There are many things to love about summer: fireworks, fireflies, barbecues, even the hot weather. And is there any better way to finish a picnic on a sultry summer day than with a freshly baked pie filled with glorious summer fruit?

As long as local restaurants continue to lure us with innovative recipes and farm stands keep supplying the best fruit the Midwest can produce, the answer is no. Chef Nicole Shuman, who teaches at L’École Culinaire in Ladue, described the quintessentially American confection as a “truly year-round dessert, with each season providing another reason to bake another pie.”

But summer pie recipes, she added, provide pie-lovers endless possibilities for showcasing the season’s fruit harvest, not to mention myriad crust options, from classic pastry
to crumb.

And, appropriately, given that the livin’ is supposed to be easy this time of year, warm-weather pies often require only a minimal amount of preparation and baking time. “Chiffon, cream-filled and many fruit pie recipes require a minimum of cooking that won’t heat up the house,” Shuman said. “Several crumb crusts, such as graham cracker, or a pie pastry that has been made before and frozen can be baked for a just a couple of minutes to set.”

Fillings

Jill Tantillo, director of food services at Eckert’s Country Store and Farm in Belleville, knows firsthand how a bowl of fresh fruit, pleasurable in its own right, can become memorable in a piece of pie. A bakery located on-site takes advantage of Eckert’s abundant sweet harvests for pies year-round.

“In our glazed strawberry pie, the strawberries are cooked down until they are tender and juicy, and then the filling is put in a prebaked regular crust,” she said. “We sell a ton of pies in the fall and at Thanksgiving, and we sell tons of strawberry and peach pies through the [summer].”

Summer pies, she pointed out, can provide an opportunity for culinary creativity and adventure. “You have peach pie and strawberry pie, but you can also have peach-raspberry pie or peach-blueberry pie,” she said. “The options are endless with blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries and different
combinations – there’s no end to how they can be mixed together.”

On the menu at Miss Aimee B’s Tea Room, located in St. Charles, seasonal favorites Bumbleberry pie and a peach bomb join year-round classics such as chocolate-strawberry
pie, Toll House pie and old-fashioned buttermilk-coconut pie. Both seasonal additions feature fruit transformed under wraps of pastry into a rich, sweet filling. In Bumbleberry pie, a conglomeration of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples and rhubarb is baked inside a double pie crust. In the peach bomb, which nudged out a former peach pie recipe to become one of the most popular selections, a single juicy peach (including the pit) is completely enclosed in pie pastry and then drizzled with almond-butter glaze.

Judy Howell, who co-owns the tea house with Sherry Pfaender, said pie recipes featuring double pie crusts are “typically an [old] farmhouse recipe. The top crust in the Bumbleberry pie is brushed with a sugar glaze,” she said. “The fruit in the Bumbleberry pie and the peach bomb becomes tender and so flavorful.”

While Miss Aimee B’s customers might opt for the fruit pies in season, Howell said the buttermilk-coconut, an old-fashioned buttermilk custard and coconut ensemble and a menu staple since the restaurant opened 20 years ago, remains popular year-round.

Another sweet-tooth pleaser when strawberries are in season, she said, is the chocolate-strawberry pie, which begins with an Oreo cookie crust that is filled with chocolate mousse, topped with fresh strawberries and finished off with – what else? – more chocolate. The Toll House pie, a treat served with ice cream, is filled with what Howell described as a filling similar to a Toll House cookie, with chopped nuts and chocolate chips.

At The Pie Pantry in Belleville, a seasonal selection of pies joins the lineup of menu and special-order pies, said manager Ellie Miller. Mixed berry, strawberry and custard fruit pies are offered along with French silk, black forest and CPR (coconut, pecan and raisin). Banana split pie captures the best of the classic ice cream treat with an important addition – cream cheese.

“The Banana split pie [is] made with cream cheese in a graham cracker crust and topped off with pineapples, bananas and strawberries and of course, chocolate syrup – the perfect ending for a summer meal.”

Toppings

Some pies seem to just scream for a topping. So what, if any, culinary rules apply to a classic meringue versus a whipped cream topping, beyond the preference of a pie-fancier? Obviously, meringue is the traditional topping for lemon meringue pie. But for other cream pies, such as chocolate, coconut cream or banana cream pies, the topping choice isn’t always as clear.

“I would say that, traditionally, meringue is the topping for those pies,” said Tim Faltus, owner of The Pie Pantry. “We make meringue for those, but we also have customers who special-order pies that usually have meringue with whipped cream topping instead.”

The buttermilk-coconut pie at Miss Aimee B’s Tea Room sports a whipped cream topping that is added after the pie is warmed slightly, Pfaender said. “It is a deep-dish pie with a creamy filling, and we add whipped cream for a creamy topping. We serve whipped cream on almost all of our desserts except the Toll House pie, which is served with ice cream.”

Faltus said the two toppings are “distinctly different” in both texture and flavor. “Meringue is very sweet and sticky – it’s made with egg whites – and has a more airy quality,” he said. “Whipped cream is more dense and creamier. We offer whipped cream, along with ice cream, that can be added to all kinds of pies. It’s just a personal preference.”

