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 pie is my husband, who I call Pie. 🙂 Other than that, I like strawberry rhubarb!
Peach pie with fresh whipped cream is my favorite! I really want to learn how to that fancy lattice crust. Mmm, now I’m pie-dreaming at work. Sigh!
One of my favorite pies is rhubarb custard. It’s an old family recipe that has been passed down for a few generations. I add my own tweak; I put crumble crust on the top instead of regular crust. I think I’m going to go outside now and get some rhubarb!
I’ve really only made a true pie once – and it turned out perfectly! Now, I’m terrified to make a pie again. Why? As per my mother, the first pie she ever made turned out wonderfully…but every pie she’s ever made since has been horrible. It might be a family curse?? 🙂
I love a good pie. My favorite would be any baked sweet sticky fruit pie, next favorite, Kentucky Bourbon pie, and then down to the meringue pies – I have had few successes in making pretty pies, but even the ugly ones taste good. Best I ever did was a lime meringue pie that I made for my dad’s birthday…
I have unofficially claimed this summer as my Summer of Pie. I’ve made loads of different types of crust and pastry, but I am most excited to get to Seattle to pick some roadside blackberries and make a pie.
I’m pretty sure I could eat pie every day, so this book would be the best! My favorite pie is cherry, but fresh blackberry is pretty sweet, too!
my hubby doesnt like cake very much so we either make cheesecake or pie at our house. i do have to say that i dont mind it that way 🙂
I grew up making pies for thanksgiving with my Grandmother but as she got older the tradition stopped. Now that she’s passed, I’d really love to pick it back up with Ashley’s wonderful instructions. She started me on chicken keeping and canning already!
When I was young, my family and I visited the Apple Fest every year at a nearby orchard. One year, my mother, me and my brother decided to enter the apple pie baking contest. I decided to add pecans to my pie to make it “special.” Not only did I win the kid’s division, but I also beat out all the adults (including my mother who provide much “help” to me) to win the grand champion prize. My grandmother had to bid an obscene amount of money to buy my pie during the charity auction. I insisted on entering for years after that just because I found the only thing fun and funny.
Two dropped pie stories. One was dropped when my young daughter was bringing it in for her sister’s birthday. We call that one “Green Pie” and the plastic lid contained it so we ate it that night! (I made her another one the next day.)
The second was a cheese cake I made for my soon to be Son in Law. Same daughter somehow knocked it out of the fridge! Plastic wrap on top saved it, so we ate it also.
As a child, the best thing about Tuesday pie baking, Mom would take the leftover dough and make cinnamon sugar squares that we would devour before dinner.
Growing up, when the leaves began to turn and the air had a slight chill to it, i realized it was time for apple picking. It was time to crunch into those sweet macs, bring them home, and make some pies. We did this every year, my mother and i. Warm Apple Pie will always hold a special place in the season of Autumn for me.
My very first pie was an apple pie and the crust was not pretty to look at, but it all tasted yummy and in the end thats what matters…Thanks for the chance to win
Blueberry pie in the summer is my all time favorite.
I used to choose Rhubarb pie instead of cake for my birthday growing up! Thanks Marisa!
Peach. With cherry coming in a close second. But who can resist a good maple cream? 🙂
Every summer as I was growing up my mum’s mum would bake an endless sugary supply of raspberry pies. Still my favorite to this day with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.
I’m discovering the lusciousness of frozen pies during the scorching summer we’re having. A slice of frozen lemonade pie in a graham cracker crust is just right on a hot evening.
The first pie I baked happened in the state of Washington at my sister-in laws house. One large blackberries bush, a large bowl of ripe blackberries and a now what do I do with them. That was thirty some years ago but I still remember how thrilled I was with that warm pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it.
My family knows I love pies. They also know that I like to indulge in snacks in middle of the night. This particular night, I woke up numerous times and noticed a strawberry rhubarb pie in the fridge. I thought to my self that nobody would notice a tiny slice missing. However, I had the same thought every time I awoke in the middle of the night. By morning, I had eaten about 2/3 of the pie. Ooops. I get teased all the time now.
Love the blog.
