dessert pies

This rustic holiday pie boasts a creamy apple filling. The secret ingredient: vanilla ice cream, right in the filling. This recipe was inspired by Holly Ricciardi, owner of the now-closed Magpie Bakery; read about our visit here. The hallmark of Dutch apple pie is its creamy apple filling, but we didn’t rely on the traditional cream to achieve it. Instead we added melted vanilla ice cream to the apple filling for extra creaminess and a rich vanilla flavor that nicely complements apple pie. We sliced Golden Delicious apples and let them sit in the melted ice cream along with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice until they were soft and pliable; this way, they packed easily into the pie plate and created a cohesive interior that baked evenly. Before baking, we sprinkled a mixture of melted butter, flour, brown sugar, and a good dose of salt over the top of the pie for a supremely buttery crumble topping. Letting the pie cool completely before slicing into it allowed it to firm up so that we could produce beautifully clean wedges.

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie

cup, ice water

sour cream

(6 1/4 ounces 177 grams), all-purpose flour

teaspoons, sugar

teaspoon, salt

tablespoons, unsalted butter,

melted, vanilla ice cream

raisins

sugar

lemon juice

teaspoon, vanilla extract

teaspoon, cinnamon

(5 ounces 142 grams), all-purpose flour

99 grams), light brown sugar

tablespoons, unsalted butter, melted

We prefer Golden Delicious or Gala apples here, but Fuji, Braeburn, or Granny Smith varieties also work well. You may substitute 1/2 cup of heavy cream for the melted ice cream, if desired. This pie is best when baked a day ahead of time and allowed to rest overnight. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

FOR THE CRUST: Combine water and sour cream in bowl. Process flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined, about 5 seconds. Scatter butter over top and pulse until butter is size of large peas, about 10 pulses. Add sour cream mixture and pulse until dough forms clumps and no dry flour remains, about 12 pulses, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and form into 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Wrapped dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month. If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling.)

FOR THE FILLING: Toss all ingredients in large bowl until apples are evenly coated. Let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour or up  to 2 hours.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Let chilled dough sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes, before rolling. Roll dough into 12-inch circle on lightly floured counter. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch pie plate, letting excess dough hang over edge. Ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with your hand while pressing into plate bottom with your other hand.

Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of plate. Tuck overhang under itself; folded edge should be flush with edge of plate. Crimp dough evenly around edge of plate using your fingers. Wrap dough-lined plate loosely in plastic and refrigerate until dough is firm, at least 30 minutes.

FOR THE TOPPING: Stir all ingredients in bowl until no dry spots remain and mixture forms clumps. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Place dough-lined plate on parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet. Working with 1 large handful at a time, distribute apple mixture in plate, pressing into even layer and filling in gaps before adding more. Take care not to mound apple mixture in center of plate. Pour any remaining liquid from bowl into pie. Break topping (it will harden in refrigerator) into pea-size crumbs and distribute evenly over apple mixture. Pat topping lightly to adhere.

Bake pie on sheet until top is golden brown and paring knife inserted in center meets no resistance, about 1 hour 10 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let pie cool on wire rack for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight. Serve.

Recipe Instructions

Test Kitchen Techniques

The Best Paring Knives

This rustic holiday pie boasts a subtly creamy filling. The key ingredient was hiding in plain sight.

Once an award-winning recipe, this no-bake chocolate pie has an incredible light and fluffy texture-but we wanted to amplify the chocolate flavor. Don't let the name fool you: the recipe for French Silk Pie was born in America. Created by Betty Cooper in 1951 for the third annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, this old-fashioned icebox chocolate pie is rarely made today, perhaps because it calls for raw eggs. We wanted to develop a modern, cooked-egg version with ramped-up chocolate flavor.We tried using egg substitutes first in place of raw eggs, but these had an off, artificial flavor. We found that only real eggs would do, but rather than incorporate them raw, we cooked them with sugar on the stovetop, almost like making a custard. Once the egg and sugar mixture was light and thick, we removed it from the heat and continued whipping it until it was fully cooked.The filling was much too dense when we beat in the two sticks of softened butter called for in the original recipe. Instead, we cut the amount of butter in half for a more satiny texture.We had the texture locked down for our French silk chocolate pie recipe, but it was still lacking in flavor. We found bittersweet chocolate folded into the cooled egg and sugar mixture boosted the chocolate flavor better than other varieties we tested. To lighten the chocolate pie, we incorporated whipped cream into the filling before spooning it into the pie shell—the filling was light and silky, but rich, thick, and chocolaty.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

cup, heavy cream,

large, eggs

(5¼ ounces 149 grams), sugar

water

(227 grams), bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

tablespoon, vanilla extract

pie shell, baked and cooled (see note)

You will need a fully baked pie shell for this recipe. Use your favorite pie dough or use our  Pat-in-the-Pan Pie Dough recipe . Serve this chocolate pie with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Whip cream: With electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to stiff peaks, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to small bowl and refrigerate.

