Pie

This recipe is inspired by a cranberry pie from Sarah Chase's book Cold Weather Cooking. My friend Barbara Liberman calls it "easy cake"—I call it delicious. When cranberries are in season, serve it with vanilla ice cream and your friends will love you.

Once you start eating this rich, salty-sweet pie with its oat cookie crust, you won't be able to stop.

Brandy, cinnamon, and lemon zest combine to give this tart unbelievable aroma and wonderful flavor.

Almond-flavored cookies make up the crust; broiled peaches are mixed with ice cream to create the delicious filling.

If you're using a glass or metal pie dish instead of a deep-dish ceramic pie plate, be sure to keep an eye on the pie. It may cook more quickly. Baking the pie on the bottom rack of the oven ensures a crisp bottom crust.

This is the quintessential coconut cream pie—it has lots of coconut flavor and a very creamy texture. This is best served on the day it is made so the crust is still crisp, but you can make the pastry cream a day ahead, whisk in the whipped cream a couple of hours before serving, and then put it together at the last minute. Swirl the whipped cream decoratively on top, if you like.

This homemade version of the childhood favorite is absolutely incredible. Flaky pastry, strawberry preserves, and powdered sugar—what's not to like?

Candied bacon might seem like the ultimate example of gilding the lily, but it adds a sweet, smoky edge to this already luscious pie. Elvis would be proud.

In the early 1990s we hired a chef who loved to bake, and he came up with this pie. It became an instant classic. The fruit is only lightly sweetened, and its tartness combined with the sugar-crumb topping is a perfect pairing. Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it's heavenly. If you use frozen berries, increase them by 1/2 cup each and defrost slightly before tossing with the other ingredients.

For many, Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie is unthinkable, but that doesn't mean you can't jazz up the old standby.

A thin layer of deep-flavored molasses filling gives way to a tangy buttermilk custard.

The inspiration here is the fantastically rich dish called Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake), a southern German specialty that arrived in America with European settlers and quickly became a staple in Pennsylvania Dutch homes, where it is known as Zwiwwelkuche. Slow-cooked onions are combined with eggs and sour cream and spooned into a yeasted dough. The pastry is then partially folded over the filling.

A rich filling is studded with walnuts and imbued with citrusy notes of orange, then packaged between a crust and a lattice top, both made from the cookie-like pastry dough known as pasta frolla in Italy.

If you like regular pecan pie made with corn syrup, wait until you taste old-fashioned pecan pie made with cane syrup—the difference is astonishing!

There is something to be said for a big, sunny slice of lemon custard pie—and that is, "Oh, boy." Neither too sweet nor too sharp, particularly when served with plenty of freshly whipped cream, it provides a festive-yet-undecorated counterpoint to fancier desserts. The graham cracker crust, like the pie itself, is the embodiment of simplicity. It's also terrifically pantry-friendly.

It's easy to understand why apple crumble pie (sometimes called French apple pie in diners and old cookbooks) is so immensely popular: It packs all the flavor and fragrance of a traditional apple pie underneath a carapace of nutty, buttery, cinnamony crumbs. Adding cranberries to the filling evokes a familiar fall color and provides pleasant tartness to balance the sweetness.

Brown sugar adds a deep, rich flavor to the soft filling. The nutty, slightly salty topping is the perfect finishing touch.