Two pages carry every crust in this folder and are worth reading before any recipe:

• all-butter pie crust — the rubbed, flaky dough for pies. Also carries the blind-baking procedure that a dozen recipes here refer back to.
• pate sucree — the creamed, cookie-like sweet shell for tarts. Holds a vertical wall and does not shrink.

Almost every pie is one of four, and each has a single characteristic failure.

Kind	Sets by	Fails as	Pies
Fruit	Starch gelatinising, above boiling	A flood, from a pie pulled before it bubbled	apple pie · cherry pie · blueberry pie · peach pie · strawberry rhubarb pie · concord grape pie · dutch apple pie
Baked custard	Egg coagulating at 77 °C	Cracks and weeping, from overbaking	pumpkin pie · sweet potato pie · custard pie · buttermilk pie · chess pie · pecan pie · lemon tart · quiche lorraine
Stovetop cream	Starch, cooked before it goes in	Soup by morning, from a filling never brought to a boil	banana cream pie · coconut cream pie · chocolate cream pie · sugar cream pie · lemon meringue pie
Set by cold	Fat or acid alone	A filling that never firms	french silk pie · chocolate ganache tart · key lime pie

Savoury pies are their own case: the filling is fully cooked before it ever meets pastry, and the oven is only there for the crust.

A soggy bottom. Blind bake, seal the hot shell with beaten egg white, and bake on a preheated steel or heavy tray on the lowest rack. Metal and glass tins conduct; ceramic does not.

A flooded fruit pie. The filling has to actually boil — slow, thick bubbles in the centre, not just at the edge — for the starch to reach full thickening power. Then it has to cool four hours before it is cut.

A cracked custard. The oven was too hot or it was in too long. Custard sets at 77 °C and curdles around 85 °C, so 160 °C is the working temperature and a wobble in the middle is the doneness signal.

A cream pie that liquefies overnight. Raw egg yolks carry amylase, which digests starch. Two full minutes at a boil destroys it. This is the single most useful fact on this page.

A shrinking crust. The dough was stretched into the tin instead of laid in, or it was not rested. One hour after mixing, thirty minutes after fitting.

Thickener	Per 1 kg of fruit	Sets	Notes
Cornstarch	30–40 g	Opaque, soft	The default. Breaks down under long cooking or high acid
Tapioca starch	35–45 g	Clear, glossy	Best for berries and anything acidic; freezes well
Flour	50–60 g	Cloudy, pasty	Traditional, and the weakest of the three
Arrowroot	30 g	Very clear	Fails if it boils hard; not for pies

Apples and quinces bring pectin of their own and need less. Peaches, cherries and rhubarb need the most.

Season	Pies
Spring	strawberry rhubarb pie · lemon tart · lemon meringue pie
Summer	peach pie · blueberry pie · cherry pie · tomato pie · fruit galette · key lime pie
Autumn	apple pie · dutch apple pie · pumpkin pie · concord grape pie · pear frangipane tart · tarte tatin
Winter	mince pies · pecan pie · sweet potato pie · treacle tart · tourtiere · steak and ale pie
Any time	chess pie · buttermilk pie · sugar cream pie · shoofly pie · chocolate ganache tart · french silk pie

That last row is the desperation-pie family — American pantry pies invented for the months when there was no fruit at all, and still the best answer to an empty fridge.

The rules invert. The filling is cooked first and must be completely cold before pastry touches it, the sauce must be thicker than looks right, and the oven is hot and short because only the crust is being cooked.

quiche lorraine · chicken pot pie · steak and ale pie · tourtiere · cornish pasty · empanadas · tomato pie

The exception is cornish pasty, which goes in raw and steams itself for fifty minutes — the only pie here that cooks its filling inside the pastry.

Weeks ahead	The day before	Same day only
mince pies mincemeat · frozen unbaked shells · steak and ale pie braise · chicken pot pie filling	pumpkin pie · pecan pie · chess pie · chocolate ganache tart · tourtiere	lemon meringue pie · banana cream pie · tarte tatin · fruit galette

Unbaked pastry freezes for three months and bakes better from frozen than from the fridge — it holds its shape.

• all-butter pie crust — the foundation, and the blind-baking method
• apple pie — macerate, reduce, and why the gap forms
• bakewell tart — jam, frangipane, and a 1 : 1 : 1 : 1 ratio
• banana cream pie — the pastry cream that underlies four pies
• blueberry pie — cook a quarter of the fruit into a jam first
• buttermilk pie — tang against sugar, and flour not cornstarch
• cherry pie — sour cherries, tapioca, and the almond note
• chess pie — cornmeal, vinegar, and a crackled top
• chicken pot pie — cool the filling before it meets pastry
• chocolate cream pie — cocoa and bar chocolate, both
• chocolate ganache tart — 1 : 1, set at room temperature
• coconut cream pie — half coconut milk, coconut toasted twice
• concord grape pie — skins and pulp cooked apart, then recombined
• cornish pasty — raw filling, side crimp, PGI status
• custard pie — the hardest plain thing here
• dutch apple pie — a crumb top lets the filling reduce
• empanadas — the filling is chilled overnight so it can be fatty
• french silk pie — eggs cooked to 71 °C, then whipped ten minutes
• fruit galette — no tin, no crimp, ground almonds at the seam
• key lime pie — acid sets it, not heat
• lemon meringue pie — meringue onto hot filling, sealed to the crust
• lemon tart — a baked curd at 140 °C
• mince pies — mincemeat baked, jarred, and left a month
• pate sucree — the sweet shell that holds a wall
• peach pie — the wettest fruit in the folder
• pear frangipane tart — poach the fruit or it waters the cream
• pecan pie — an invert sugar, and salt against the sweetness
• pumpkin pie — cook the purée down before it goes in
• quiche lorraine — one egg to 120 ml of dairy
• shoofly pie — soda in boiling water, and a wet bottom
• steak and ale pie — a three-hour braise and a twenty-minute lid
• strawberry rhubarb pie — 93% water, cut thick
• sugar cream pie — no eggs at all, and a blistered top
• sweet potato pie — roast the potatoes, never boil them
• tarte tatin — the caramel is made on the hob first
• tomato pie — salt and drain for an hour, then blot
• tourtiere — cinnamon and clove in a savoury pie
• treacle tart — breadcrumbs are the structure

Already elsewhere in the vault: nut pies with rye crust and apple crisp.

Theory: pies and tarts · pastry · laminated dough · flour · gluten · baking fats · baking equipment · ovens and heat

Sibling folders: Cookie recipes · Cake recipes · Recipes by ingredient · Recipes by method

Using a glut: Fruit Jellies Jam Jellies Butters · Dried Fruit · winter cellars · Central Ohio Monthly Planting

Selling them: cottage food baking · Baked goods · bakeries

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