Beat eggs: Combine eggs, sugar, and water in large heatproof bowl set over medium saucepan filled with ½ inch barely simmering water (don’t let bowl touch water). With electric mixer on medium speed, beat until egg mixture is thickened and registers 160 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat egg mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.

Beat, fold, cool: Add chocolate and vanilla to cool egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using spatula, fold in whipped cream until no streaks of white remain. Scrape filling into pie shell and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours. Serve.

Pie Plates

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Once an award-winning recipe, this no-bake pie has an incredible  light and fluffy texture-but we wanted to amplify the chocolate flavor.

A pecan pie without corn syrup. We certainly don't miss it. The overly sweet, artificial-tasting pecan pies of today bear little resemblance to their 19th-century inspiration. Could we recreate a traditional pecan pie without using modern day, processed corn syrup?We tried a host of traditional syrups (cane, sorghum) to replicate the flavors in a traditional pecan pie. While many produced great pies, we couldn't find them at our local supermarket and had to mail away for them. After exhaustive testing, we discovered that combining maple syrup with brown sugar and molasses replicated the old-fashioned pies almost as well as the mail-ordered syrups, and certainly much better than corn syrup ever could.To ensure the bottom crust was crisp and golden brown, we started the pie at a high temperature and then dropped it down to finish cooking. Our crust was perfect, but the filling left something to be desired. A last-minute addition of cream yielded a welcome custardy transformation to the filling. This also made the filling looser; a problem easily solved by adding extra egg yolks.To finish off our Pecan Pie recipe, we found toasting the nuts before they went into the pie gave them enough crunch and flavor to hold their own in the filling.

Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie

maple syrup

198 grams), light brown sugar

heavy cream

tablespoon, molasses

Salt

cups, pecans

Regular or mild molasses tastes best in this pie. Use your favorite pie dough or our Single Crust Pie Dough recipe.

Make Filling: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat sugar, syrup, cream, and molasses in saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Whisk butter and salt into syrup mixture until combined. Whisk in egg yolks until incorporated.

Bake Pie: Scatter pecans in pie shell. Carefully pour filling over. Place pie in hot oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until filling is set and center jiggles slightly when pie is gently shaken, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool pie on rack for 1 hour, then refrigerate until set, about 3 hours and up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.

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A pecan pie without corn syrup. We certainly don't miss it.

Puckeringly tart key lime pie is classic for a reason. But just how important is the “key” part? We set off to create a great key lime pie with a soft yet set filling that straddled the fine line between sweet and tart. We started with what many think of as the go-to recipe for key lime pie filling: the one on the back of the bottle of Nellie &amp; Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. We increased the ingredient amounts and added heavy cream to make an impressively tall slice of pie that's extra-luscious. For some embellishment, we bolstered a sturdy graham cracker crust with pulverized pretzels. The pretzels added a buttery saltiness that balanced the sweet-tart filling. A pillowy meringue topping added a contrasting texture and a stunning look.

Really Good Key Lime Pie

graham

(57 grams) mini, pretzel twists (about 35 twists)

¼ teaspoon, table salt

1½ cups, sweetened condensed milk

lime juice (6 limes)

⅛ teaspoon, table salt

¼ teaspoon, cream of tartar

teaspoons, grated lime zest

Note that two of the egg whites from the filling are used to make the meringue topping—don't discard them when separating the eggs. Be sure to zest the limes to get the 2 teaspoons of zest needed for the garnish before juicing them. We do not recommend using a disposable aluminum pie plate here; those plates are shallow and the volume of the filling is too much for them. We like the meringue on this pie, but you can top it with our  Failproof Whipped Cream  instead, if preferred. You'll need to buy two 14-ounce cans of sweetened condensed milk to yield the 1½ cups for this recipe. We call for regular, fresh lime juice in this recipe, but if you'd prefer to use key lime juice you'll need to squeeze about 18 key limes to get ¾ cup of juice.

FOR THE CRUST:  Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Process cracker pieces, pretzels, sugar, and salt in food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add melted butter and pulse until combined, about 8 pulses.

