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local milk is a journal devoted to home cookery, travel, family, and slow living—to being present & finding sustenance of every kind. It’s about nesting abroad & finding the exotic in the everyday. Most of all it’s about the perfection of imperfections and seeing the beauty of everyday, mundane life.

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A long time ago in a different life (or at least i A long time ago in a different life (or at least it feels that way) I was riding in a car at night with @whereissionnie to meet up with @ruthielindsey and @1924us for bonfires and general cabin shenanigans outside of Nashville. 

I remember the drive so well. It’s a conversation that always stuck with me. We talked about trauma and crisis. And I don’t know much, but I shared the only thing I know, a thing that has served me well through the natural undulations life is bound to bring.

And that is simply sometimes you have to cling to the mast. You aren’t doing anything but surviving but that’s the most important work of all. Because the storm WILL pass. And you‘ll be left standing.

And when it does you can mend the sails. Untangle the ropes. And get on with the business of sailing.

I’ve learned to give myself permission to do nothing but make it through. To sleep a little too late. To dance in front of the mirror and feel myself even when I look ridiculous. To load and unload the dishwasher and allow that to be a great victory. To dress like a cartoon character in nothing but white t-shirts and denim shorts.  To eat mac & cheese from a box and frozen chicken nuggets sometimes. To not respond to text messages. To flail and get back up over and over. To ask for help. A lot.

And also permission to feel it all. Rage. Grief. Joy. Hope and hopelessness. And sometimes all within the span of a few minutes. 

And most of all, whether navigating calm waters or stormy ones, what matters more than anything is the crew you’re doing it with. Surround yourself with solid people.

People that challenge you with compassion. And humor. People whose strengths buttress your weakness. People that don’t judge you. That believe in you even when you think they’re maniacs for doing so.

I know a disproportionate amount of us have had rough seas this year. Cling to the mast in the storm. Choose your crew wisely. No storm ever lasted forever. But there never was a last storm in the world. Accept that they will come and be prepared.

Spiced Pear, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnut Pie in a Buttermilk Leaf Lard Crust: A Pie Party

Cook

10.07.2012

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie pear still life antique forks




“It’s hard to get together when the streets are so wide
it’s harder to love when it’s easy to hide. 
So when the leaves fall…
give all that you get to Tendernessee.”
–Big Kitty, Tendernessee

Tendernessee by BIG KITTY

Large tracts of land like wide streets be damned, I’m having a get together, an intimate gathering of the virtual sort. A few weeks back I was talking with some lovely women that live an unfortunate distance from my little bungalow in Tennessee, Sarah (of The Vanilla Bean Blog), Stephanie (of Desserts for Breakfast), and Hannah (of Honey & Jam), in the virtual town square (a.k.a. Twitter) about pie, the wanting, the baking, and the sharing of. We wished we could get together over pie, real pie. I still do. And I hope to, hope to trade crust secrets, listen to an endless shuffle of records, collectively pine for vintage medium format cameras, to talk with that abandon one discovers when conversing with people who share your passions.

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie
pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut piepear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

A “virtual pie party” hosted on each of our sites was proposed as the next best thing to being able to sit down face-to-face. So I gathered floral, honey scented pears from River Ridge Farms at the market (quite unlike any pears I’ve ever had, unparalleled really), made a crust of leaf lard from Link 41 & Cruze Farm’s buttermilk, and churned up some toasted oak & caramel ice cream with milk from Fall Creek Farms and eggs from Tant Hill. In case we need to do this thing à la mode, you know.

front porch in autumnautumn light leaksporch light
pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie
pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie
pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

Pie cooling and kettle on, we gather on the front porch, where already a jack-o-lantern roosts and it smells of burning leaves. The living room window is wide open and the psychedelic blue grass of Big Kitty, the stalwart collaboration of some friends & local musical luminaries, spins on the turntable in the sitting room, all mewling heart strings, fiddle grit, and that Appalachian timbre, the back of beyond love & misery. Slices of pie are doled out still warm with ice cream dripping lasciviously down the sides , and we talk over the hushed clink of forks and mugs of coffee or tea, whatever your poison be.

