| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 55 min |
| Active: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 1 tart |
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided, diced
- 3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 pinch grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 teaspoon flour
- 1 1/2 cups pound cake, cubed
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F. In a food processor, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Pulse to combine. Place dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and put the bowl into the refrigerator. Remove 1/2 stick of butter from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. In a food processor, add the 1/2 stick of butter to the flour mixture. Pulse until the fat completely disappears. Add the remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter in separate batches. Pulse until flour mixture resembles the size of a pea.
- Combine the apple juice concentrate and the cold water. Using a spray bottle, spritz the dough with the apple juice mixture while folding the mixture with a spatula. After about three tablespoons of the liquid, check the dough for consistency. It should hold together when compressed but remain relatively dry to the touch. If it does not bind, add a little more water. Remove from the processor and form the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in wax paper or parchment paper and rest in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add pears to the pan and toss for 2 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue to toss for 30 seconds. Add sugar and cook until the pears have softened. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, and the butter and melt slowly. Fold in the blueberries. Remove from heat. Sprinkle on the flour and combine well. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Place dough on a floured piece of parchment and roll out to a 1/4-inch thick disk. Transfer to a baking sheet. Place cubed pound cake in the middle of the dough, leaving a 3-inch margin of crust on all sides. Spoon filling over the cake cubes and top the pears with 1 ounce of cubed butter. Lift excess crust onto filling and repeat in a clockwise fashion until a top lip has formed around the edge of the whole tart. Brush the tart with the egg wash and sprinkle the crust with the sugar.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the filling begins to bubble and the crust is golden brown.
- Remove from the sheet pan immediately and cool on pie rack.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 492 |
| Total Fat | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Carbohydrates | 62 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 25 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 73 mg |
| Sodium | 298 mg |
Reviews
I found the texture of the cornmeal to be weird for pie crust, but apparently that’s just me as there are plenty of 5 star reviews. I do like cornbread, so it’s not that I don’t like cornmeal. Just not in pie crust. I didn’t make this filling as I don’t like pears and I didn’t have pound cake and didn’t feel like making it. I made a blueberry pie filling from another recipe. But I do think the pound cake is interesting and imagine it keeps the juice from running out so I will try it with all blueberries and a different crust.
I love the pie as is, The crust was easy to make and very tasty. I did have to add more apple juice than the recipe called for but it turned out to be one of the best crusts that I have ever made!! Great job A.B. this is a keeper!!
I made the crust but added a strawberry rhubarb filling instead of the blueberry pear. It made a REALLY BIG tart. If you are making this crust for a pie it is definitely enough for two crusts. However, it is the best pie crust recipe EVER and I will definitely use it again for all kinds of pies and tarts – it was toothy, unique, tender and flaky and it wasn’t too easy to overwork the gluten like most pie crusts, which, despite my attempts, can end up chisel-like.
However, much like PurpleChez, I had to use a lot more liquid than called for. 5 tablespoons for what is essentially two and a half pie crusts is simply not enough. I ended up closer to 8, at least. I pulsed the dough in the food processor until the dough just sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand, but it still is a little bit crumbly rolling it out. Super tasty though.
Delicious and the filling is out of this world, got great reviews. Thanks AB
Dear Alton, or anyone else out there….
I saw “Crust Never Sleeps” a few weeks ago and couldn’t wait to try it out, so I decided to use the crust portion of the recipe for my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. In the end, it was the best pie crust EVER. But getting there was frustrating. I had to add a good bit more water and do a good bit more mixing than the instructions called for to get anything more than a large pile of crumbly flour. The video seemed to show the crumbly stuff going into the fridge, only to emerge 20 minutes later as pie crust, but it just didn’t happen that way for me. Like I said, this ended up being a great recipe nonetheless, but if I’m unnecessarily complicating something I’d love to hear about it!
Wow! This was amazing! One of the best pies I’ve ever made. The filling is to die for. I think Alton complicates things a bit, but I think that’s part of his schtick. Like instead of doing the apple juice concentrate thing I just used ice cold apple juice. I didn’t use a spray bottle for it either. And the crust came out great. I used Sara lee frozen pound cake and I mixed cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on top. It was delicious with some vanilla bean ice cream for Christmas dessert. So awesome! The best thing I ate all day. Even better than my aunt’s tamales – and that’s saying something!
Not only was watching this episode very entertaining (my family loved the puppets), but the pie came out awesome and very tasty. I sub the blue berries for blackberries because my husband wanted blackberries, and it still tasted very tasty. I also recommended this to all of my friends and family and they feel in love with it.
I was watching this show with my girlfriend (now wife) at her folks house. She just had surgery. She wanted it and I made it. First time making a dough from scratch. Worked out great. The family loved it, and loved me for making it. Alton you brought my wife and I together forever because of this pie!! You rock, and the recipe is great as well.
The balance of sweetness of the filling provided by the balsamic vinegar is wonderful.
I substituted raw sugar for refined white-same measurements.
I substituted raw sugar for refined white-same measurements.
I am a young cook and have a recipe for 1 pie already but that one does not call for Cornmeal. I don’t have cornmeal and was wondering if there was another way to cook it without or maybe with a substitute? also, instead of pear/blueberries filling i was going to use pumpkin pie filling.