I did not grow up in a household where dessert was a regular thing. More often than not, when we asked about a sweet treat after dinner, we were pointed to the fruit bowl or a jar of applesauce. However, once or twice a year, there would be pie.
The pie happened on no particular schedule. My mom baked in response to her own cravings and could not be hurried or begging into producing pie. We learned early that it was better to leave her alone and accept the serendipitous pie than try to wheedle it into being. And accept it, we did. Her pies were always sturdy, not-too-sweet creations that piled mountains of fruit into a nutty, half whole wheat crust. My favorite thing was being allowed a slice for breakfast the next day.
Thanks to this early conditioning, pie will be forever feel like a way create a special occasion out of a Wednesday evening. It’s one of the things I hope to do with my kids someday (of course, I have to have them first).
You may be asking yourself, why is Marisa waxing poetic about her childhood pie memories? I recently got a review copy of Ashley English’s new book, A Year of Pies, and now I can’t stop thinking about tucking food, both sweet and savory, between layers of crust.
Some of you probably know Ashley from her blog, Small Measure, or from her other four (!) books on all manner homesteady topics like Keeping Bees and Canning and Preserving. This book is similar in organization to her previous ones in that it offers an extensive section towards the front of the book that walks you through the equipment, the different kinds of crusts (and what each is best for), tips on rolling and the various techniques you can employ to achieve gorgeous crusts, before moving on to the recipes.
Once through that grounding section, the rest of the book is arranged by season, proving unequivocally that pie isn’t just a summer and fall dessert. Any winter day would be made better by the Maple Orange Walnut Pie on page 55 on the Carrot Pie on page 77.
The book contains sweet pies, savory pies (like the homey Chicken Pot Pie pictured below), tarts, galettes, crostada and hand pies. There are both bake and no-bake options and even a pie version of Polish-style stuffed cabbage. Ashley also invited a few of her blogging friends to contribute recipes, including a Gluten-Free Streusel Apple Pie from Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking author Kate Payne.
For those of us who are working our way through baskets of berries and armloads of peaches this time of year, I think it’s important to put a little of that fruit aside and make something that allows us to enjoy the bounty now, as well as later. Pie is on my to-do list for later this week.
My favorite memory of pie was cherry every Sunday at Granny’s house. Although she was diabetic, she enjoyed baking desserts. Most Saturdays as a child I was her assistant especially in the mixing and tasting departments. I can smell her kitchen even though she left us thirty-nine years ago!
Pie is one of our favorite things. But, one year my husband bought me a pie for my birthday instead of cake. I was thrilled. My daughter was a little upset and the following year declared that this year I was not to have a “Pie Birthday”. What do kids know? Pie is so much better than cake.
I’ve always been hopeless with pie – until this year! I won “People’s Choice” at a pie contest for a Meyer lemon hibiscus pie I concocted. It was such a vivid, pretty shade of pink!
I love, love, love mince meat pie. In fact, I have tricked the in-laws into eating it too. Noooo, there’s no beef fat in this pie. Really. I can’t tell the truth now. The lie and the pie have been going on for far too long.
Mmmmm pie
My grandpa made his living as the head baker at a college ; whenever we visited him, there would inevitably be pie; cherry is my all-time favorite.
My Mom cans her own apple and pumpkin pie filling! Usually close to the holidays she would take a jar down and would get to work. She always made her crusts by hand and to this day, though I have the same recipe, I can not make them like she does. For as long as I can remember she would let me snag the raw dough she would cut from the edges of her pie and it was like candy to me. When she would make pumpkin pie, and bless her heart, she would always put one pie {or a couple slices at least} into the fridge because she knew I loved my pumpkin pie cold. Some years, along with her signature pumpkin pie she would make a Chocolate pudding pie, though it was shared with everyone I knew she had made it special for me… I guess I’ve never realized it until now but I have great memories of pie too, all because of my beautiful mother.
Pie for breakfast is my favorite! Growing up I always knew what I’d have for my morning meal of there was pie around (and there was often). It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized that not everyone felt this was normal behavior.
When I was younb, after a particularly scrumptious thanksgiving meal, I turned to my Aunty Nancy, who had baked the pied, and said, “Aunty, that is the best apple pie I ever had.”
It was cooked-from-scratch pumpkin. I think the texture might have been off a bit.
My mom would bake apple pie for us kids and every once in a while a mock-apple pie. Tasty!
For Thanksgiving dinner, my Mom always made apple pie and pumpkin pie. My brother and father both liked apple pie, but my favorite was pumpkin pie. My Mom’s pumpkin pie. I still remember how it looked and tasted. I miss it, and I miss her.
