The Jolly Fox
Find Food & Frolic.
Pear-Bourbon Gingerbread Handpies.
I’m so busy! Forgot to MoFo on Friday, so here is a Sunday post. I should be back to regular posting tomorrow. 🙂
It’s that time again. Time for another Eat the Love creation done vegan style! I have wanted to make this recipe for a while and was hoping to pick my own organic pears this season to try this recipe out with. Unfortunately, all of the u-pick farms I know that grow pears pretty much had tiny crops or no crops at all because of frost. Sad face. Hopefully they’ll all be back in full swing next year. After I was forced to buy pears that I did not pick myself, I got into this recipe.
My vegan version of the crust went awry somewhere. Wonderfully, wonderfully arwy. I mixed all of the ingredients my usual way. Subbed out the butter, omitted the salt and omitted the egg. My dough mixture was SUPER dry. It didn’t have enough moisture in it, I’m guessing because I didn’t replace the egg with anything and it was needed for moisture. Eggs have so many different purposes in traditional baked goods. They bind, they build they add moisture and textural elements. Sometimes when I’m not entirely sure what their purpose in a recipe is, I can goof it up. With things like meringue and chiffon cake, the purpose is obvious, but with other things I spend a few minutes thinking….now why is that in there? Anyhow, fast forward to my dry ass dough. I went straight to my fridge and grabbed the nearest non-dairy milk and started adding it in while my stand mixer was running. My dough came right together after that, but was super soft. It never did get very firm in the while I refrigerated it, but I was still able to work with it.
I then made the filling, which was super easy. I did leave a few chunks of pear in the filling though because what can I say? I like it chunky. So, I baked these thinking that there was a chance the crust could melt or just be wrong in some way….but MY GOD. The mouthgasm…..was….ridiculous. The crust was soft and delicate, but the outside has a crispy, delicate crunch to it—almost like the top of a reaaaalllly good brownie. It was amazing. I don’t know—Irvin’s formulas are so good that even when you mess them up a little you still have something completely and utterly delightful.
I’m referring to these as hand pies rather than toaster pastries as there is not a chance in hell that the things I made would have held up in a toaster.
The Jolly Fox 
Gingerbread and pears make a perfect combo. I’m glad your pies were a happy success even though things didn’t quite go as planned!
not a chance in hell that the things I made would have held up in a toaster. – HAH!
Seriously, though, they’re so beautiful.