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

1. Prebake the frozen pie crust according to the package’s directions. (Don’t forget to poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork or else it will puff up and ruin everything)

2. Once your crust is done, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

3. For the crumble topping (droooooool): Combine 3/4 c. flour, 1/3 c. of brown sugar, 1/3 c. granulated sugar, 1 t. cinnamon and the salt. Toss in the butter pieces to coat with the flour mixture. Using your fingertips (or if you’re a wuss, a pastry blender) squish the butter/flour mixture until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. Resist the urge to toss a handful of this delicious sand into your mouth, and set the topping aside.

3. Onto the blueberry filling: In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, the remaining brown sugar, the remaining cinnamon, and 4 T. of the flour. Stir gently to ensure that each little blueberry gets dusted with the dry ingredients. Sprinkle the remaining 1 T. of flour and 1 T. of granulated sugar over the bottom of the prebaked pie crust, spreading it evenly. (This turns the blueberry juice into a gooey, purple sludge.)

4. Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the blueberry filling. (Really pile it on there.) Bake the pie on a rack in the lower-third of the oven until the topping is golden brown and the blueberry filling is just starting to erupt; it should be bubbly, peeking through the buttery and delicious crumb terrain (about 50-60 minutes).

5. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve at room temperature

And for those of us who have trouble eating just one piece of pie at a time (I’m raising my hand here), this little invention is awesome. Individual pie slices? Yes please.

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)

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 2/3 cup flour

• 2 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ¼ tsp each of ground ginger, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg (if you don’t have these, just use an extra teaspoon of cinnamon)

• 2/3 cup canola oil (vegetable oil would work, too, or probably even olive oil)

• 2 fresh eggs

• ¼ cup pineapple juice (if you buy crushed pineapple, it usually comes in its own juice)

And for the frosting (which isn’t completely necessary, but VERY good):

• 3 tablespoons of butter, at room temperature

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of cream cheese, at room temperature

• 1 cup of confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

• 1 ½ tsp lemon juice

I am salivating already at just listing the ingredients. OK, here’s what you do:

Preheat the oven to 350. Mash the bananas with a fork or pastry cutter, and combine them in a large bowl with the crushed pineapple and white sugar. Mix everything together well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and other spices into the mixture. Stir with a spatula or a wooden spoon until it’s all well combined and smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, and pineapple juice until it seems smooth and a little frothy. Pour that mixture into the flour/fruit mixture, and stir again until everything is combined.

Pour your batter into an 8” round cake pan (I’m sure a square pan would work just as well) and pop it in the oven for an hour. When it’s done, it should be dark brown on top, and a toothpick should come out clean when it’s dipped into the middle.

In the meantime, you can make your frosting. Use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and cream cheese until they’re smoothly combined. Then add 1/3 cup of the powdered sugar and ½ tsp of the lemon juice. Beat again until smooth. Repeat twice more until you’ve added in all the powdered sugar and lemon juice. The frosting should be thick. Beat the final product for a couple of minutes just so it thickens up a little more, then stick it in the refrigerator until the cake finishes cooking.

When the cake is done, let it cool for at least 30 minutes, then frost it. Mmm… look at that nice, blank canvas all clear for frosting.

YUM!!!!!

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.

After you’ve sliced your strawberries and apple, toss them in a small saucepan and warm them on medium heat until they’re bubbling.

Add the sugar, and mix the cornstarch and water together. Add those, too. The mixture will thicken after a few seconds. Keep bubbling away for another few minutes until it’s quite thick. You can also preheat the oven to 350 at this point.

In the meantime, prepare your “crust.” First, melt the chocolate chips and the milk in a small pan. Stir or whisk them until they’re velvety smooth. Turn off the heat. Roll out the pie dough quickly until it’s very thin (1/8” or thinner). Then take a pastry brush or a spoon and paint the bottom of the crust with the melted chocolate. You’re doing this because it tastes excellent (duh) and also because it will prevent the fruit mixture from making the bottom soggy.

Then make your topping. Stir together the flour, brown sugar, and oats (use more brown sugar than flour or oats, but make the mixture to taste).

After your fruit mixture has simmered for a while and the chocolate coating on your crust has hardened a little bit, pour the fruit over the chocolate. Don’t overfill it—eat some of the fruit mixture plain if you have to.

Fold up the corners, and try to make sure that there aren’t any leaks.

Sprinkle on the topping…

… then bake for about 30 minutes. Mmmm!

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.

Next, make the crumble topping. Crush the walnuts and combine them with the brown sugar, flour, half the cinnamon, the salt, and half the butter. Mix it all well in a small bowl, then stick it in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 375, then get to work making your filling. Melt the other half of the butter in a small pan. When it’s hot, add the white sugar, the other half of the cinnamon, and your lemon-coated apple slices. Sauté the apples for about 5 minutes.

While the apples are cooking, mix together the cider and cornstarch. Add that mix to the apples once the 5 minutes have passed. Stir very often for about a minute. The mixture should thicken.

Let the filling cool while you roll out the pie dough on a floured surface. Grease a ramekin (these nifty things) or giant muffin cup and fit your circle of dough inside in a pie shape. Once you’ve done that, pour in the filling.

Then sprinkle your crumble topping over the pie.

Bake it for 20-23 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, it should be a dark golden brown on top.

Finally, let it cool, then EAT!