My blind-baked pie crusts have a pretty sad history, so last year, I finally called into the “Splendid Table” show for help. The advice I got turned out to be just what I needed, and I tested it out on my first lemon meringue pie, our dessert for Easter. As it turned out, Easter last year fell on what would have been my late grandmother’s 100th birthday, and I wanted to try out lemon meringue because it was apparently one of her specialties when my mom was growing up. I never tasted it, of course, since she went down the health food path and left dessert behind long before I came along, but I was ever so pleased to think that my version, as it turned out, might have come up to her standard.
One of our favorite family gathering pies is a spinach/sausage pie. I think it weighs 10 lbs! Feeds a ton of people. Love pies!
When I was about 12 I had a friend who always thought that being hit in the face with a pie would be hilarious. I agreed. So, on her birthday that year I showed up with a freshly made cream pie tucked behind my back at the side entrance to their house. I rang the bell, she appeared, and WHAM! End of cream pie. Cue giggles. How weird.
My favorite pie as a little girl was cherry pie. My mom and I would pick the cherries from a neighbor’s tree (me eating as many sour cherries as I put into my bowl). We would pit them with some old meat-grinder thing with a pitting apparatus on it. She always made extra pie crust which would be rolled up with butter and cinnamon sugar into a log, sliced and baked along with the pie for my special treat.
Mmmmm pie! I can’t think of anything that doesn’t taste better baked between sheets of pastry. Savory or sweet — they’re all good. Of course my favorite is apple, but banana cream is a close second.
I grew up with pies. My father, normally a work-hard-in-the-garage kind of man, would take a few hours out of his evening and surround himself with fresh fruit, spices, flour and butter. He’d craft amazing pies, mostly apple, but occasionally cherry or other fruits. Once he even entered his apple pie into a local fair. He didn’t win, but he was proud of entering, and I was proud of him.
My favorite pie is lemon meringue. My grandmother used to make it in the summer when we would come to visit. She would do double meringue and a perfect light crust…yumm!
My mom never made pies but every once in a while would come home from the grocery with a cherry pie. Cherries are my favorite and she always seemed to make it home with one when I was having a bad day. To this day I can’t eat cherry pie without getting a little smile on my face and thinking of her.
I love love love pumpkin pie but have recently started liking a good apple pie when the apples still have a bit of firmness and aren’t cooked to mush.
I’m fat because I love pie! ….Just sayin’.
Christmas isn’t truly Christmas in my house unless I make my Nana Nichols’ trademark”Cherry Cream Pie”. A little almond extract makes this pie taste extra special and helps me feel connected to her. I love how certain foods have the power to evoke such strong emotions and memories. : )
Oh, these look delicious! The pie I remember from my childhood, and the one I make most often today, is my grandmother’s “Lazy Man’s Peach Pie” (but it’s really more of a cobbler). I also loved my great-aunt’s meringue-topped chocolate pie. I’m not too bad at making that one, but it’s a little more complicated so I don’t very often. 😉
I have been desperately trying to re-create this strawberry cream pie that my grandmother used to make when I was young. I’ve sifted through her Good Housekeeping “bible,” which is stocked with scrawled recipes and half-finished menus on old envelopes, the backs of napkins, and even greeting cards. Still–no mention of the strawberry cream pie. I’ve made some pies that are ALMOST the same, but nothing has been an exact replica…yet. 🙂
Great giveaway – this books looks fantastic! My grandpa’s favorite pie was always sour cherry, and mine is too…whenever I have it I think of him. Rarely get to bake it these days since sour cherries aren’t so common in California, but this year a friend with some trees in her backyard let me snag some of her cherries! 🙂
Best slice if pie I ever had? Peanut butter pie from the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, TX. It’s a creamy slice of perfection with an optional drizzle of chocolate sauce.
Many years ago my mother told me that the mark of a good chef was their ability to make a pie. Somehow, this tid-bit of information stuck with me into my adulthood. After college when I moved out on my own I tried many several times to make pies and they never worked! My crust ALWAYS fell apart. I couldn’t roll it out, it was too heavy, it didn’t taste right, it stuck to everything. One day after a particularly bad experience attempting to make a pie crust I called my mom in tears saying that I was a failure as a cook! I couldn’t even make a pie crust! How stupid was I! After calming my down as only a mother can, she asked me what recipe I was using – I told her it was the basic one in my new Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. We compared the recipes over the phone and lo and behold! There was a misprint in my version of the book.
Moral of the story? Don’t freak out over pie crust. 😉
One day I put the pie on top of the stove to cool. I thought the burner was off, but it wasn’t. The pie plate exploded, sending hot pyrex shards everywhere, melting burn marks into the floor, and frightening the dog. And worst of all, no pie.
Every single time I make an apple pie I try to peel it in 1 single strip just like my mom did. It’s always a personal contest !
My favourite pie memory is of making a small mulberry pie with my Grandmother, just for me.
