Many apple pies call for simply tossing cut apples with sugar, adding a thickening agent and some spices, and plopping it all into a crust. But precooking the apples has multiple advantages: First, it...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
As plums bake, their tartness mellows and their juices jelly - just a couple reasons why they do so well in pies, cobblers and this crumble, which is essentially an upside-down graham cracker-crusted pie....
Author: Jerrelle Guy
This is an elegant alternative to the holiday parade of sugary pies. Cardamom adds a grown-up twist to the classic combination of hazelnut and pear. (Don't overdo the spice, however, or your dessert will...
Author: Clare de Boer
Somewhere between a lemon bar and a lemon pie lies this ultra tangy tart. "Tart" makes it sound difficult, but it's easier than you think: The rich filling requires zero cooking, and the crust is a simple...
Author: Alison Roman
The photogenic tart will make you look like a pastry chef, though it's no more difficult than baking a pie. A sweet tart crust is layered with almond cream, fig jam (homemade is nice, but store-bought...
Author: Martha Rose Shulman
Making a crisp is one of the best and easiest ways to highlight seasonal fruit. Crisps come together quickly with no special equipment, and they are a great way to use the odds and ends of fruit in your...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This special occasion dessert takes a little time to put together, but it's much easier to make than it looks. It starts with a simple press-in chocolate cookie crust that doesn't require a rolling pin...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
The celebrated pastry chef Dolester Miles learned to bake in a small town called Bessemer, outside Birmingham, Ala. She took the tastes of desserts passed down from her mother and her aunt, and re-worked...
Author: Kim Severson
This gorgeous tart is adapted from "Sweeter Off the Vine," by Yossy Arefi, a cookbook of fruit desserts for every season. It's an ideal vehicle for the ripest strawberries at the height of the season,...
Author: Emily Weinstein
Mixed berry pie is the ultimate summertime treat: Handfuls of the season's finest blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are tucked into a crisp, buttery crust that's just begging to be served with...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This chocolate mint tart is wonderfully reminiscent of a giant, elegant peppermint patty, tucked into a chocolate pastry shell. The mint flavor is subtle thanks to fresh-mint infused cream that is used...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This tart, adapted from the pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, with whom I wrote a cookbook, is a very simple way to show off the last of the season's plums. Use the same formula for peaches, apricots and figs...
Author: Martha Rose Shulman
These festive truffles from Hannah Kaminsky, a columnist at VegNews Magazine, combine the rich flavors of pecan pie under a thin layer of smooth chocolate. (To make these vegan, be sure to use vegan dark...
Author: Tara Parker-Pope
Like a dreamy mash-up between a Key lime and lemon meringue pie, this surprisingly fast and easy dessert is adapted from Bill Smith, the chef at Crook's Corner, a Chapel Hill, N.C. restaurant that specializes...
Author: Margaux Laskey
This is a classic French dessert - impressive, but easy to make, if you are organized and get ahead on the prep work. It's essential to make the tart dough and lemon curd in advance, up to 2 days ahead;...
Author: David Tanis
The deliciously tart apple butter filling in this pie has a deep rosy color, bolstered by raspberries and blackberries. Apples with darker red skins will produce a filling that contrasts beautifully with...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
This beautiful plum tart, adapted from the pastry chef Alex Levin of Osteria Morini in Washington, brings together a sablé butter crust flavored with vanilla bean; colorful, juicy plum slices; and an...
Author: Joan Nathan
Cherries in winter may sound counterintuitive, but like frozen peas and corn, frozen cherries are, well, pretty good. Baked on a bed of easy press-in crust, the boozy cherries sink into the almost-frangipane...
Author: Alison Roman
The caramel sauce does double duty in this warm, comforting crisp. First, it lends sweetness to the apple filling, and second, it yields a lot of leftovers to serve alongside. Use firm, tart apples like...
Author: Yossy Arefi
Basically a batter of ground almonds in a buttery sweet Italian-style crust, this easy tart is sublime with a little sugared fruit baked on top - apples or pears in the cold months, cherries and stone...
Author: David Tanis
This recipe is a keeper. Gently spiced with cinnamon, tinged with brown sugar and loaded with apple butter, it's as deeply flavored as an apple pie can be, all covered with a buttery wide-lattice top crust....
Author: Melissa Clark
In this fruit crumble - a relative of other homey desserts like crisps and buckles, bright red rhubarb makes a brilliant show, though a combination of rhubarb and apple can be nice too. Pistachio in the...
Author: David Tanis
Dead simple to make, this pie hits all the right notes. Sweet, nutty peanut butter mellows next to the tang of rich cream cheese and gets a lift from a little whipped cream. But if that doesn't convince...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
This pie's crunchy toasted cornflake crust and honey-sweetened pudding may inspire new pie-centric breakfast routines, especially when topped with juicy plums. Feel free to play around with nectarines...
Author: Dawn Perry
The character of fresh raspberries can be fleeting when cooked, especially when the berries are mixed with other fruit like ripe, juicy peaches. To deepen the berry flavor in this summer pie, a little...