Crusts

Shuman takes what might be considered a holistic approach to pies when she talks about how different textures and flavors of the crust, filling and topping work together to produce a superb slice. In some recipes, it can be a subtle preference for the texture of, say, a flaky crust for a chiffon pie or a mealy crust for an apple or peach pie. In other recipes, such as a margarita pie recipe, a crushed pretzel crust adds a unique element. “You have the salty pretzel flavor that is the perfect texture and flavor with the fresh lime juice and tequila,” she said.

Those who are hesitant to brandish their rolling pins on a hot summer’s day, take note. Shuman also insists a great classic pie pastry can be assembled and frozen for later use with little effort. Rather than viewing pie crusts as a daunting epicurean feat, it is simply “a matter of a little practice,” she said.

“It’s like any other skill, you get better with more practice,” Shuman said. “The TV cooks can make it look easy, but what you don’t see are the six other pies they baked to get the one that looks so perfect.”

Shuman’s guidelines for pie pastry are simple: The bigger the fat particles cut into the flour, the flakier the crust. “This is not clumpy, it looks like marble,” she said, mixing the crumbs with her fingers. “Be sure the water is cold, ice cold, and don’t use too much flour when rolling it out.”

“Pie pastry can be frozen,” she said. “Roll it out and store it between sheets of parchment paper or in a disc for future pies. Then it can be blind-baked for recipes that call for a baked crust, or filled and baked. It is simple and fast.”

But Shuman insisted the work preparing a great pie is about “enjoying what you’ve created.”

“This is about having fun, that’s it,” Shuman said. “I tell that to my students, and I would say it to anyone else. Have fun creating and working on it – then enjoy eating.”

Margarita Chiffon Pie
Courtesy of L’École Culinaire’s Nicole Shuman

¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp. (7 oz.) water, divided
2½ Tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
¼ cup fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp. orange juice concentrate
¹/³ cup tequila
1½ tsp. powdered unflavored gelatin
Grated zest of 1 lime
4 egg whites
Pretzel pie crust (recipe follows)

• Prepare the pretzel crust and set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together ¹/³ cup of the water and the cornstarch to make a slurry. Add ¼ cup of the sugar and the egg yolks to the slurry and whisk to combine.
• Combine ¼ cup of the sugar with the remaining water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
• Whisk the egg yolk mixture briefly to make sure that it is smooth and gradually add about ¹?³ of the hot sugar syrup to it while whisking constantly. Add this mixture into the sauce pan containing the remaining hot sugar syrup. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches a boil and thickens. Remove from the heat.
• Combine the lime juice, orange juice concentrate and tequila in a bowl.
• Combine ¼ cup of the tequila mixture with the powdered gelatin and let the mixture stand for 5 minutes for the gelatin to bloom.
• In a saucepan, melt the gelatin over low heat. Whisk the melted gelatin and the remaining tequila mixture into the warm egg mixture.
• Strain the egg mixture through a fine sieve to ensure that there are no lumps in the mixture. Add the lime zest and set aside.
• Combine the egg whites and the remaining ½ cup of sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until combined.
• Place the mixer bowl on the top of a double boiler filled with barely simmering water and whisk the egg whites until the mixture reaches 165 degrees.
• Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip the egg whites until stiff glossy peaks form.
• Gently fold ¹/³ of the egg whites into the egg mixture, then fold the remaining egg whites into the mixture.
• Pour the filling into the pretzel crumb crust and refrigerate until fully set and chilled, approximately 3 to 4 hours or overnight.

Pretzel Pie Crust

1¼ cups pretzel crumbs
¼ cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 Tbsp. melted butter

• Lightly butter a 9-inch pie pan.
• Combine the pretzel crumbs and sugar in a bowl and then add melted butter and mix well.
• Press the crumb mixture into the pie pan and fill as desired.

Ruth Eckert’s Glazed Strawberry Pie
Courtesy of Eckert’s Country Store and Farm’s Jill Tantillo

2 quarts hulled strawberries (4 cups)
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. lemon juice or extract
1 9-inch pie shell, baked
Whipped cream

• Using a potato masher, crush one pint of the berries in a saucepan.
• In a bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch and add the mixture to the berries in the pan. Cook, stirring until thickened and clear.
• Add the lemon juice and allow the mixture to cool. Cut the remaining pint of berries in halves and add to the mixture.
• Pour the filling into the pie shell and chill. Top the pie with whipped cream and serve.

Banana Split Pie
Courtesy of The Pie Pantry’s Tim Faltus

1 8-oz. block cream cheese
2 lbs. (4 sticks) soft margarine
3 cups powdered sugar
8 eggs
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
Cold milk for thinning
1 9-inch graham cracker pie crust
Sliced fruit (pineapple, bananas, strawberries, cherries)
Toppings (nuts, whipped cream, chocolate syrup; optional)

• Thoroughly mix together the first five ingredients.
• Use a whisk to thin the mixture with cold milk as needed, adding 1 tablespoon at a time. The desired consistency of the filling will be similar to that of pudding.
• Layer the filling in the crust with pineapple, bananas, strawberries and/or cherries. No baking is required.
• If desired, top with nuts, whipped cream and/or a chocolate syrup garnish.