big kitty vinyl
nick cave & turntable
big kitty record

Decades of Trouble by BIG KITTY

No doubt when side B fades to crackles and pops, a menagerie of records will take their turn, and by the time the sun sinks beneath the hills of the North Shore you’ll inevitably have heard everything from The Honeycombs to Ray Peterson’s “Corrine, Corrina” to those poets after my own heart Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Jeff Mangum followed by those Dixie staples of Patsy Cline & Hank Williams Sr., the raucous Wanda Jackson, and whatever else strikes my capricious fancy. This is a pie party after all. (If you actually manage to take a listen to all of those links, you won’t regret it. I understand if you don’t. But do. And blame Sarah & Stephanie. They’re responsible for exciting the record nerd in me!)

antique forks

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut piepear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

You hear it all the time, the surprise and gratitude with which people talk about the friends they’ve come to know through this idiosyncratic enterprise of the “food blog”. Well, I’m the new kid on the block, and I have to say, already, it’s so. You see, I’m a homebody, a book worm, a girl that likes to hide behind the lens of the camera and finds the company of her life-mate to be sufficient most days. My favorite haunts are my bed, porch, bath, and kitchen. Going out to me means the farmer’s market or the grocery. I can’t abide small talk. The only partying I do is of the dinner (or pie…) variety. As a fellow blogger once said, I think I have more types of flour in my pantry than friends. This is just so and how I like it, quality over quantity, and this is why getting to know people through this space has been so satisfying, in short, they are fanatics of my variety that not only share my enthusiasm for photography and food but art of all kinds as well. Quality folks, indeed.

Drop by for Sarah’s mini Peach Pie Jars here, and dig into Stephanie’s deep dish Peach & Lemon Verbena Pie here, and stay tuned for our next host Hannah’s pie (who, I happily hear, finally got or is soon to get a working oven again!)

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

Spiced Pear, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnut Pie in a Buttermilk Leaf Lard Crust

yields one 9″ double crust pie

From local pig fat to buttermilk, pears to raw milk to fresh eggs, the front porch to Dixie ballads, this afternoon pie is a little bit of Tendernessee from me to you.

For Buttermilk Leaf Lard Crust

adapted from Epicurious & Thomas Keller’s Buttery Pastry Shell

This is my new favorite pie crust for sweet pastries (and for savory, simply omit sugar). If you don’t have a stand mixer the crust can be made the traditional way by simply mixing all the dry ingredients, cutting in the cold fat with a pastry cutter until it resembles course meal & no pieces larger than pea sized remain (there should be pieces of fat left though), and then mixing the buttermilk in until it just comes together when pinched being careful to not overmix.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (313 g) all purpose flour (divided in half)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup chilled leaf lard (you can substitute butter or vegetable shortening here)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp buttermilk

Directions

Combine 1 1/4 cup (about 156 g) flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of standing mixer. Set aside the other 1 1/4 cup flour. With the mixer on low add the diced cold butter and bits of cold lard a handful at a time. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Add other half of flour. Mix until just combined. Add buttermilk and mix until dough just comes together. Divide dough in half. Place each half on a piece of plastic wrap, form into a disc, and chill at least to two hours (preferably 3) and up to one day. Dough can be frozen, wrapped tightly, up to three months at this point.

For Pear Pie Filling

The gorgonzola and orange blossom water give what would otherwise be a rather rote filling a lot of personality. The traditional salty-sweet combo fares great in this sweet pie.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (2 oz) walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
5 firm pears, peeled, cored & sliced thin, about 1/8″ (I use a handheld mandolin)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp orange blossom water
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) dark brown sugar (light brown can be substituted)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
pinch of cayenne (generous if you’re me)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1-2 oz gorgonzola dolce (optional, use according to your taste)
turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
heavy cream, for brushing
Directions
 
