SC - Ostrich, and cruelty to geese

[Brett and Karen Williams]

I got the latest issue of TI a while ago and read the articles in
one gulp, as usual. One of the recipes in the cooking article appealed
immediately, so I tried it out. 

I'm a novice redactor, and I know little of conversion of metric weights
to American volume. I tried to approximate the volume of the weights
given in the recipes by the European redactors and this is what I got.
Commentary would be greatly appreciated.

A Special Pie

The recipe for crust looks suspiciously like shortbread to me. Being an
impatient housewife, I cheated and bought a commercial 9" frozen pie
crust. *sigh* When I have some more time, I'll make my own sweet crust.

I also bought pears for this recipe rather than the suggested apples. I
*have* eaten quinces and the texture of a quince is closer to a very
sweet, firm pear than an apple.

3 large-ish pears, very firm
2/3 C. small curd cottage cheese
4 egg yolks
1/3 c. ground almonds (I used the coffee grinder after cleaning it)
2/3 c. raisins (I like the golden ones)
1/2 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cinnamon
2/3 stick of softened butter
1/3 c. sugar (didn't think of turbinado/raw until after the fact)

Baked the crust in the oven according to the manufacturer's
recommendation, about 8 minutes at 400. Meanwhile, peeled pears, cut
them into manageable hunks and set them in a pan of water to boil until
softened. Removed the crust from the oven and set aside to cool. The
pears boiled gently for about 20 minutes, drained them and quick-cooled
them by putting them in a plastic dish in the freezer until cool, not
frozen.

Mooshed the pears, set them aside for a bit.

Creamed the butter and sugar together in the mixer, then added the egg
yolks one at a time, then the cottage cheese. Added the spices, then the
ground almonds. Removed the bowl from the KitchenAid, then added the
rest by hand, stirring gently: cooled pear goo and raisins. Poured the
resulting fruit custard into the cooled pie shell (covered the edges of
the crust with a strip of foil to keep it from burning), then baked it
at 325 until a toothpick in the middle came out clean. I think that was
about 45 minutes, but might have been a little longer.

It was very tasty. And my family inhaled it, including the five-year-old
Bromeliad Boy (my son seems to thrive on air and water-- never eats much
unless in the throes of a growth spurt). It's one of those recipes that
I can feel my arteries hardening just reading the procedure,
though.

Whatchya think?
ciorstan
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