Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble

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Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble // www.acozykitchen.com

One of my favorite movie food scenes is from Waitress. You know, the movie with Keri Russell (Felicity), where she plays a waitress who loves making pies. She names each pie after a sentiment running through her bones, like “I-hate-Earl-Pie,” “I-hate-my-job-pie.”

The other day as I was rolling out and crimping, I started to think about my feelings and what’d I’d name my pies. I’d probably have a “Will-Amelia-Ever-Stop-Chewing-Stuff-Pie,” and, “The-Most-Heartbreaking-Part-About-Adulthood-Is-Learning-Your-Parents-Aren’t-Perfect-Pie,” and, “Am-I-Going-Down-The-Right-Path-Pie,” and lastly, “Joshua-Is-A-Dream-Pie.” I just got all real with y’all. Pie therapy: a new method for de-stressing.

Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble // www.acozykitchen.com

I sometimes think I enjoy making pie more than eating pie. That thought was proven to be totally false once I tasted this this pie. I loved this dang thing.

This pie is everything I’d ever want from a pie. There’s fresh fruit; there’s good texture (hi oats!); nuttiness from the caramel and a hint of saltiness.

Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble // www.acozykitchen.com

I love the oat topping. I know I just said that like two sentences ago but I REALLY REALLY like it. It definitely looks better on top, but I started to think about maybe mixing oats into double-crusted pie. Imagine a oat and apple pie with caramel and then a lattice on top. Too much? Maybe. But I love the thought of adding oats to pies to give ’em a bit of texture.

Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble // www.acozykitchen.com

And not just rolled oats but what about barley flakes or rye flakes. Am I boring you? It’s ok. I’m done with the grain talk now!

This pie is soooo perfect for making the night before because it’s actually important that it chills and has time to come together. If you cut into it right after it comes out of the oven, the pie won’t hold together.

Perfect for Thanksgiving when oven space is VERY valuable.

Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble // www.acozykitchen.com

5 from 2 votes

Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble

Ingredients 

Caramel:

  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
  • Pinch salt

Oat Crumble:

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
  • 1/3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch salt

Filling:

  • 1/2 lemon
  • 6 to 7 about 3 pounds firm bosc pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions 

  • Heat the heavy cream until warm in the microwave or in a small saucepan. Set aside. In a heavy-bottomed medium, placed over moderately high heat, pour in the sugar. Cook until the sugar begins to melt and turn a light golden brown around the edges. Using a silicon spatula, begin to stir until the sugar melts completely and turns a lightly golden brown. Cook for an additional 30 seconds or so until the sugar turns a golden brown color. Immediately take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter. Once the butter has melted, pour in the warm heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up, not to worry - this is normal, just keep stirring until smooth. If the mixture seizes, place the caramel over very low heat and keep stirring until it becomes smooth. Set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, mix the cubed unsalted butter, rolled oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Break up the cubed butter until it resembles the size of peas and evenly distributed throughout. Transfer to the refrigerator until you're ready to use.
  • Roll out your pie dough and fit in it in a 9-inch pan. Crimp the edges, if you like. Transfer to the freezer until we're ready to use fill it.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, juice the 1/2 lemon and toss with the pear slices and white sugar; allow to sit and macerate, about 15 minutes. To the bowl, add the light brown sugar, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, salt and vanilla extract; toss until the pears are evenly coated.
  • Remove the pie crust from the freezer (it should've been in there now for about 30 minutes and your oven should be nice and hot). Fill the pie crust with the pear mixture, pressing them down so the mixture is tightly packed. Pour the caramel over the pear mixture. Note: If the caramel has stiffened a bit, you can warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds or so; you just want it pourable--it'll thin out in the oven. Top the caramel-pears with the oat crumble. Brush the crimped edges with egg wash.
  • Transfer to the oven for 20-25 minutes. At the 20 minute-mark, give it a check. If the edges are golden brown, remove from the oven and cover the edges with foil (I had to do this.). Bring the heat down to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 25 minutes until the pears are tender when poked with a knife and caramel has bubbled up. Remove and allow to cool for 2 to 3 hours.
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Cozy Latin-Inspired Comfort Food Recipes

Hi! I'm Adrianna and this is my cozy space on the internet that is super-charged by butter, flour and copious amounts of pasta. Stay awhile, will you!

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52 Comments

  1. Aha, so glad someone test-drove using store-bought caramel–I have a homemade cardamom butterscotch on hand that I was going to use (about the same consistency as store-bought caramel) and will now know to maybe drain some liquid off the pears before baking, or reduce the caramel a bit.

  2. would it be okay if I use store bought caramel? And if it is, would it be the one that you use as ice-cream topping?

    1. Yes, that should work just fine. It might be a bit thicker than mine but I think it should work. Please report back because this is a really good question and I’m super curious if people can cut down on the time.

      1. Update: I made this pie using Smucker’s caramel ice-cream topping. Right away I noticed the caramel was a lot runnier than the homemade one you picture above. When the pie was out of the oven I noticed there was a lot of liquid in the pie and figured it was the melted caramel. Regardless, I poured the liquid on top of every slice of pie and it was good so I ain’t mad.

  3. I got introduced to the world of crumble through my mister’s Mum. But pear and caramel take it to a whole other level. Gonna impress her for sure with this one 🙂

  4. I just tried this recipe and my carmel sauce turned hard twice. I followed the directions exactly as it calls. I now have to buy store bought carmel sauce… I would do the same when buying your ingredients to avoid frustration.

  5. I just made this recipe and there are two changes that need to be made to the directions:

    In step 2, I would put the part about breaking up the butter in little pieces before saying to mix all those ingredients, including the butter, together. I read the first sentence, so I mixed all those ingredients. Then I read that I should have broken up the butter before mixing it in with the oats, etc, but ofcourse it was too late. Would have made more sense to first tell us to break up the butter and mix those little pieces with the oats and spices.

    In step 4, you say to mix the pears with the sugar and lemon. So I did that, then I read that I should add the brown sugar and other ingredients later. I had already mixed the brown and white sugar and let macerate so it was too late. It should be specified which sugar to mix with the pears if you’re supposed to leave out the brown sugar at the beginning.

    1. Hi RP,

      Re: step 2 – I broke up the butter with the oats and the rest of the ingredients with no problem. Was doing so problematic? I figured it’d be easiest for people to add all of the ingredients to a bowl, break up the butter and then mix.

      Re: step 4 – I can see how that can be confusing. I wrote “sugar” not sugars” but definitely get how that can be confusing. I’ll change it to read “white sugar”! Also, if you did that, it’s not that big of a deal and shouldn’t have affected the outcome. Hope you enjoyed the pie!

  6. If I only have ripe juicy Bartlett pears, can I use this same recipe or should I adjust something? This looks like an amazing recipe!

    1. Bartlett pears when baked turn into total mush. They’re awesome for apple butter, but not great for pie. :/

  7. I followed this recipe exactly and while the pie looked good, it turned out so watery on the inside that I had to pull it from the Thanksgiving table due to embarrassment. Not recommended!