Heat oven to 425° F.
Toss pears with the lemon juice and orange blossom water once sliced. Mix sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, cayenne, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a bowl to combine. Toss the pears to coat with the sugar and spice mixture.
Roll out one half of the crust to fit the bottom of a 9″ pie pan. Place dough in pan, trim edge to 1″, tuck under, and crimp. Fill the crust with layers of pears, sprinkling between layers with the toasted walnuts. Once the pie is filled, dot the top with gorgonzola cheese (if using).
Top pie with the other half of the pie crust. You can do any sort of design you like or just do a simple double crust. (This Martha Stewart how-to is a great resource for decorative pie crust ideas.) Brush top crust with heavy cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes at 425° and then reduce the heat to 375° and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is cooked through. After the first fifteen minutes, I use a crust shield on the edges of my pie to prevent it from getting too brown or burning. You can simply place aluminum foil over the outer crust to achieve this as well.
Cool on a rack & serve with a scoop of homemade oak & caramel ice cream for autumnal Tennessee in dessert form. Best shared, naturally, with friends.

pear, gorgonzola, and walnut piepear, gorgonzola, and walnut pie

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tags: big kitty, blue cheese, chattanooga, crust, dessert, fall, gorgonzola, ice cream, lard, local food, pate brisee, pear, Pie, short crust, southern, spiced, tennessee, walnut

39 thoughts on “Spiced Pear, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnut Pie in a Buttermilk Leaf Lard Crust: A Pie Party”

  1. beca says:
    October 8, 2012 at 12:02 am

    dreamy.

    Reply
  2. Angela @ the fairy bread chronicles says:
    October 8, 2012 at 12:37 am

    pie is a powerful phenomenon, and you have done it justice! your pie + ice cream look just gorgeous, and it’s a cloudy, windy day where i am – perfect pie conditions.
    also, your taste in music is scarily similar to mine. cave, cohen and neutral milk hotel are some of my favourite musicians/ poets/ geniuses.
    yay!

    Reply
  3. london bakes says:
    October 8, 2012 at 4:31 am

    I love the way the light falls across the pie in these pictures. You’ve captured more than just a pie with your camera.

    Being fundamentally lazy, I love a pie crust that I can make in my mixer. Will be giving this one a go.

    Reply
  4. Chey says:
    October 8, 2012 at 6:18 am

    Hmmm – beautiful photos!!!!! This post is an awakening of the senses – the sight of beautiful photos and food, the sound of good music, the texture of pastry in the hands, the thought of the taste of yummy pie and what the house would smell like making this pie. The only thing that is left to do is make a delicious pie and share it…….Thank you

    Reply
  5. thelittleloaf says:
    October 8, 2012 at 8:29 am

    These photos are absolutely stunning and I love the idea of this pie party. Looking forward to Hannah’s final post too 🙂

    Reply
  6. Nicole Franzen// La Buena Vida says:
    October 8, 2012 at 8:49 am

    beautiful light 🙂

    Reply
  7. Steph (desserts for breakfast) says:
    October 8, 2012 at 10:39 am

    The streams of light! the amazing lattice top! Those beautiful pears! I feel so honored to be at this pie party. 😀 (now to go listen through all of the links! Yay, new music!)

    Reply
  8. vanilla bean blog says:
    October 8, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Beautiful! What a gorgeous, gorgeous pie. Thanks so much for having me over. 😉

    Reply
  9. kaela says:
    October 8, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Oh, vinyl! Be still my heart. And Nick Cave! If his voice doesn’t kill you, his words will. Le sigh.

    Reply
  10. Addie K Martin says:
    October 8, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Fantastic recipe! I love your photographs too. Very well done 🙂

    Reply
  11. Ashlae says:
    October 8, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Your photos feel like fall – so cozy and welcoming, I could get lost in them. And that pie, cut me off a piece, will ya?

    I was having a similar discussion with my life-mate, this afternoon. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve craved friendships with honest, genuine beings. And although I’ve realized those types are few and far between, they’re the greatest company to keep. Quality over quantity, indeed.

    Reply
  12. Kasey says:
    October 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Oh goodness. I want to come to your pie party! The colors, the textures, the music! Swoon.

    Reply
  13. Cookie and Kate says:
    October 9, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    Gorgeous photos, Beth. I don’t have the patience for pie but I could most certainly go for a big slice of this one.

