Pear Anise Pie

Searching for the Pearfect spice? The Barefoot Baker got a box of great pears a week ago, & the coffee cakes are fine with cloves, nutmeg, mixed English spice or a little cinnamon. A Spartan lunch of fresh pears& saltines is quite satisfying with no spice. But the perfect aromatic was discovered today in an unlikely tome: Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook, Edited by Nell B. Nichols, Field Food Editor, with the assistance of the Food Staff of Farm Journal; Photography supervised by Al J. Reagan, Art Director of The Farmer’s Wife. Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1965. Unlikely, because anise seed is not a typically American spice—is it?

We grew up with the Farm Journal, a monthly magazine, but never heard of The Farmer’s Wife. Maybe because the farmer’s wife in our house never subscribed to a lady’s magazine, but rather she took US News.

This book is hands down the Authority on pies savory and sweet, simple and special. The chapter “Pioneer Pies—Why Were They Round?” begins with “The history of pies fascinates most women.” That’s news to us! It’s typical of the text in this little book that often repeats the mid 20th Century notion “Remember that pies please men.” It's best to skip this drivel and get to the recipes.

It is more interesting to us that a pie in older England was baked in a coffin, the word for the crust. Or that aniseseed is only one of the aromatics in Itallyon Bisketts, used alongside ambergrese and muske...! These tidbits are more fascinating to us—from the recipes of Gulielma Maria Springett, the first wife of Wm Penn, who never left England. Guli Penn (1644-1694).

Until our further researches into the different sorts of torts, tarts, tortes and tortas, we enter here a delicious pie.

Pear Anise Pie
Serve with thin slices of Parmesan cheese.

Pastry for 2-crust pie
5 cups sliced peeled pears
2/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1+1/2 teaspoons whole anise seed
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
Lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Combine pears, sugar, cornstarch, anise seed and lemon peel. Mix gently. Place in pastry-lined 9” pie pan.
Sprinkle pie filling with 1+1/2 teaspoons lemon juice. Dot with butter. Add top crust and flute edges (of the coffin!); cut vents.
Bake in hot oven (400F) until pears are tender and crust is lightly browned, about 40 minutes.
While pie is hot, brush with glaze made by mixing powdered sugar with enough lemon juice for spreading consistency (about 2+1/2 teaspoons). Cool.