Delicious Pie Recipes

Apple Crumb Pie


1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. butter, room temperature
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
6+ cups (8-10) tart apples (Jonagold)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Optional: 1 cup raisins
Dough for one pie crust (see “Never Fail Pie Crust”)


Preheat oven to 375°. Make crumb topping: in a medium bowl, combine 1 cup flour, butter, brown sugar, and ¼ tsp. salt. Mix with a fork until crumbly; freeze.
On a lightly floured piece of waxed paper, roll dough into a 14-inch circle. Carefully fit into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with a 2-inch overhand all around.
Place lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples into the bowl. Add granulated sugar, raisins (optional), cinnamon, remaining ¼ cup flour, and remaining ½ tsp. salt; toss to combine. Transfer apple mixture to pie crust, pressing in firmly. Fold dough overhang over filling, pleating it as you work your way around pie; press dough firmly against filling.
Bake 45 minutes, then sprinkle apple filling with crumb topping. Continue to bake until gold and bubbling, 30 to 45 minutes more.


Apricot Pie

Dough for 2 pie crusts (see “Never Fail Pie Crust”)
1 cup sugar (or extra to taste)
6 cups apricot halves (or *frozen apricots, thawed & drained, not rinsed)
¼ cup flour
¼ cup Tapioca pearls (Minute Tapioca in the Red Box)
¼ tsp. cinnamon (optional)
Extra sugar for top of pie


Heat oven to 425°. Roll one pie crust on lightly floured waxed paper sheets to approximately 14” circle. Carefully place in 9” pie dish.
In large bowl, mix fruit (well-drained if using frozen apricots), sugar, flour, and tapioca (& cinnamon if desired). Stir carefully so you won’t mash the apricots. Pour into the crust-lined pie dish.
Roll out 2nd crust and carefully place on top of filled pie dish. Trim edges so about ¾” of dough hangs over the edge of pie dish. Seal and flute the crust by folding top layer under lower layer, pressing to seal. While pinching the top and bottom edges together, form a stand-up rim on edge of pie plate to seal pastry and to make fluting easier. Flute the edges by placing index finger of one hand on inside of pastry rim, thumb and index finger of other hand on outside. Pinch pastry into V-shape; continue around pie. Make several slits in top of pie crust. Sprinkle top crust with sugar. Cover edge with 2 to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning (remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking).
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes.

Never Fail Pie Crust

4 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 ¾ cups Crisco (butter flavored) no subs!
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 large egg


Put first 3 ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) in large bowl and mix well with a fork. Add shortening and mix with pastry cutter or fork until ingredients are crumbly. In a small bowl, mix ½ cup water, the vinegar and the egg. Combine the two mixtures, stirring with fork until all ingredients are moistened. Divide dough into 5 portions and with hands, shape each portion into a flattened round circle. Wrap each separately in saran wrap. Dough may be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen in a Ziplock freezer bag. Makes two 9” double crust pies and 1 single 9” crust pie or pie shell.

*To freeze apricots, slice 6 cups apricots halves (pits removed) into large bowl. Add 1 ½ cup sugar and 1 heaping tbsp. Fruit Fresh. Mix thoroughly with apricots until juices start to form. Carefully pour bowl contents into gallon size Ziplock Freezer bags and lay flat to freeze. For best results, use ripe firm fruit that is flavorful!
For Blackberry pie, follow instructions above but use 5-6 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (partially thawed). To freeze blackberries, blueberries, or boysenberries, place on cookie sheet and place in freezer. When frozen, transfer to Ziplock Freezer bags.

Lemon Meringue Pie

1 pre-baked pie crust (9 inch, bottom only)
3-4 large lemons
1 3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
6 egg yolks, save whites for meringue
2 T unsalted butter, cut up
Meringue:

6 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 325°.
Grate 2 T rind, set aside. Squeeze 3/4 cup juice from lemons. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan. Stir in 2 1/4 cup water and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 15-20 minutes until thickened and bubbly. Cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat. Beat yolks lightly in bowl. Stir 1/2 cup hot lemon mixture into yolks, then stir yolk mixture back into lemon mixture in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, for one minute. Do not overcook. Off heat, add butter and grated lemon rind. Pour into baked crust.

Meringue: Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. On high speed, beat in sugar, 1 T at a time, until stiff peaks form. Spoon meringue over hot filling, spreading to edge of crust to seal. Bake on lower rack for 25-30 minutes (thermometer inserted in meringue should register 140). Bake 3 minutes longer. Cool on rack 2 hours, refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

OPTIONAL: Bottom cream cheese layer: Combine 1 8 oz brick cream cheese, room temp, 1 egg, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Place in prebaked crust prior to lemon layer.