Transfer cracker mixture to 9-inch pie plate. Using bottom of dry measuring cup, press crumbs firmly into bottom and up sides of plate. Place plate on baking sheet and bake until crust is fragrant and set, about 17 minutes. Transfer sheet to wire rack.

FOR THE FILLING:  Whisk all ingredients in bowl until fully combined. With pie plate still on sheet, carefully pour filling into crust (crust needn't be cool). Transfer sheet to oven and bake pie until edge of filling is set but center still jiggles slightly when shaken, about 30 minutes.

Place pie on wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Refrigerate until fully chilled, at least 4 hours, or cover with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

FOR THE MERINGUE﻿﻿:  Combine egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whip on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, 2 to 4 minutes.

Combine sugar and water in small saucepan. Bring to rolling boil over medium-high heat and cook until syrup registers 240 degrees, 1 to 3 minutes.

Working quickly, turn mixer to medium speed. With mixer running, slowly and carefully pour hot syrup into egg white mixture (avoid pouring syrup onto whisk, if possible). Add vanilla. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until shiny, stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Spread meringue over pie filling, leaving 1-inch border around pie. Working gently, use spatula or spoon to create swirls and cowlicks over surface of meringue. Sprinkle meringue with lime zest. Slice pie into wedges with wet knife, wiping knife clean between slices. Serve.

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Puckeringly tart key lime pie is classic for a reason. But just how important is the “key” part?

This is an old-fashioned dessert that has nothing to do with soup: It’s a light, lemony pudding made by whipping lemon gelatin with whipped evaporated milk. This is an old-fashioned dessert that has nothing to do with soup: It’s a light, lemony pudding made by whipping lemon gelatin with whipped evaporated milk. The surprise in making this dessert was that cold evaporated milk actually whips to the consistency of whipped heavy cream, but the evaporated milk must be cold in order to whip properly.

Lemon Bisque

(5 1/4 ounces 149 grams), sugar

gelatin

tablespoon, grated lemon zest

graham crackers, ground (1 cup)

(12-ounce) can, evaporated milk, chilled

It’s important to refrigerate the evaporated milk overnight to ensure that it will be cold enough to whip properly. Use a food processor to grind the graham crackers.

Dissolve sugar and gelatin in boiling water in bowl. Stir in lemon zest and juice. Refrigerate until mixture is thickened but not completely set, about 1 1/2 hours.

Grease 13 by 9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil spray and coat with 1/2 cup ground crackers. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk, whip evaporated milk
on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Using clean, dry mixer bowl and whisk attachment, whip chilled gelatin mixture on medium-high speed until thickened and light lemon colored, about 4 minutes.

Using large spatula, fold gelatin mixture into whipped evaporated milk until no yellow streaks remain. Transfer mixture to prepared dish and smooth top. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup ground crackers evenly over top. Cover and refrigerate until fully chilled and set, at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Serve.

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To make this an easy recipe, we replaced four standard ingredients—flour, salt, baking soda, and some of the sugar—with self-rising flour and sweetened condensed milk, allowing for minimal prep time. To make this an easy recipe, we replaced four standard ingredients—flour, salt, baking soda, and some of the sugar—with self-rising flour and sweetened condensed milk, allowing for minimal prep time. A final sprinkling of sugar gave the finished cobbler a gorgeous browned crust.

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Easy Blueberry Cobbler

condensed milk

(6 ounces 170 grams), self-rising flour

cup, whole milk

(283 grams/2 cups), blueberries

(1 3/4 ounce 50 grams), sugar

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Whisk condensed milk, flour, milk, and melted butter together in bowl. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle blueberries and sugar evenly over surface.

Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cobbler to wire rack; let cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm.

Broiler-Safe 13 by 9-Inch Baking Dishes

The Best Wire Racks

To make this an easy recipe, we replaced four standard ingredients—flour, salt, baking soda, and some of the sugar—with self-rising flour and sweetened condensed milk, allowing for minimal prep time.

Top 6 dessert pies recipes from across the web

The most viewed dessert pies recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie

French Silk Chocolate Pie

Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie

Really Good Key Lime Pie

Lemon Bisque

Easy Blueberry Cobbler

Top 6 dessert pies recipes from across the web

The most viewed dessert pies recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie

French Silk Chocolate Pie

Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie

Really Good Key Lime Pie

Lemon Bisque

Easy Blueberry Cobbler

The most viewed dessert pies recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine