual Yorkshire pudding tins (or 10cm individual tart tins). Spoon in the cooled filling. Roll out the rest of the dough and stamp out 4 x 9cm rounds to make lids. Cut out the centres with a medium star cutter.
  4. Carefully cover half the pies with the pastry lids and place the stars on a baking tray. Crimp the edges of each pie (if using straight edged tins) with your finger and thumb, brush the pies and stars with the egg then dredge with sugar. Bake the stars for 8-10 mins and the pies for 15-20 mins until golden. Dredge with more sugar once out of the oven. Place a star on the open pies and serve with cream or ice cream.

PER SERVING

709 kcalories, protein 9g, carbohydrate 97g, fat 35 g, saturated fat 18g, fibre 5g, sugar 59g, salt 0.45 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2011.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo Ticklemore

    19 December 2010

    Ticklemore rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    I used the suggested size of pie tins (10cm) and followed the recipe except I used lemon curd as could not find orange curd locally. The filling took longer to thicken than the recipe suggests and the pies needed to be cooked much longer in the oven than stated. I eventually turned the oven up. The finished pies were well recieved, but I doubt I will make them again.

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  • Binder photo Ann

    22 December 2010

    Ann rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Delicious, I made them smaller (in large bun tins) as served as an alternative to mince pies. The pastry made 18 pies. They were very well received. The sauce did take a while to thicken and there was plenty of it! I've frozen the surplus to use at a later date. Will definitely make again.

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  • Binder photo Teri

    22 October 2011

    Teri rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I made this in a flan dish topped with pastry stars. It was delicious- everyone enjoyed it and I will be making it again this year. It was really easy to make and made a lovely change from mince pies.

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  • Binder photo Kandi

    20 December 2011

    Kandi rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I didn't have the right sized tins either so used a long rectangular flan tin instead. I gave it 5-10 mins longer in the oven and we thought it was really lovely with vanilla ice-cream. I'll be making this again.

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  • Binder photo janaskar

    28 December 2011

    janaskar rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This is the second year I have made these and loved it just as much. As no one is likes mince pies in our house, this has become a favorite. I use a muffin tin, which means they bake much better (I lined mine this year which made getting them out childs play). I did thicken the mixture with a bit of cornflour until I was happy with its consistency. I also froze it for the first time, popping it from the freezer to the oven for 15-20min gas mark 6 and they tasted crisp and freshly made!

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

plus chilling

Ingredients

FOR THE ALMOND PASTRY

  • 350g plain flour
  • 85g ground almonds
  • 140g caster sugar , plus extra to decorate
  • 225g butter , chopped
  • 1 egg , beaten

FOR THE FILLING

  • 400g cranberries , fresh or frozen
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 25g cornflour
  • 325g jar orange curd (we used Waitrose Jaffa orange curd)
  • 450g just-ripe pears , peeled, cored and chopped
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PER SERVING

709 kcalories, protein 9g, carbohydrate 97g, fat 35 g, saturated fat 18g, fibre 5g, sugar 59g, salt 0.45 g

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