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31 Delicious Pies for Pi Day

31 Delicious Pies for Pi Day

By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan

Updated March 10, 2020

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Credit: Jennifer Causey

March 14 is pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical constant pi. For us, it’s also an excuse to bake up all kinds of pies, from coconut cream and bourbon-pecan to lemon meringue and dark-cherry crumble. Read on for some of our favorite recipes—whichever you choose, make sure you save us a slice.

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Caramel Cream Pie with Crispy Rice Topping

Credit: © Frances Janisch

Humble ingredients like puffed rice cereal (transformed into a brilliant topping) and graham crackers (crushed with hazelnuts to yield a tender crust) are the core of this surprisingly luxe dessert.

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Puff Pastry Apple Pie

Since puff pastry can be tricky to prepare, this version uses a high-quality, store-bought puff pastry.

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Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Credit: Kamran Siddiqi

This delicious whipped-cream-topped peanut butter pie offers the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors.

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Chilled Grapefruit-Caramel Meringue Pie

Credit: © Tina Rupp

In one cold, creamy dessert, layer pink grapefruit curd in a crunchy graham-cracker crust with caramel sauce and a delicate topping of fluffy meringue.

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French Silk Pie

Credit: Abby Hocking / Food & Wine

A thin layer of rich ganache prevents the chocolate filling from making the crust here soggy. If you don’t want to make your own pie crust, simply use a 9-inch graham cracker crust.

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Bourbon-Pecan Pie

Credit: Con Poulos

A super easy press-in crust means you don't even need a rolling pin for this amazing pecan pie.

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Mountain Rose Apple Pie

Credit: © Con Poulos

Rebecca Masson of Houston’s Fluff Bake Bar tops her dense and delicious apple pie with a thick layer of crisp, buttery crumble.

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Salted Caramel Pie

Credit: Dana Gallagher

For this easy caramel pie, the filling is sweetened condensed milk sprinkled lightly with sea salt and baked until thick and gooey, then chilled in a simple graham cracker crust.

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Cherry-Berry Pie

Credit: © Tina Rupp

Lattice crust is perfect for this cherry, raspberry and blueberry pie.

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Flaky Pear Pie

Credit: PHOTO © JOHN KERNICK

Chef Grant Achatz's pie, inspired by his mom's, is as straightforward as it gets, with a melt-in-your-mouth all-shortening crust and a lightly sweetened pear filling with just a hint of spice.

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Deep Dish Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Credit: © Tina Rupp

This strawberry rhubarb pie recipe is classic and perfectly tart-sweet. The dough can be made with just butter, but swapping in some lard yields an even flakier crust.

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Chocolate Cream Pie

Credit: © Con Poulos

This dreamy, creamy dessert started as a simple chocolate pudding made with workaday cocoa. Melissa Rubel Jacobson turned it into a homey, silky pie by adding a quick chocolate crust and vanilla-flavored whipped cream.

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Pumpkin Cream Pie in a Chocolate Crust

Credit: © John Kernick

Pumpkin pie is not just for Thanksgiving. This silky pumpkin custard is baked in a crispy chocolate cookie crust, then topped with a dollop of tangy crème fraîche topping.

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Deep-Dish Caramel Apple Pie

Credit: © Abby Hocking

This mouthwatering deep-dish caramel apple pie is drizzled with a luscious homemade caramel sauce and topped with a crunchy oat streusel.

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Brown Butter Pecan Pie with Espresso Dates

Credit: © John Kernick

Here, sweet Medjool dates are balanced with bitter espresso and toasty brown butter for a pie that might look familiar but is surprisingly complex.

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Credit: David Malosh

A homemade version of creamy sweetened condensed milk gives the tart lemon custard in this pie an especially luscious texture and flavor. The billowy Italian meringue topping browns beautifully under the broiler if you don't have a torch on hand.

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Passion Fruit Ice Cream Pie with Ginger Crust

Credit: © Petrina Tinslay

This isn't the kind of ice cream pie you'd make for a kiddie birthday party. Instead of a plain cookie crust, this is a crispy, chewy one with crumbled gingersnaps, dried pineapple and candied ginger.

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Butterscotch Mousse Pie

Credit: © Dana Gallagher

Greg Patent’s butterscotch pie is a creamy, decadent holiday showstopper.

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Coconut Cream Pie

Every part of this fluffy pie from pastry chef Kierin Baldwin has coconut: the crust, the fillling and the topping.

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Blueberry Pie with Rye Crust

Credit: © Con Poulos

This sensational blueberry pie has small circles cut out of the rye crust, which not only looks dramatic but also allows moisture to evaporate from the fruit filling as it cooks, deepening the flavor.

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Chess Pie with Crème Fraîche and Vanilla

Southerners love chess pie for its sweet and buttery custard filling. In this version, crème fraîche adds a mellow tang and vanilla bean gives the sweetness some character.

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Old-Fashioned Apple Pie

This is a purist’s pie that tastes of nothing but apples, with just a hint of spice and butter.

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Honey-Flower Pie

Credit: Christopher Testani

This pie, which combines honey and dried lavender in a silky filling, topped with crunchy sea salt, is best with a mild-tasting honey such as clover, which really lets the lavender shine.

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Dried Apple Hand Pies

Credit: Victor Protasio

As the dried apple slices rehydrate and cook in each delicate hand pie, they transform into a saucy, concentrated filling. To create a smoother, rather than chunky, apple filling, smash apples with the side of a spoon while stirring.

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Lemon Meringue Pie with Marcona Shortbread Crust

Credit: Jennifer Causey

Ann Taylor Pittman describes her lemon meringue pie as assertively—but not aggressively—lemony. It’s balanced by a fluffy meringue topping, which has the perfect sweetness and density to complement the tarter-than-usual filling.

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Black-and-Blue Pie with Brown Sugar Crumb

Credit: Victor Protasio

Huckleberries and blackberries create the namesake black-and-blue filling in this pie, but a mix of any brambleberries and blueberries will do. A crumb topping adds texture and helps absorb some of the pie’s juice, allowing it to slice cleanly.

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Shoofly Pie with Bourbon-Spiked Whipped Cream

Credit: Jen Causey

We’ve gently updated this classic Pennsylvania Dutch dessert with a hint of orange zest to lift the rich molasses flavor. Since the pie’s on the sweet side, we opted for less sugar in the whipped cream and added bourbon for a slightly boozy bite.

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Black-Bottom Walnut Pie

Credit: Christopher Testani

In this pie, inspired by classic pecan pies, walnuts float to the top of the custard and toast to golden brown perfection.

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Tiramisu Icebox Pie

Credit: Eric Wolfinger

Pastry chef Mathew Rice takes the familiar elements of a classic tiramisu—ladyfingers, coffee, and mascarpone—and reimagines them as an icebox pie. The dessert is full of playful textures and flavors, including a dense coffee mousse and salty-sweet coffee crunchies.

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Dark-Cherry Crumble Pie

Credit: Christopher Testani

This pie, which uses fresh, sweet cherries, amaretto and toasted oats, has no thickeners for a cleaner, more fruit-forward flavor.

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Sweet Potato Pie with Honeycrisp-Kabocha Salad

Credit: Marcus Nilsson

With more eggs than a traditional pumpkin pie, this pie-version is much richer and matches the creamy texture of the accompanying licorice ice cream.

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By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan