What’s great about individual pies, besides being portable, is when you’re having a craving, you can just de-frost as many as you’d like and pop them in the oven! No need to bake an entire pie. It’s as easy as having cookie dough ready in the freezer.

Olallieberry Pie
9″ pie, serves 8-10

Ingredients:

1 batch of crust for bottom
1.5 batch of crust for lattice top

2/3-3/4 cup granulated sugar, depending on sweetness of berries
1/4 cup tapioca starch or cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
7 cups olaillieberries or blackberries
3 tablespoons, cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg beaten, for egg wash
Turbinado sugar for top of the crust
Vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream for serving

Directions:

For the crust:
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes. Place the smaller dough disk on your work surface and roll out approximately  1/4″ inch thick. Transfer to the pie dish and gently press the dough into the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold under the excess dough and, using your thumb, decoratively flute the edges.

For the lattice top, roll out the remaining larger dough disk approximately 1/3″ thick. I like my top crust to be a bit sturdier. With a pastry wheel, cut 2″ wide strips. If the dough gets too soft, place the strips on a sheet pan and chill in the fridge for a few minutes. Set aside while preparing the filling.

For the filling:
Combine the sugar, tapioca starch, salt, lemon zest and juice. Place the berries in a large bowl. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the berries and toss together just until distributed. Immediately pour the berries into the pie dish. Press down to even out the berries. Scatter the cubes of butter on top of the berries.

For finishing:
Use your pie strips to create a lattice over the berries. I left a slight gap in between each strip for venting and to allow the berries to bubble up and over. Brush the crust gently with egg wash. Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.

Place the pie in the freezer for 20 minutes until the top crust is firm. This will help it retain it’s shape when baking.

While the pie is chilling, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Place the pie dish on a half sheet pan lined with a silpat or parchment and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 60-70 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Transfer the pie dish to a cooling rack and let cool until filling is set, about 4 hours. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

If you make this berry pie, I’d love to see on Instagram @pastrywithjenn.

I am very lucky that my sister has a giant Meyer lemon tree. There was no shortage of fragrant, juicy lemons while creating this recipe. You can use Eureka lemons but because they’re more tart, I’d increase the sugar to 2/3 cup. This tart has three components: sablee crust, lemon curd filling and lightly sweetened whipped cream. Pretty classic and simple. Okay, I made the top look a little fancy because I got a new piping tip, but other than that, this is my take on the classic lemon curd tart.

The secret for this simple cake is the cream cheese IN the batter that makes it stay super moist, even when I had to bake the cake on the longer side, about 85 min. I used my Emile Henry loaf pan which could barely contain the batter and it was on the verge of over-flowing. Thankfully, no baking fail.

Isn’t she a beauty? When I was in Charleston I ate my fair share of biscuits, oysters and fried chicken but the trip wasn’t complete without cake, more specifically The Ultimate Coconut Cake from Peninsula Grill.