Alissa's Apple Pear Pie

Sometimes we invite people over for pie on a Sunday evening.  OK, we do it frequently.  Usually these invitations are spur of the moment after I get in the pie making mood.  This week we ran into some neighbors as we were out walking on Sunday afternoon and stopped to chat a little.  When we got in the house my husband said, "We should have them over for pie."  This seemed like a great idea, although I wasn't sure what pie ingredients I had on hand.  After we extended the invitation I started looking for pie possibilities.  We had a few pears and a pair of apples so I decided to try something new to experiment on these neighbors.  I figured Drew and Shauna could handle it.

Another thing I tried differently this time was using milk instead of water in making the crust.  It turned out great - but not really different from my usual pastry making method.  So here's my new and original recipe for Apple-pear pie.  We liked it!

Alissa's Apple-Pear Pie

1 recipe double crust pastry

3 apples; peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3 pears; peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small chunks

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a deep dish pie pan with pastry.
• Mix together remaining ingredients except butter, pour into pie pan and pat down with your hands.  Dot with the butter.
• Cover with top pastry, flute edges and cut in steam vents.
• I like to brush the top with ice water then sprinkle on coarse sugar.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 40 minutes, or until crust is golden and fruit is tender.