Apple Pear Pie with Cardamom and Ginger

Apple pie, the ultimate American dessert.

A close up of a slice of apple pear pie with the remainder in the background.

Here in the States we proudly serve it at Christmas and Easter and the 4th of July, no matter what fruit is actually in season.

But I’d be remiss not to say that I do think it tastes best when the air is crisp, and warm spices are a welcome addition.

I love when the time finally comes to pull out my gray and yellow cardigan and a tall pair of boots. To crunch in the leaves and, most of all, go apple picking.

A close up of spiced, raw apple and pear chunks sitting in an unbaked pie crust.

When my bags are full of Honeycrisps and Pink Ladies, Granny Smiths and Macintoshes, I head home and dream of all of the treats I can make: cooked down into sauce, sliced up in a cake, juiced or in a salad, filled and baked.

But I wouldn’t be a true patriotic American if I didn’t dream first and foremost of a nice big pie.

A slice of apple pear pie on a white and blue patterned porcelain plate with the remainder in a dish in the background.

This Cardamom Apple Pear Pie is a riff on the classic, switching out the traditional cinnamon and nutmeg for cardamom and ginger. Pears lend a nice extra touch of sweetness, perfectly complementing the other flavors.

Oblique top down view of a single slice of apple pear pie flavored with cardamom and ginger. The slice is sitting on a white and blue patterned plate with a fork sitting on the dish.

I typically make mine with the classic lattice crust, but you can be creative with your design, and with the recipe you choose. You can go with a typical pie dough, or try our all-butter whole grain spelt flour recipe. I recommend starting with our comprehensive crust-making guide for the best tips and tricks, and our pate brisee recipe. Print
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Pear and Apple Pie | Foodal.com

Apple Pear Pie with Cardamom and Ginger


  • Author: Kendall Vanderslice
  • Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
  • Yield: 8 slices 1x

Description

This Apple Pear Pie is a new, creative take on the American classic that’s sure to please any crowd. It’s the best way to use up a bounty of autumnal produce, but why limit yourself to tasty pie-making in the fall? Plus, you’ll love the warm, spicy flavor of cardamom and ginger in place of the more traditional nutmeg and cinnamon. This truly is a year round treat.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 batch pate brisee (or uncooked crust)
  • 4 apples ((a sweet, firm cooking variety or a mix of sweet and tart is recommended))
  • 3 pears ((firm varieties are recommended))
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon ground Ginger
  • 1 tablespoon Arrowroot powder
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 4 ounces butter (cut into cubes)
  • 1 egg*
  • 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

  1. Peel, core, and slice the apples and pears into 1/2-inch cubes. Place in a medium-sized bowl and cover with lemon juice.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, cardamom, ginger, arrowroot, and cornstarch.
  3. Add the sugar and starch mixture to the fruit and toss to coat. Add half of the butter, and stir again to distribute.
  4. Spoon the pie filling into an unbaked shell. Scatter the remaining butter on top of the filling.
  5. Cover with a top crust and let rest in the fridge for half an hour.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  7. Place the pie on a baking sheet. Whisk together the egg and a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash, and brush it onto your top crust.
  8. Bake for one hour, or until the filling is tender and crust is golden.
  • Prep Time: 40 min
  • Cook Time: 60 min
  • Category: Pies and Tarts
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Pastries

Keywords: apple pie, pear, cardamom, ginger, Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday, dessert, fall, autumn

Cooking by the Numbers…

Step One – Peel, Core, and Slice

Start by peeling and coring your fruit. When I was younger, we had a handy tabletop tool that peeled, cored, and sliced it all in one quick step. While I long for that simplicity nowadays, my small kitchen is limited in how many gadgets it can hold.

Instead, I typically peel the fruit by hand and slice around the cores.

3 apples and 2 Barlett pears sitting on a rustic wooden surface. A chef's knife sits in the diffused background.

I like to chop my fruit into small cubes, but some pie lovers prefer their apples to be sliced into half moons.

For this method, peel your fruit, cut it in half vertically, and use a melon baller to scoop out the seeds, followed by a paring knife to slice out the rest of the core. Set the fruit core side down, and slice into 1/4-inch strips.

Transfer your chopped fruit into a medium-sized bowl and cover with lemon juice.

The ingredients needed for the cardamom apple pear pie in various measuring containers, spoons, and cups.

Step Two – Mix

In a separate bowl, mix together your sugar, spices, and starches.

The sugar will help to distribute the spices and starches to ensure that they are spread evenly throughout the filling. You don’t want to bite into a clump of dry cornstarch or spicy ginger – or for any of your guests to!

Top down view of chopped pears and apples in a glass mixing bowl.

Step Three – Combine

Combine the fruit with the sugar mixture and half of the butter.

You want the sugar to coat the fruit so that you don’t end up with chunks of stuck-together apples that aren’t combined uniformly with the rest of the gooey, flavorful filling.

Top down view of apple pear pie filling in a raw pie crust inside of a baking dish.

Step Four – Fill

Pour your filling into an unbaked crust and dot the top with the remaining butter.

I recommend you follow my crust guide for the perfect pate brisee shell, but any recipe or premade dough will do.

Top down view of pie crust rolled out flat on a maple surface.

Step Five – Cover

This is my favorite step of pie making, since there is so much room for creativity!

You can use your top crust to build the classic lattice, or a simple vented layer. You can also make a design with fun shapes, use a pie bird, or punch out a creative vent of your own.

Top view of an upbaked apple pie with lattice top.

No matter what you choose, your pie will be both beautiful and delicious.

Preheat your oven to 375°F while you set the pie to rest in the fridge. You want it to rest for at least half an hour, to allow the gluten in the crust to settle down and the butter to firm up.

