So what’s going on, my pie friend? Are you holding steady in a cool summer groove? Or are you ready to be done with summer and get on with the fall? Part of me sure feels that way. But before we put summer in the rearview mirror, how about we give a shoutout to one of the most underrated pies of summer? That would be plum. Somehow plum pie ends up at the bottom of way too many summer pie bucket lists. I know a number of dedicated pie makers who haven’t made plum pie one. And that, ahem, is a plum tragedy because if you’ve never tried plum pie, you simply haven’t experienced one of the best th ..read more

Well, it’s been a long time coming but my deliciously weighty tome on sweet pies – and I do mean weighty, tipping the scales at nearly 4 pounds – is just about ready to launch. And you can preorder a copy right now on Amazon. PIE ACADEMY includes the best of the best of my pie recipes and instruction from not just this website, but also from the dozens of pie articles I’ve written for magazines, and includes fan favorites from two of my pie books that are no longer available. A number of things set PIE ACADEMY apart from my previous pie books. For one, it’s a quality hardcover and the pages ..read more

I make so many pies that my wife Bev and I invented what we call our “sliver rule” – we cut a couple of small pieces for ourselves; give as much away as we can; and then freeze any that’s leftover. And we’ve been pretty religious about it, too. Then this pie happened. We didn’t mean to fall off the wagon – and by WE I mean me – but when I weighed myself at the gym the other day I tipped the scale at 184 pounds, and I’m almost 6’5″. (When I turn sideways and stick out my tongue, someone told me recently, I look like a zipper.) Anyway, that’s down 50 pounds from where I was 3 years ago, so I fe ..read more

I love this dough for all sorts of pies, from double crust summer fruit pies to pumpkin and sweet potatoes pies in fall, pecan pies, chess pies – you name it. The cornmeal does wonderful things to the dough: it makes the dough a real pleasure to roll, and adds a little crunch, too. It gives the dough an eye-catching gold hue, and the little bit of Crisco in the dough makes for a tender dough with a superior texture. I prefer making this in the food processor, but it can be mixed by hand as well. Print Cornmeal Pie Dough Author Ken Haedrich Cornmeal adds a bit of crunch…a bit of color…a ..read more

When was the last time you baked an all strawberry, double-crust pie?  I’ll stick my neck out and wager it’s been a while, because even if nobody ever comes right out and says it, a lot of bakers just don’t consider an all strawberry double-crust pie a thing.  Strawberry rhubarb pie is a thing. So is strawberry chiffon. Everybody swoons over those thickly glazed fresh strawberry pies with mountains of whipped cream; that’s a thing.  But a double crust strawberry pie, not so much. Strawberries, by quiet consensus, are way too soft to tolerate a thorough baking. They turn to mush when you cook ..read more

My latest book project took a giant leap forward this week when I sent the contents of the binders you see here off to my publisher for the first round of editing. Well, not the actual contents; I sent digital files, of course. Back when I started writing cookbooks in the late 80’s and early 90’s, writer and publisher would indeed volley reams of paper manuscript back and back and forth, the bulk growing progressively heavier with multi-colored sticky notes on each trip. You knew the manscript had come back when you heard the UPS truck pull up, followed by the sound of something like a meteor ..read more

Thanks to Huey Lewis and the News and their 1986 hit song, we all know it’s hip to be square. But if you’re a pie maker, you should know it’s even hipper to be rectangular. I’m talking about slab pie, if you hadn’t guessed, that sheet pan kin to pie-in-the-round. Pie in a sheet pan? You’d be forgiven for asking why bother. Does a slab pie taste any better than its circular counterpart? Is it easier to assemble? Can slab pie lay claim to a rich and previously unexplored history we should examine more closely? Well, it’s not really like that. Slab pies use the same everyday ingredients that rou ..read more

Let’s talk about lemon curd. Do you know what it is? Have you ever made it? Thought about it but never got around to it? Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s time to strike up a friendship, if you’re not a member of The Lemon Curd Fan Club. Lemon curd is a nifty item to have in your pie maker’s tool kit, but it’s got a lot more tricks up its sleeve than pie filling. It tastes wonderful smoothed between cake layers. Fold it into whipped cream and top fresh berries with it. And smear it on everything from scones and crumpets – like the Brits do – to English muffins, waffles, pancakes, crackers ..read more

I’ve been giving Valentines Day quite a bit of thought this week, on account of the fact that my previous lapses never worked out that well, so I’m going all in with the flowers, the dinner out, and one of those really expensive Hallmark cards to show my wife that when it comes to her happiness, money is no object. Oh, and these little cherry pies to top things off, too. I agree – none of that is very original. But in the absence of originality, predictability – on Valentines Day – is a very safe bet. That’s something I learned during one of the aforementioned lapses. Actually, the cherry pi ..read more

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been testing custard pie recipes for my book-in-progress, and now that I’m nearing the end of this chapter it’s time to move on. It won’t be easy. Not that the pie territory ahead is any less promising. It’s simply that I’ve re-fallen in love with custard pies in a big way, been captured by their spell, and charmed by their quirks all over again. That’s all I’m saying. You’ll find all of my favorites once the new book is out later in 2020. I know it’s a long time to wait, but to tide you over, here’s the Creamy Coconut Custard Pie recipe  from the forthcoming bo ..read more