    Reply
  14. Leonie says:
    October 10, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Wow, this recipe looks amazing, but the puctures… they are stunning!

    Reply
  15. Kimberley says:
    October 12, 2012 at 1:02 am

    I am not even a pie person, and I am completely take with this. Echoing all the other sentiments above: wow, that light, that lattice top, those pears. Goodness.

    Reply
  16. Gosia says:
    October 15, 2012 at 11:35 am

    I have to say that I am absolutely in love with your blog, with food, writing and photos of course. Everything in here is so inspiring 🙂

    Reply
  17. parfums says:
    October 19, 2012 at 6:30 am

    so nice blog i like it .
    Parfum pas cher

    Reply
  18. nerdwithtaste says:
    October 28, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    I love this pie! Pears are great the way they are, and adding SPICES and good old American spirit always makes it a bit tastier! Thanks!
    PS If you don’t mind me asking, what setting on your camera did you use? I love the pictures, and am wondering how you play with the lighting and the camera… Thanks!
    ~ nerdwithtaste.wordpress.com

    Reply
    1. Local Milk says:
      November 7, 2012 at 11:04 pm

      I use manual setting and play around with various exposures and apertures. I tend to “under expose” in high contrast lighting situations to get the light looking more natural.

      Reply
  19. Sofia says:
    October 28, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    I haven’t wanted pie in a while, but man do I ever want some right now. Beautiful photographs…love how you embrace the crazy light.

    Reply
  20. Eva Kosmas says:
    October 29, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    Looks divine! I love love love pears, this is a must-make for me. Beautiful photos as well!

    Reply
  21. AVY says:
    October 30, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Those pics are really pretty.

    /Avy

    http://mymotherfuckedmickjagger.blogspot.com

    ♥

    Reply
  22. sweetdelect says:
    November 9, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    love the pictures and the pie, can’t wait to try out the recipe!!

    Zoi

    Reply
  23. laurasmess.me says:
    January 21, 2013 at 1:59 am

    Hi Beth, you’re an amazingly talented baker, writer and photographer. I’ve never been to Tennessee (I live in Australia) but seeing it through your eyes makes me want to pack up and venture to the American South right away! Thanks for sharing your recipe. I look forward to journeying and cooking with you, albeit symbolically through the blogsphere!

    Reply
  24. Sarah says:
    September 28, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    This is such a lovely post to wake-up to on a Sunday morning. I followed your link to The Honeycombs and read the rest of the post in musical and visual bliss. I can’t wait to give this pie a try, it’s beautiful and sounds delicious. x

    Reply
  25. Patty says:
    October 6, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    Do you find a difference in the texture of your crusts if you use white lily flour versus gold medal or king Arthur?
    Thanks

    Reply
    1. beth says:
      October 8, 2013 at 1:32 pm

      I usually use unbleached pastry flour or unbleached AP flour. The lower the protein content of the flour (white lily would be the lowest of the ones you mentioned, but i prefer to not use bleached flour; king arthur makes many different ones, in their cake and pastry flours you’ll find low protein contents as well), the more tender the crust. This is my favorite http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/king-arthur-unbleached-pastry-flour-3-lb?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Shopping&utm_keyword=King+Arthur+Unbleached+Pastry+Flour+-+3+lb.&gclid=CMrl9unhh7oCFRPl7Aod8lwAYg

      But it’s expensive. So I most often use 365° (whole food’s brand) unbleached AP Flour. It makes a great ol’ crust. I’ve never used gold medal, at least not in recent memory.

      Reply
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  29. Sharana @ Living THe Sweet Life Blog says:
    October 21, 2014 at 10:49 am

    Mmmm … sounds amazing!! And, such beautiful pictures 🙂

    Reply
  30. vera says:
    November 1, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    i just came across your blog after looking for a good pear-gorgonzola tart recipe. it’s so wonderful! i love the pictures and the layout, and just all around super pretty. I hope to keep reading more of your stuff!

    Reply
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  36. Sharon B. says:
    February 27, 2016 at 8:29 am

    Which stand mixer attachment do I use for the crust?

    Reply
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