Step Six – Bake

When you are ready to bake, place your pie on a baking tray. The filling will bubble while it bakes, and it is helpful to have a tray to catch any potential spills.

It’s much easier to scrub off a sticky tray than to clean the bottom of your oven!

Whisk together one egg and a tablespoon of water, and brush this egg wash over the top crust.

Oblique view of a half a apple pear pie sitting on a maple wood surface. Two white and blue patterned saucers and forks are in the background.

Bake for one hour. If the crust looks like it is getting a bit too dark, you can cover it with aluminum foil for the remainder of the bake time, or create a collar with foil just around the edge of the pie.

Let the pie rest for at least one hour before you slice into it, on a wire cooling rack.

Close up and oblique view of a whole cardamom and ginger flavored pear and apple pie.

As difficult as this might seem, allowing it time to settle and set will create a firm filling with and a pie that cuts smoothly, without oozing.

Top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream, or a big scoopful of homemade cinnamon honey ice cream.

Give It a Try!

Top down view of a single slice of apple pear pie in the lower right corner sitting on a blue and white patterned porcelain saucer. The remainder of the pie sits to the upper left in a baking dish. A couple of folks, a place mat, and a pie serving utensil is also in the photo.

I’m off to go pick some apples now, and I suggest you head out to acquire some too – whether at a nearby orchard or simply your local market! It is well worth your time to give this recipe a try.

Though if you’re after a different kind of holiday-themed pie, check out our holiday pies round up for both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Or, to keep things simple, take a look at some of our other apple pastries, including:

Love apples and want to try something a little different in the realm of apple baked goods? Give our caramel apple scones recipe a try.

For a baked apple hot weather treat for breakfast (or any time, really), try out this baked apple pie smoothie – or pair a piece of this pie with a delicious apple cocktail.

Tell us in the comments below about your favorite way is to serve apple pie, and share some of your favorite ways to tinker with the flavor profile and ingredients that you incorporate.


Don’t forget to Pin It!

A collage of photos showing different view of an apple pear pie flavored with cardamom and ginger.

Photos by Kendall Vanderslice, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  See our TOS for more details. Originally published October 1st, 2016 and updated November 8th, 2018.

About Kendall Vanderslice

Kendall’s love of food has taken her around the world. From baking muffins on a ship in West Africa and milking cows with Tanzanian Maasai, to hunting down the finest apfelstrudel in Austria, she continually seeks to understand the global impact of food. Kendall holds a BA in Anthropology from Wheaton College and an MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University, and has worked in the pastry departments of many of Boston’s top kitchens. Based in Somerville, Massachusetts, Kendall helps to run a small community supported bread bakery and writes about the intersection of food, faith, and culture on her personal blog, A Vanderslice of the Sweet Life.

9 thoughts on “Apple Pear Pie with Cardamom and Ginger”

  1. Can you send over a slice right away? I just fixed a fresh cup of coffee.

    This sounds really good to me, and the lattice work looks beautiful.

    I think pears are underrated. Such a delicious fruit, They are so juicy and good, but the other types usually get the spotlight.

    I think I would stick with cinnamon for my spice. I’m not really that much into ginger or nutmeg.

    Reply
    • Thank you, Zyni! I would encourage though that you do give the spices a try with the cardamom 😉 Paired altogether it really changes the flavor of the ginger or nutmeg on their own!

      Reply
  2. I really like this idea. I do a lot of Indian cooking, and cardamom and ginger are staples in my spice cabinet. For me, when I smell cardamom, I think of candies and sweets. I sometimes add it to my chai spices, and people who smell it are amazed at how nice it is. It’s not used much in Western cooking, and it is a bit on the expensive side, which is a pity. In Indian cooking, apples aren’t used very much because it is hard to grow them in the hotter regions. I think this is a nice blending of both the cultures, and the buttery pastry will really bring out the flavors of the ginger and cardamom, because so many Indian desserts are made with butter. I will have to try this very soon. Thank you for posting it!

    Reply
    • Yes cardamom is one of my favorite spices as well. I think it is slowly beginning to gain popularity. I purchase the whole cardamom pods from a local Indian market, I also add them to my tea! I hope you enjoy!

      Reply
  3. Apple pie is rather common in Australia, too and as my father adores it I have grown up eating quite a bit of it, too. I do enjoy a nice apple pie but it’s never my first thought for a dessert.

    However, add in pear, cardamom and ginger and you’ve got my interest! l have to make this next time I eat with Dad! I love cardamom 🙂

    Have you ever tried this without peeling some or all of the fruit? I tend to not peel fruit and veg whenever possible to keep the fibre and nutrients in and under the skin.

    Reply
    • I have not tried this without peeling the fruit, my guess is that it would probably taste just fine though the texture would be a bit different. If this is okay with you, then it’s well worth the try! Please let me know how it works out for you!

      Reply
  4. I loved the cardamon in this pie. I used only 1/2 and added a teaspoon of cinnamon . I also added 1/2 tsp. ground ginger. Instead of sugar, I added 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and found that it was sweet enough. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
    • We’re glad you loved the flavor, Bettyann! I have a couple of ideas as to why it may have turned out with runny filling:

      First, the arrowroot powder and cornstarch in this recipe are meant to help thicken the filling. It’s important to measure carefully, and let a pie like this one cool before cutting into it, so the thickening agents can set.

      An open lattice crust (or cutting holes to vent the crust on top) also helps to prevent overly wet pie filling, since this allows steam to escape while it’s baking.

      Hopes this helps to get to the bottom of what may have gone wrong and what can be improved for next time!

      Reply

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