I could never pick a favorite dessert (even the thought of doing so gets me lost down a rabbit hole of amazing desserts that I must eat my way out of), but as a group, pie ranks pretty high. And while I love a well-rounded pie with a tasty filling, the crust is by far the best part – buttery, flaky, lightly sweet. A good crust can make or break a pie.

I’m known (and made fun of) for eating the filling and the crust separately. If the pie has a lattice crust (by far superior to all other types of pies for the additional crust and crunchy sugar), I carefully peel it off in one piece, eat the filling, and then enjoy the crust with whipped cream when available.

Even though I am fairly obsessed with pies (I don’t think I could pin another hand pie or pie in a mason jar), I haven’t made one on my own. I’m afraid to ruin the dough and the thought of having to make two separate pieces seems exhausting.

To get over my fear, my mom and I decided to take a pie making class. The part that sold me was that you get to eat what you make – Sign me up! 

The pies we made were adorable. We got to try our hand at making a nectarine-cherry pie with a lattice crust and a key lime pie with a graham cracker crust. For obvious reasons I loved the nectarine-cherry pie, and ours turned out charmingly ugly but delicious. We used six inch pie tins, which for some reason made them even more appealing.

After the pies came out of the oven the French pasty chef who was teaching us whipped up some cream quickly for us and we dug into our steamy pies. The amount of pie they encouraged us to eat was outrageous, but it sure was amazing.

With a few leftover ingredients our teacher also showed us how to quickly make a galette, which fits my baking style a lot more than an intricately put together, time consuming constructed pie. The best part, all the crust and flavor of a pie without the fuss.

Top Pie Tips:

1. Always use extremely cold butter when making your crust to make sure the butter stays together to make flaky pockets
2. Don’t overwork the dough. Only mix it until it just begins to come together.
3. The food processor is your friend. It makes it easy to combine the dough without over mixing or heating it with your hands.
4. Pie dough has to be constantly cold. The colder it is the easier it is to work with and the better it holds up to shaping and baking. Always refrigerate or freeze your dough between mixing it together and rolling it out and don’t forget to cool it again once it is in the pan before baking or full of filling.
5. Sweet pies are always better with a touch of powdered in the dough.
6. You can never have too much pie.