Mizmun Makes: Harvest Pie

This week I thought I would make a pie to celebrate fall. Now most people usually think of apples and pumpkin everything in the fall leading to thanksgiving in which they are joined by pecans in a trinity of pies that is fairly common across the U.S. While I enjoy each of these very much I also think of pears as a fall fruit. I also love pears in combination with earthy foods. So I wanted to make a pie that had both apples and pears after deeming that pumpkin would be too much for this. The only problem was that if I were to just do a pie with apples and pears something would be missing. Then I thought of dates as a third fruit to add and voila we have the Harvest Pie.

Harvest Pie
Celebrate with pie, how American.

Ingredients:
3 Pears (I believe I used 2 Bosc and 1 Bartlett)
3 granny smith apples
1/4 cup chopped pitted dates
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 of your favorite pie crusts (I felt lazy and started this fairly late so I used store bought this time but if you have motivation, skill, and time for it make your own)

Instructions:
Prepare Crust as needed
peel and slice pears and apples
combine sliced pears and apples with the 1/4 cup chopped dates nutmeg and 1/8 tsp cinnamon
pour filling into bottom half of the pie crust top with the remaining 1/8 tsp cinnamon.
place top crust seal and crimp the edges cut slits and poke a center hole in the top crust
Bake at 425°F for 40 minutes putting on foil around the edges after 15-20 minutes (I did 16 min) to prevent the edges from burning. It will look golden brown when finished.
Wait 20 minutes before serving.

Suggestions:
If you like very sweet pie add up to a 1/3 cup of sugar to when combining the pears apples and spices.
Make a crumble top instead of a top layer of pie crust using 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 2/3 cup oats, 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.
Add 1 tsp fresh orange juice,1 tsp Vanilla extract or Rum extract when combining the fruit and spices.