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This Salted Caramel Pear Pie captures the flavors of fall — sweet pears, a rich salted caramel sauce and a flaky buttery pie crust.
Pears are my favorite thing to bake with in the fall. If you’re new here, we grow pears commercially, so I always have an abundance of pears around – lucky me! To me, pears are an upgrade to the apple in most fall recipes, just like in this one. This pear pie filling is sweet but not mushy and the salted caramel sauce takes this pie over the top. The pears have a buttery texture that works beautifully with the crisp, flaky pie crust.
Use the tips below to create this showstopper! And if you love pies as much as I do, be sure to try my Mini Chai Spiced Pear Pies, Bourbon Pear Pie with Oat Pecan Crumble and Apple Pie.
Tips for Recipe Success
I suggest dividing the work for this pie into two days. On the first day, make the salted caramel sauce so it has a chance to cool. You could also make the pie dough because it’s good in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. On the second day, line a 9” pie plate (not a deep dish) with one of the crusts, fill with the pear filling and top with a crust. For extra crunch and sparkle, sprinkle with some coarse sugar before baking.
Now, let’s talk pie crust because it’s such a vital part of the pie. I highly suggest using my perfect and simple pie crust. This pie crust is made in a food processor, so making it is a breeze. It’s also easy to roll out and can be made ahead of time. Need I say more?! Oh yes, it’s utterly delicious, tender and flaky!
So now that we’ve covered timing and the crust let’s move on to the salted caramel sauce. I highly recommend using my easy homemade salted caramel sauce. With just a few staple kitchen ingredients and 15 minutes, you can have yourself a rich and delicious homemade salted caramel sauce. This salted caramel sauce is easy to whip up. It tastes so much better than store-bought caramel sauce – especially in this pie. The hint of salt in the caramel sauce deepens the pear filling and balances the sweetness.
Lastly, picking the perfect pear is crucial to a tender yet not mushy pear pie filling. The best pear varieties for baking are Bosc, Anjou and Bartlett. I used Bartlett for this recipe. Check the neck to make sure a pear is firm yet ripe. Apply gentle pressure to the neck of the pear with your thumb. If it yields to pressure, it’s ripe. If the pears are rock hard when you buy them, you will have to wait a few days for them to ripen on the counter. Mushy pears aren’t good for baking, so don’t use over-ripe pears for this recipe.
This Salted Caramel Pear Pie will need about four hours to set and best eaten the day it is made. So consider baking this pie the morning that you need it.
Salted Caramel Pear Pie
This Salted Caramel Pear Pie captures the flavors of fall — sweet pears, a rich salted caramel sauce and a flaky buttery pie crust.
Ingredients
- 1 Pie Crust
- 6 cups pears (about 8 medium-sized pears)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- egg wash for brushing – optional
- sparkling sugar – optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Roll out 1 chilled pie dough disc on a lightly floured work surface until dough is about ⅛” thick and about 12” in diameter.
- Transfer dough to a pie plate. Trim the edge of the dough so that there is about 1” overhang. Fold the edges under and crimp with your fingers or a fork. Put the pie plate in the refrigerator or freezer while you make the pie filling.
- For the filling: In a large bowl whisk together salted caramel sauce, brown sugar, granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, kosher salt
- Add pears and lemon juice to the caramel/sugar/spice mixture. Gently toss to coat the apples evenly. Set aside for 20 minutes to allow the mixture to macerate.
- Roll out the 2nd pie dough disc for the top of the pie. You can either cut into strips for a lattice pie crust or leave whole for a regular pie crust.
- Take the pie plate out of the refrigerator or freezer and carefully spoon the pie filling into the pie plate.
- Next, take the 2nd rolled out pie dough and place on top of the pie. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with sparkling sugar. Cut slits in the top to form steam vents if you are leaving the top crust whole instead of doing a lattice crust.
- Place pie onto a cookie sheet for baking and place in the oven.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes. If the crust is browning too quickly, cover edge of pie with foil or use a pie shield.
- Cool on a wire rack for about 4 hours prior to serving to allow pie to set. Top with salted caramel sauce or vanilla ice cream.
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