We were lucky enough to grow up next door to my Dad’s parents, and my Grandmother was an incredible pie-maker. There was also a large weeping mulberry tree in the back yard – we would gorge ourselves on the berries every summer. One year, when she was making pies (probably peach, given the time of year) and looking after me at the same time, she sent me out to pick a cup full of mulberries – just enough for us to make a pie in a small pan she had. It was the only time I can remember “helping” her (I would have been around 5-6, so at the age to be more of a hindrance than a help!), and it’s the only mulberry pie I have ever eaten.
As for a favourite – as much as I love apple, and rhubarb custard, and elderberry, my favourite remains peach pie. Speaking of which, I need to go buy some peaches soon…
My Mom and Grandma made the best pies and pie crust I ever ate, my Mom has showed me numerous times how to make a good crust but it never turns out like hers! Her home -made coconut cream pies were the best. As a side note I actually worked the day after Thanksgiving for one of my co-workers (so she could have the day off) if she made me a whole homemade pecan pie, she made it from scratch and it was delicious. She was an older Latvian lady, and an excellent baker!
When I was a kid my mom planted an apple tree in the backyard. My sister and I patiently waited the years it took to establish its self and start producing apples, only to find they were hard and soooo sour. Mom to the rescue though, they made the best apple pies ever! I’ll never forget how great it was to walk in the house to find homemade apple pies from our little tree.
I have always wanted to make a chicken pot pie. I do however make wonderful caramel apple pie. It has a secret ingredient that makes it spicy. I do really like a sweet hot flavor. Lol
My family went apple picking every fall… one of the highlights afterwards was apple pie. Except for the run when my mom left out one ingredient each time…. no flour…runny pie. No cinnamon…not the same, but ok. No sugar? unfortunately inedible.
But honestly, the vast majority of the time, the pies were delicious.
We didn’t usually have pie for dessert when I was a child. If we had dessert, it was cookies or cake (that I made). For her father, my grandfather, she would make a Lemon Meringue Pie.
I married a Pie-Loving Man. He says that I ‘captured his heart with my Fresh Peach Pie’ and then I had to learn how to make pie because I had a reputation to maintain. I have ‘tried and true’ recipes but I’m always looking for the Perfect Pie.
I’m still trying to convince my husband how wonderful rhubarb pie is! I couldn’t make any this Spring because I have gestational diabetes, but I LOVE pie in the summer (OK ALL year). Nothing like a slice with a glass of cold milk for breakfast!
Scheduled to have baby this Thursday and I have all the ingredients for a peach pie on standby!
I still love peach pie, no matter that other pies might be better in season, or the crust is pre-made. I just do.
We used to have an apple tree, and I swear the pies made from those apples were the best ever! I love making pies, all year round, so I’m excited about this book!
Pies are an all American tradition. I am a baker at heart, my daughter wants to be a pastry chef and my son is gluten/dairy free. I am always looking for awesome pie recipes.
My family loves the chicken pot pie that I make at least once a month. As a matter of fact, it’s whats for supper tonight. It’s a Paula Deen recipe, and quick,easy and delicious !! I remember my paternal grandmother’s dessert cupboard-if you finished your meal, you could choose what you wanted- pie or cake !!
My favorite pie memories have yet to be created! I love pie but am terrified of pastry! I’d love a gorgeous book that could talk me through my fears and help me create wonderful memories for my family 🙂
my favorite pie to make (and eat!) is sour cream apple, followed closely by peach. i <3 pie!
I’d consider myself a fairly novice pie-maker. Yet, there’s something so therapeutic about the process: the precision of the crust, the preparation of the filling, and, lastly, the baking. It’s so gratifying to share the creation with the people you love.
Seasonal pies are the best! Right now it’s fresh blueberry glaze pie! Yum!
I love pie! We were always allowed to choose our birthday dessert and I always wanted blueberry pie. My brother, born in July, always wanted pecan- I would tell him to choose fruit, he could have the pecan at Thanksgiving, but he never listened. i think my current favorite is strawberry rhubarb.
Zwiebelkuchen (translation: Onion Cake, though it has a crust as is more pie-like). My grandmother would make it and, in true German fashion, it contained sausage and/or bacon. When I declared myself vegetarian, she would make a smaller version for me, sans meat.
I just absolutely love recipe books of any kind! At a younger age, I always clipped recipes out of magazines and made my “own” cookbooks. My daughters now have these “books”.
My favorite pie to make is Rhubarb Cream Pie. I remember my mom making it when I was a kid. Now I make it for my kids using rhubarb from my garden which mom gave me after splitting hers.
This was my first year picking sour cherries and I immediately used them to make sour cherry pie filling and canned it. Now I can make homemade cherry pie all year long and give the filling too friends do they can make their own pie.
I love making pie, especially the filling. Apple being one of my favourite, I prefer to work from my instincts rather than a recipe. That’s the beauty of apple pie, sweet or more on the savoury side, it’s all good!
I have my great grandmother’s apple pie recipe. It was handwritten by her. It may not be the most original of recipes, but it reminds me of Thanksgiving 🙂