My favorite pie now exists only in my memory, my Grandmother’s fressh peach pie. I can still see, smell and taste it and she’s been gone 25 years this coming October. She handmade it all, no shortcuts for her, and it was amazing. My Mother and I have tried to recreate it and the crust never comes out quite as flaky nor the fruit just sweet enough to let the peach flavor shine. I miss it, but Mom and I keep trying…. but that may be just because we miss my Grandmother (and we love pie).
Apple pie is my personal favorite, but the rest of my family loves pumpkin. In fact that’s what my stepson asked for his birthday this year. In July!
I think I was one of the only kids who learned how to make pies before chocolate chip cookies. I got to peel apples?!? Yay!!!! Spend all day in the kitchen with Uncle Eddie baking for any random event was glorious. I think they’d probably arrest him for letting me play with sharp objects if that happened now 😉
Making a pie from scratch makes me feel very grown-up. A pie I made last winter is my proudest acheivement: half whole wheat crust, a quart of pears on bottom, a pint of peaches on top of that, and an oatmeal crumb top.
Your mother’s pies sound very similar to mine, Marisa. My daughter and I even eat them for breakfast!
“That’s a pie crust promise – easily made, easily broken.”
This is one of those old-timey sayings that I think should get more play nowadays. I heard this one a lot when I was growing up; I bet it was something that my mom also heard a lot when she was growing up. Also handed down – green tomato mincemeat pie, oh so good.
My mom has a recipe for butterscotch pudding that makes the absolute best butterscotch pie filling… it’s got Amish/Mennonite roots as that is our family’s heritage. It’s hands down the most requested pie that friends ask us to bring when there’s an occasion to share pie together!
My Grammer used to make the best strawberry rhubarb pies, she would always share the last (and largest) piece from the pie-pan with me so i got all the extra crumbly bits… I wish that I had asked her to write the recipe down
My mother and grandmother are not into cooking, so it’s a bit of a mystery how I came to be so obsessed. The single recipe I inherited from my family is my grandmother’s pecan pie recipe, which, as far as I can tell, she relied on mainly because it was absurdly easy. With a premade pie crust (she never made her own) you could get the thing in the oven in about 5 minutes! I no longer made the recipe as she did – I made my own crust and don’t use Karo corn syrup – but I still keep her handwritten copy in the back of my recipe book.
For some reason pies have never intimidated me, even after I tried to make a lard crust in a hot kitchen and ended up with a softly spreading mass on the counter, rather than anything that could be rolled, crimped, or otherwise baked. But I became worried when my husband informed me one day that he was pretty sure he had developed a gluten allergy. What about bread, muffins, cakes, PIE??? Happily I recently acquired a copy of Gluten Free Baking Classics, and I am back in business. Her pie crust recipe kicks butt–no one ever knows. And occasionally, if we are heading to the potluck, I dust off my old “real” flour and make the real thing.
My favorite pie memory is my first Thanksgiving with my now husband. We has been dating for only three and a half months. He had invited me to join his family for the holiday and I had asked what I could bring. He said pumpkin pie. So
I said ok. I had never cooked pumpkin pie before. AsI was a
single mom at the time, I waited until Wednesday night at 9pm to start cooking the pies. The first on the first pie burned. Luckily, I had enough ingredients to
make two pies. So I called my beat friend up for some advice, asked people
on Twitter for advice, and had a glass of wine. Then, I baked another pie.
By the time I got to bed, it was past midnight. I was planning on running my first race Thanksgiving, and my husband was coming over at 7am with his son to
watch my daughter while I ran. I was exhausted the following morning. But everyone loved the pies, and they both got eaten.
For my dad’s 60th birthday, I baked him 6 pies, one for each decade! He’s not a fan of cake, and his favorite dessert is pumpkin pie, so that’s exactly what he got. Since his birthday is in the summer, I made some other more summery pies to go alongside his pumpkin… blackberry/blueberry, peach, apple, etc. I am proud to say that making pies is one thing I love to do & seem to be able to do well 🙂 Everyone loved it, and of course we all had to sample more than one kind!
I just made my first pumpkin pie from a pie pumpkin this year for Thanksgiving, and I know I will never be able to use the can pumpkin again, it was the BEST! ( and I was very proud of myself!)
I would LOVE this cookbook! Pies are my husband’s favorite dessert. I bought a cookbook “All Cakes Considered” before I knew this. I started working my way through making the cakes and he was sweet, but not terribly impressed. Turns out not because the cakes weren’t good but because they weren’t PIE.