Triple-Layer Mud Pie

1 pre-baked pie shell
3 squares semi-sweet baking squares, melted
¼ cup canned sweetened condensed milk
½ cup pecans, chopped and toasted
2 cups cold 2% milk
2 pkg. (3.9 oz. each) instant chocolate pudding
2 cups whipping cream

Mix melted baking squares and condensed milk. Pour into crust; sprinkle with nuts. Whisk together milk and pudding mixes, beating for 2 minutes. Spoon 1 ½ cups over nuts. Whip cream.* Stir half of the whipped cream into remaining pudding; spread over pudding in crust. Top with remaining whipped cream. Refrigerate 3 hours.
*To stabilize whipping cream, use following instructions: Sprinkle 2 tsp. unflavored gelatin over 4 Tbsp. cold water. Let soften 5 minutes. Heat over very low heat until gelatin dissolves. Let cool slightly (if cools too much, the gelatin will clump). In separate container, whip cream until soft peaks form. Add gelatin mixture (and 2 tbsp. sugar, if desired) as you finish whipping.

Very Berry Pie (double crust)

8 cups (2lbs) mixed frozen berries
1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°. Toss ingredients together. Place in unbaked pie shell, dot with 2 tablespoons butter, top with unbaked crust and seal edges, cut 3 or 4 slits in center. If desired, you can brush the crust with a mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon cream. Place pie on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, increase oven temp to 375 and bake until nicely browned, about 20 minutes longer.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

1 (9 inch) pie shell, unbaked
Pumpkin Filling:

1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves


Pecan Layer:

2 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 c. light or dark corn syrup
2/3 c. sugar
2 tbsp. corn oil butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. pecan halves


In small bowl stir all ingredients for pumpkin filling until well blended. Spread evenly in bottom of pie shell. Prepare pecan layer: In medium bowl, stir eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended. Stir in pecans. Carefully spoon over pumpkin filling. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour or until filling is set around edge. Cool on rack. Serves 8.

Other Simple Pie Ideas

Bake a *Single Pie Shell and make a:

Chocolate Pie (cook 5 oz. Cook & Serve Chocolate Jello Pudding according to package directions; pour into baked pie shell & chill. Serve with lots of whipped cream on top)

Lemon Meringue Pie (Prepare 4.3 Lemon Cook & Serve Jello Pudding according to package directions – Meringue instructions are on back of box)

Banana Cream Pie (Slice 2 to 3 bananas into baked pie shell; cook 5 oz. Vanilla Cook & Serve Jello Pudding & cool 5 minutes; pour over bananas and chill. Another version instead of cooked pudding, use instant vanilla pudding and fold in ½ tub cool whip & pour over bananas.)

Fresh Strawberry Pie (Prepare Junket Danish Dessert Strawberry flavored according to package directions; pour over sliced strawberries and pour into baked pie shell; chill. Serve with whipped cream on top.)

Fresh Peach Pie (call me on this one because it is more complicated or try to find Peach Glaze in the produce section of your supermarket—it is already made and ready to pour over sliced peaches.)

Most good cookbooks (like Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens) will have instructions for other pies like Pecan Pie, all kinds of fruit pies, etc. Just plan to use the “Never Fail Pie Crust” recipe in this packet for all these pies and follow recipe in cookbook for baking instructions.

Pumpkin Pie (Follow instructions on back of Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin)

Ice Cream Pies (Purchase a graham cracker shell (or make one) and fill with softened ice cream of your choice. Cover and freeze. When serving slice and drizzle with a sauce such as caramel sauce topping, hot fudge or chocolate sauce topping, strawberry freezer jam, etc., and then with whipped cream, nuts, a cherry or whatever sounds good!)

*For Single-Crust Baked Pie Shell: Roll out pastry on lightly floured waxed paper to 2” larger than inverted pie plate. Carefully place pastry in pie dish. Flute edges. Prick bottom & sides thoroughly with fork. Bake at 475° for 8-10 minutes; cool.
Precooked Crust

Many recipes call for pie crusts to be blind-baked—that is, precooked without the filling so that the crust can set enough to form a seal. Partial blind-baking gives the crust a head start to keep wet fillings from causing a soggy bottom crust; pies with no-bake fillings require a fully blind-baked crust. First, prepare your pie shell, then follow these tips.
• Chill the raw pie shell at least 15 minutes before lining with foil. This will firm the dough enough to protect the decorative edge while you press foil into place.
• Use pie weights, dry beans, or uncooked rice to half-fill the foil liner in the pie shell. (Beans and rice can be used again for baking blind—but not in cooking, since the oven heat dries them out.)
• Bake the pie shell at 375° partway with foil and weights to set it and help keep its shape (about 15 minutes) then remove foil and weights to continue baking and allow crust to brown evenly.
• Let crust cool for at least 10 minutes before adding your filling.
• Check the edge while the filling is baking when using a blind-baked crust. If it gets too dark, loosely cover the edge with a strip of foil.