Vanilla Bean Pear Persimmon Pie

This vanilla bean pear persimmon pie deserves a feature on your holiday dessert table. Warm spiced pear and fuyu persimmon slices flecked with vanilla bean nestled into a buttery flakey vanilla gluten-free pie crust - in collaboration with Rodelle. Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

I'm in charge of pie at Thanksgiving. This year I'm mixing up the dessert table with an extra-flakey gluten-free double-crusted pie. We'll be serving scoops of vanilla ice cream over this vanilla bean pear persimmon pie.

Vanilla Bean Gluten-Free Pie Crust Recipe

While I make pie dough all the time, I almost always turn it into galettes or hand pies. What if I spent hours on decorative top crust and it sunk into the fruit during baking, turning the whole thing into soggy soupy buttery mess? I have pie nightmares. So, this is my first attempt at a double-crust pie.

Since a double crust pie gives you that much more crust in each bite, I jazzed up the crust by adding a splash of Rodelle vanilla extract, which in my opinion makes it taste just a bit like a waffle cone in the best way possible.

PEAR PIE RECIPE

For the filling, I prefer the deeper complexity of the sweetness of baked pears over apples - ever so sweet but without the tart edge. In a seemingly more-elegant kind of way.

FUYU PERSIMMON PIE RECIPE

Here I've combined pears with ripe fuyu persimmons with their rich honeyed sweetness that pairs well with the slightly floral notes of the pears. It's all flecked with Rodelle madagascar vanilla beans and spices for a warm fall aroma. This pie gets a double dose of vanilla.

The trick to baking a pear pie is to mix in some apples to add structure and just a little bit of tartness. Pears bake down smoother and softer than apples, so it's important to choose ripe but firm pears to keep them from breaking down entirely in the oven.

Pear Persimmon Pie Recipe

The first time I tested this pie, I pulled my crust recipe from the hand pies on my blog. I doubled that and carefully sculpted the lattice. With 24 tablespoons of butter in the dough. That should have been a tip off, right? Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious because - did I mention vanilla-scented waffle cone? It was also extra thick because it turns out my hand pies recipe was actually 1½ times my standard pie crust recipe, which means I'd just made a double crusted pie out of the equivalent of three pie crusts.

To be honest, it took me a full day to realize the mistake. The crust was that good - Lucas even exclaimed "I always thought I hated pie crust as a kid, but it never tasted like this!" With butter folded up in layers, it's extra buttery and flakey. And the vanilla addition makes it taste like how an ice cream shop smells.

Because of the quality of their beans and vanilla and the ethics of the company (which you can read more about here), I am brand loyal to Rodelle. I buy their vanilla beans and extract at Whole Foods, but you can use this link to find where it's sold near you.

If you're new to using whole vanilla beans, here's a quick video Alanna and I made for Rodelle a couple years ago:

Disclosure: Special thanks to Rodelle for sponsoring this post! Find more Rodelle inspiration on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. And thanks to you for supporting the brands that keep Snixy Kitchen cooking!

Recipe

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