Thanks, Marisa!
I love pie! I have always loved pie!
My grandmother is a baker and pies are her specialty!
My favorite is her Pecan Bourbon Pie, mainly because she makes it JUST for me. It was my grandfather’s and mine favorite and now that he is gone…..it is just me. The rest of the family doesn’t like it but I request it for my birthday every year!
I look forward to Thanksgiving as we drive down to spend it with my family and her job is baking the pies for dessert! YUM!
Our favorite thing to do during our once a year girl visits to Reno with my Mom, my Grandma and myself is to stop in one of the all night restaurants and have a piece of pie and a cup of tea or cocoa in the wee hours of the morning before we traipse up to bed!
Pies = memories to me!!
My favorite canning memories are the times My girlfriends come over and we share love, enjoy each other’s company, and a little bit of something to preserve for later!
When I was pregnant with my youngest I was spending a lazy Saturday afternoon reading. There was a scene in the book that had the characters eating peach pie. It gave me such an intense craving for peach pie I could practically taste it! Aside from the fact that it was winter and totally not peach season, I couldn’t have pie anyhow since I had gestational diabetes 🙁
Several months later, after the baby was born and peaches were in season, I finally made myself the peach pie that I had wanted so badly, and it was fantastic!!
i need a good pie cook book thanks for the giveaway
It wasn’t until I moved to the Bluegrass area of Kentucky that I first tasted “Derby Pie” which is a traditional favorite, made around the same time we’re also making mint juleps and wearing fabulous hats. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a dense pie made with chocolate and nuts, plus bourbon if you want to be truly traditional. It’s one of the easiest pies to make, especially if you cheat like I do and use a frozen pie crust. I’ve made pie crusts in the past, but they never seem to turn out quite like I think they should.
Cherry, self picked if at all possible.
Pies always remind me of my grandmother who made scrumptious cherry pies and marvelous pecan pies. I have recently improved my crust with a new pastry recipe supplied by my farmer daughter. This pie book is lovely!
I am 51 and finally learned how to make a great pie crust last year. My DH loves pie and I can apple pie filling and make an apple pie every other week in the winter. A piece of pie brings back memories of my aunts being around our dining room table and everyone enjoying pie after dinner. There was always fresh coffee and to this day I like a cup of coffee with my pie.
I absolutely love pie (favorite dessert) and I love Ashley’s other books, so this is a must have on my book shelf. Every year for Thanksgiving my mom would make a pumpkin and apple pie. I’ve now taken over that baking, and instead of my mom’s traditional get the pumpkin in a can and store bought crust, I make my pies from complete scratch.
Either pecan pie, which reminds me of Thanksgiving growing up in the South, or blueberry pie… well, really, ANY berry pie…
We took our children to a small local fair this year and when it came time to eat we took a seat at a picnic table next to an elderly couple enjoying a slice of pie. I looked up and noticed they had purchased a slice from a local pie stand. Just seeing themselves wrapped in conversation and enjoying a slice put a smile on my face. I would love to learn more about this timeless dessert and how to conquer making a crust!
From “True Romance”:
“Do you like to get pie after you see a good movie?”
“Yeah, I love to get pie after a movie?
“Would you like to go get some pie with me?”
“I’d love some pie.”
Pie for breakfast is heaven! The art of pie-making is one of those things that should be cherished as it’s definitely a labor of love, hard work, and a touch of talent. Thanks to everyone like Marisa and Ashely who take the time to share tips and techniques!
I remember the very first pie I baked. It was apple. Green granny smith apples. I used a little too much lemon and so it came out extra tart but that was okay with me! It meant gobs more vanilla ice-cream to accompany my heavenly slice(s). I love pies! Alas, now that I am trying to follow a wheat free diet (which means gluten free) I do not make as many as I once did. Instead, I often go for the crustless, crumble versions which, when baked, can easily be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
My favorite pie from childhood is gooseberry pie. Picking the gooseberries was a “thorny” issue, but the rewards were well worth it. It is still a treat to go back home and be treated to this pie. My siblings and I still fight over the last piece. If only I could grow some gooseberry bushes in my yard…
I love pie, but crust intimidates me. I need to make at least one with the 1/2 bushel of peaches currently on my counter, though. It would be a shame not to…