The secret to apple pandowdy lies in its two-part baking process. You first bake it until the crust is lightly browned. Then, you remove it from the oven, cut the crust into squares, push the squares down into the filling, and bake again. The crust tastes so spectacular this way that I almost want to do this every time I make a pie!

Ingredients

The apple filling in pandowdy is more wet than what you’d find in a pie or cobbler. You want the extra liquid to caramelize the crust. In my recipe, this extra liquid is maple syrup. If you like the taste of molasses, you could use it instead. Some other recipes use a mix of maple syrup and apple cider, which also works really well.

This is a great pie for an afternoon garden party, but it does just as well on the Thanksgiving table!

Ingredients

One of the nice things about this recipe is that you may already have all of the ingredients in your house since they’re all very basic:

This dessert isn’t technically a pie. It’s a cross between a berry pie and a cobbler. It has pie filling, but there is no bottom crust. I put a simple filling – in this case, cranberry and cherry – into a deep dish and top with buttery, flaky puff pastry!

Ingredients

Because my recipe is so simple, you’ll only need basic pantry staples plus frozen cherries, frozen cranberries, an orange, and store-bought puff pastry.

When Myles and I first made this pie, people messaged us dying to get their hands on the detailed recipe. We are happy to oblige!

Ingredients

Pretzel Crust

This crust has only three ingredients:

Apple crumb pie will forever be my favorite pie, but this one is not far behind. I love how the top caramelizes and the flavors meld together.

Ingredients

The noteworthy ingredients in this recipe are:

I readily admit that I’m a huge sucker for anything with crumb topping. I love sneaking over to the pie pan throughout the day to pick big, fat crumbs off of this dessert. (Does anyone else do this?)

This apple pie is a regular in our household – right up there with my apple cupcakes. Make sure that you have whipped cream or ice cream ready to serve alongside it.

They are always best served hot, right out of the oven, with ice cream or whipped cream (like peaches and cream).

Ingredients

When selecting peaches, look for those that are soft to the touch but not mushy. They should be able to hold their shape while baking and not fall apart.

I love how it’s simple enough for a Sunday morning treat, but impressive enough to serve for company.

Ingredients

This tart has three main components:

This post is sponsored by Hatfield Meat.

Let’s Talk Details

Pork pot pie starts with a roux. It sounds like a fancy French word, but it simply means thickened flour and butter. Melt butter, add flour, and whisk over heat until free of lumps – what’s called a white roux.

What is a Christmas Pie?

There is no particular pie that is called a Christmas pie, so any pie that has Christmas flavors can lay claim to that title. My favorite choice is this roasted chestnut pie. (I also frost my cupcakes with roasted chestnut frosting for the holidays.) Chestnuts are so linked to Christmastime that if I try to bake this pie any other time of year, I can’t even find the nuts at the grocery store.

But, if chestnuts aren’t your thing, other wonderful contenders for best Christmas pie include: