Tart and pie recipes for all seasons, to refresh or comfort & warm. (There’s also tartlet and hand-held pie recipes for when you don’t want to share.)

Pie Recipes for All Seasons

Of course we automatically think of pumpkin pie, apple pie and pecan pie for the holidays or visits to grandma. But summer just isn’t the same without refreshing key lime pie or banana cream pie. Every season brings with it the comfort of pie.

What is the difference between a pie and a tart?

A pie and a tart both are desserts with a baked crust and a filling. This is where the similarity stops.

• A pie crust is tender and flaky whereas a tart crust is firm and crumbly.
• A pie can have just a bottom crust or both a top and bottom crust. A tart has just a bottom crust.
• A pie plate has slanted sides. A tart pan has straight sides.
• A pie is usually served in the pie plate. A tart is usually placed on a platter to be served.
• Pies are round, where tarts can be round, oval or square.

Here are some other kinds of “pie”:

Galette

This is a pie that isn’t baked in a pie dish. Pile the fruit filling in the center of the pastry dough and fold the edges up and over the filling, leaving the center exposed. A Galette is a rustic looking pie.

Crisps & Crumbles

These are both baked in a pie dish, but don’t have a crust. Instead, a Crumble has a streusel style topping that looks like a crust. A Crisp has oats in the topping and is baked until it is, well, crisp.

• slice your fruit directly into your pie dish until it’s filled – about 4-6 cups, and then pour a mixture of 1 c sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon over the fruit
• make the crumble topping: mix 1 c flour, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt; then cut in 8 Tbsp (1 stick) of cold butter (with your hands or a fork if you don’t have a pasty cutter) until they are heavy crumbs
• or make the crisp topping: add  1/2 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats to the crumble topping
• scatter topping over the fruit
• bake in 375°F oven for 30 minutes or until topping is browned and firm

Cobbler

A cobbler is baked in a pie dish, but doesn’t have a crust. It is topped with biscuit dough that looks like a cobblestone road when baked. (Recipes from the deep South have the biscuit on the bottom.) To prevent the biscuits from being too soggy, use firmer fruit so it takes longer to release its juices.

There is also a Grunt – which a cobbler cooked on the stovetop rather than in the oven. The steam bubbles and “grunts” when escaping the biscuit topping.

Isn’t a tiny little baby pie called a tart?

Perhaps you’ve heard a tiny-sized pie called a tart, like a butter tart, so it can be confusing. It can also be called a tartlet, which makes more sense, but a tartlet can have either a tart or a pie crust. A hand pie is a small, flat two-crust pie, or one crust folded-in-half pie.

A birthday pie?

My son loves pie so much that he prefers birthday pie instead of birthday cake!