Oh man, do I love pie. It’s kind of impossible to explain just how much I love it…but I mean, when somebody made me peach and blueberry pie for my birthday last week, I ate it for almost every meal for two days. I did not get sick. It was glorious.

My fellow editor in crime knows how much I love crust and fruit, so she recently sent me this recipe with the words “True story: this pie will make you drool” in the subject line of the email. Even though I’m a pretty stupid cook, I decided to try to make the thing the night I got the email — and you know what? It really wasn’t that hard. The whole presentation wasn’t Martha Stewart pretty or anything, but it tasted like heaven and Martha Stewart has 700 people helping her on a daily basis.

What You Need

9-inch frozen pie crust

3/4 c. plus 5 T. all-purpose flour

2/3 c. firmly packed golden brown sugar

1/3 c. granulated sugar plus 1 T. for the filling

2 t. ground cinnamon

1/8 t. salt

1/2 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into 3/4 in. pieces

5 c. blueberries Read More »

This past weekend I made hummingbird cake, and I still start to drool whenever I think about it. Oops… I better get a cloth for my keyboard.

Anyway, the cake disappeared almost immediately, and for once my final product actually came out looking exactly the same as the snazzy cookbook picture (yes!).

It’s a lot healthier than most other cakes out there, and it has a pleasant fruity and nutty flavor that I hadn’t tasted before. Basically, it was awesome. Want to make it? Read on.

Here’s what you’ll need to assemble:

• 2 bananas

• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of crushed pineapple (I used fresh-cut pineapple, which I threw in the food processor for a few seconds, but canned is OK as well) Read More »

So, I set out the other night to make a crostata, but let’s just say I don’t seem to be at that level in my baking prowess yet. In my understanding, a crostata is supposed to have a nice, firm, flaky, golden brown crust… and, well, mine didn’t.

In good news, though, it tasted great. And it ended up looking exactly like something else I like a lot—pizza.

So if you too want to try dessert pizza, here’s all you need: about 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries, 1 small sliced apple (optional), 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon water, enough pie dough for 1 small pie (use your discretion), 1-2 tablespoons chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon milk, and a little bit (not more than a tablespoon) of brown sugar, oats, and flour. Read More »

Sometimes you just need a little something sweet. I feel that way often—well, almost every night, if we’re going to be honest.

Most of the time I don’t have anything sweet on hand, but sometimes I spend a few minutes (and yeah, that’s really all it takes) making something homemade, like this tiny apple crumble pie. It’s delicious and easy, easy, easy.

Here’s what you need: a few walnuts (5 or 6 will do), a tablespoon of brown sugar, ½ tablespoon flour, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, a sprinkle of salt, a tablespoon of butter, about a teaspoon of lemon juice, one small- or medium-sized apple (any kind is OK, but generally, the tarter the better), a tablespoon of white sugar, a tablespoon of apple cider/juice, a generous sprinkling of cornstarch, and about a 2” diameter ball of pie dough.

You won’t usually have that amount of pie dough just lying around, but I like to make a full recipe’s worth of dough, stick it in the freezer, and just pinch off what I need whenever I feel like making a tiny pie.

First, slice your apple and mix it with the lemon. Read More »