In this pear custard pie, fresh pears are combined with a rich and creamy 5 minute custard, then baked to perfection for a simple yet elegant dessert.
This crustless pie is my absolute favorite way to enjoy pears, I make it almost every week during the fall months!
I am not a huge fan of pears. I like them fine when they’re cooked but I don’t eat them raw, I think it’s the somewhat grainy texture that bothers me. A long time ago before we had kids a relative sent us a big box of those fancy mail order pears. My husband did his best to try and eat them before they turned to mush but it was just too many pears for him to finish. I made this pear custard pie to use them up and I have been making it ever since. It’s definitely my favorite way to eat pears.
We go through a ton of produce in this house. My kids are total fruit monsters and between the three of them they can polish off a whole pound of grapes or strawberries in one sitting when they’re in the mood. My mom often brings us bags of apples, oranges and pears to help keep our household well stocked in the fruit department. When I have extra fruit on hand, I make blackberry salad or this pear custard pie.
Some weeks we don’t get through all the fruit and that’s when I make pear custard pie. The beauty of this recipe is that it only uses pantry staples that you probably always have lying around. Which means that if you’ve got pears, you can whip this up whenever you feel like it. I’ve made it twice in the last two weeks!
How do you make pear custard pie?
The batter for this custard is made in the blender. After you peel and cut the pears, toss them in the dish and pour the custard over the top. That’s all there is to it, 40 minutes later you’ve got an amazing dessert.
You can sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top if you want to dress it up for a special occasion. I’ve also put some cinnamon sugar on top which is great too. It probably comes as no surprise that the kids love this recipe. I’ve made it dozens of times over the years and it always gets rave reviews. It’s simple, but sometimes the simplest recipes are the best, don’t you think?
Still hungry? Follow Dinner at the Zoo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for more great recipe ideas!
More delicious dessert recipes
- Oreo Cheesecake
- Brownie Berry Dessert Pizza
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
- Cookie Dough Dip
- Earthquake Cake
Pear Custard Pie
Ingredients
- 4 firm pears of any variety cored, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup of unsalted butter melted
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar for garnish
- Cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 inch round pan with cooking spray.
- Arrange the pear slices in the pan.
- Put the butter, eggs, milk, salt, granulated sugar, flour and vanilla into a blender; process until smooth.
- Pour the batter over the pears. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the custard is golden and firm to the touch. Dust the top with powdered sugar before serving.
Will be trying this recipe this weekend….
I added a pinch of ground cloves to the batter and only used 3 large pears .. great recipe .. delicious
I did not process the ingredients why dirty the food processor worked out fine
What an absolutely spectacular recipe!!
I brew my own vanilla extract, and I used that along with caviar from one of my vanilla beans. Really took it up a notch!! I also added a tiny sprinkling of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Will definitely be adding this to my tried and true recipe collection. Thank you!!
This is a wonderful recipe. I’ve made this with pears, plums, kiwis and even canned and drained mandarin oranges. All varieties came out great. My favorite was with cherries but with the cherries you have to switch the vanilla to almond extract. Yumm!! With the plum version, I made a red wine reduction as a sauce – omg!
Thanks for this amazing and very adaptable and versatile recipe! Keeping it forever! 🙂
This is one of the best desserts I have made and the easiest! Thanks so much for posting this winner!!
Question: can I use peaches instead?
Thanks!
Peaches should be fine!
Can I bake this in a 9in springform pan? I don’t have a cast iron skillet. Looks delish!!
The batter is too liquidy to put in a springform, any 9 inch dish will work such as a standard cake pan or pie plate!
Turned out delicious! We used erithritol and almond flour and sprinkled some fresh blueberries on top before baking.
WOW! Easy Peasy! And very good. We took this to our friend’s house for dessert (they made dinner). It was a hit! I cooked it in my iron skillet and melted a little bit of butter in the pan instead of using cooking spray. I also sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon of Chinese five spice over the pears before adding the batter. I will definitely be making this again.
Absolutely delightful! I used Almond extract instead of Vanilla by accident and it still came out wonderful so much so I could have eaten the whole pie! Can’t wait to share it. I have 5 pears trees so I will make this at least 3 more times!!
And I will try it with the proper vanilla and experience another taste sensation!
So glad I found it on Google . Thank you!
It appears to have been baked in a cast iron skillet…I love that! Will my 8” skillet work?
Yes that should be fine!
I have an abundance of pears on my pear tree and I can’t wait to make this! Would it work with gluten free flour?
I haven’t tested it with gluten free flour but my readers have made many different flour substitutions and typically it seems to work out!
Great recipe, thanks!!
Made this wonderful dessert today and it was wonderful. I added walnuts and it came out perfect. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Can this be frozen?
I’ve never tried freezing it but I believe others have done it with success.
I wonder if you’ve ever done mini’s? Wanting to do this for a small class/staff treat at school, but custards are funny when you play with the size! Thanks!
I’ve never done this in mini pans!
This is about the best pie I have ever made. Just love making it
Is it possible to make this with a non-dairy milk, such as almond milk or oat milk?
Yes that should work!
do you think this could be made on a single-crust prebaked pie crust? I need to make a “real” pie for something and am curious if this would adapt to ths.
Yes I think that would work but I haven’t tried it myself!
This was superb. Thank you for sharing.. all the way from sunny South Africa