Author: Melissa Clark
This tart requires a time commitment: There are several elements, and while each is simple, they need to be prepared and cooled before the tart is assembled. But it pays back in complexity of flavor and...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
A strawberry galette served with a side of fresh whipped cream or ice cream is a spring salve that is just as soothing to prepare for oneself as it is to share with others. Inspired by the baker Alice...
Author: Naz Deravian
Rhubarb makes any dessert a showstopper, but this tart has more than meets the eye. Under the fruit is a luscious vanilla custard nestled in a chewy macaroon shell. When shopping, look for rhubarb that...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
Coconut milk gives the spiced sweet potato filling in these small pies a delicate custard texture, and coconut flakes on top deliver a toasted nuttiness. This recipe calls for pressing two dozen tiny crusts...
Author: Genevieve Ko
This pie is fudgy, nutty, salty-sweet and spiked with citrus. It's a meeting of sorts, between arguably Britain and America's greatest desserts: the treacle tart and pecan pie. Cut corners by grating the...
Author: Clare de Boer
In January 1970, The Times published a recipe for brandy Alexander pie. It was an unassuming confection: a graham-cracker crust filled with a wobbly, creamy mousse and enough alcohol to raise the hair...
Author: Amanda Hesser
This crowd-pleasing dessert imitates the velvety custard and caramelized sugar shell of a crème brûlée, with the added bonus of a flaky crust. A food processor makes easy work of the all-butter pie...
Author: Jerrelle Guy
Most pumpkin pies rely entirely on ground spices for their heady flavor. In this one, whole spices (star anise, clove, cinnamon and black peppercorns) are infused into cream, which gives it a more interesting,...
Author: Melissa Clark
Prunes, or dried plums, are a delicious, often underrated baking ingredient in the United States. In France, the fruit is used in sweet and savory recipes, including this one for a popular dessert filled...
Author: Tejal Rao
More than 75 percent of the world's maple-syrup supply is produced in Quebec. In Canada the sap doesn't start running until early March, when the nights are still freezing but the days are bright. Locals...
Author: Oliver Schwaner-Albright
Everything about this sweet potato pie is surprisingly light and creamy, from the soft custard filling to the swoopy toasted meringue. Piping that meringue dresses it up even more. Instead of focusing...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
Perfection is a fool's mission when it comes to blueberry pie. Sometimes the filling is a little runny. Other times, slightly thick, depending on the blueberries themselves. But this recipe helps even...
Author: Sam Sifton
Thanksgiving often coincides with the arrival of all kinds of great citrus, which is why the chef Elisabeth Prueitt, of Tartine in San Francisco, offered this take on a classic Shaker lemon pie. Traditionally...
Author: Tejal Rao
The spring of 2013 saw us down in Charleston, S.C., a stunning city, rich with history both sad and ecstatic, in a region that offers a tremendous bounty of fresh ingredients and regional flavors. We had...
Author: Sam Sifton And Mark Bittman
Puerto Rican cazuela, a richly spiced crustless pie with a texture between thick custard and bread pudding, is a unique dessert with a complex history. The name means "cooking pot" in Spanish, and the...
Author: Von Diaz
This cobbler substitutes fresh, juicy kernels and corn milk for traditional heavy cream, taking advantage of the sweetness of seasonal corn and adding texture to a buttery crust. Grating two large ears...
Author: Jerrelle Guy
This French-style apple tart is topped with nothing but fruit and a squeeze of lemon juice. Make it with homemade rough puff pastry, or a store-bought sheet of puff pastry, and use a mandolin or a sharp...
Author: Tejal Rao
A cobbler is a traditional baked dish of sweetened fruit with a biscuit-dough topping. It's best to bake the fruit untopped for a half-hour or more before adding the raw disks of dough - some say they...
Author: David Tanis
This whiskey-apple crumble pie calls for the apple slices to be sautéed before they are put into the crust and baked. The requirement that the apples be tart should be taken seriously, so the filling...
Author: Florence Fabricant
This is a wonderful but simple summer pie inspired by strawberry pretzel salad, a popular Southern dessert. The classic recipe consists of a crumbled pretzel crust, a whipped cream cheese and Cool Whip...
Author: Jerrelle Guy
These little pies are filled to the brim with juicy caramel apple filling, fried, then tossed in cinnamon sugar. You may need to adjust the temperature as you fry them: If the oil is too hot, they'll look...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
This is a composite sketch of the perfect cherry pie. The buttery, well-seasoned crust is adapted from the Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya at Butter and Scotch, a bar and bakery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,...
Author: Sara Bonisteel
This recipe came to The Times from Diana Scott-Sho of the Luscious Little Dessert Company in Yonkers. A picture of this pie prompted many an email from readers asking where they could get the recipe. What...
Author: Melissa Clark
A galette is the perfect dessert for anyone who thinks the crust-to-fruit ratio of the average pie is way off. In a galette, the fruit filling is thinner, so you have more flaky pastry to every bite. It...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
This pie is a delicious twist on a custard standby, and it is exceedingly easy, a humble yet grandly flavored addition to any celebration. Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide...
Author: Melissa Clark