Pear pie

Instructions

Shortcrust pastry

Chop the cold butter into the flour and crumble it into breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar. Add the egg and quickly assemble the shortcrust pastry. Put the dough in the fridge for about 30 mins.

Vanilla custard

You can make the vanilla custard a day in advance. Whisk the eggs and sugar until quite yellow and frothy. Add the flour and whisk again. Boil the milk with the vanilla pod, stirring the milk the entire time so it doesn’t burn. Add the milk to the egg mixture while whisking. Then pour the egg mixture back into the pot. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the vanilla seeds and add them to the custard. Heat the custard until it just boils, as you continue to whisk. Allow the custard to cool.

Pear pie

Heat the oven to 200 C convection.

Divide the pastry into 2 pieces. Roll out one piece on a floured surface and line a pie tin (approx. 26 cm) with the dough. Cut any excess dough off the edges so the edge is neat. Spread the vanilla custard over the bottom of the pie. Peel the pears, cut them in half and core and stem them. Place the half pears close together on top of the vanilla custard with their tips toward the middle. Roll the rest of the pastry into a round circle slightly larger than the pie tin. Place the shortcrust pastry over the pears and press it down lightly along the pears at the edge, cut off any excess dough if you need to. Brush the pie with a little water and sprinkle with a little pearl (or nib) sugar. Bake the pie in the lower part of the oven for about 40 minutes until golden and crisp. Allow the pie to cool.