Pie

This article describes a dish. Articles with similar titles include the number Pi, the pie menu, or Proto-Indo-European (PIE).

In cooking, a pie is a baked dish with a pastry shell that covers or completely contains a filling of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, cheeses, creams, chocolate, custards, or other sweet or savoury ingredient. Pies can be either 'one-crust', where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry top before baking, or 'two-crust', with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Some pies have only a bottom crust, generally if they have a sweet filling that does not require cooking. These bottom-crust-only pies may be known as tarts or tartlets. One example of a savoury bottom-crust-only pie is a quiche. Tarte Tatin is a one-crust fruit pie that is served upside down, with the crust underneath.

Blind-baking is used to develop a crust's crispiness, and help it from getting soggy under the burden of a very liquidy filling. If the crust of the pie requires much more cooking than the chosen filling, it may also be blind-baked before the filling is added and then only briefly cooked or refrigerated.

Pie fillings range in size from tiny bitesize party pies or small tartlets, to single-serve pies (e.g. cornish pasty) and larger pies baked in a dish and eaten by the slice. The type of pasty used is matched to the filling, but it is generally either a butter-rich flaky or puff pastry, a sturdy shortcrust pastry, or, in the case of savoury pies, a hot water crust pastry.

Sweet pies are often served with a scoop of ice cream, in a style known as à la mode.

Small pies are a popular form of takeaway food in Australia (and New Zealand), with the most widespread brand being Four'n'twenty. Many bakeries and specialty stores sell gourmet pies for the most discriminating customer. A peculiarity of Adelaide cuisine is the Pie floater.

Pies with fillings such as such as steak and kidney, mince and onion, or chicken and mushroom are popular in the UK as takeaway snacks. They are also served with chips as an alternative to fish and chips at British chip shops

Like dumplings, many cultures have independently discovered pies as a useful and delicious way to utilize otherwise useless ingredients left over in the household.

Savoury pie recipes include:

• Cornish pasty
• Kalakukko
• Kulebjaka
• Pot pie
• Shepherd's pie
• Stargazy pie
• Steak and kidney pie

Sweet pies include:

• Apple pie
• Banana cream pie
• Blackberry pie
• Blueberry pie
• Cherry pie
• Chocolate cream pie
• Coconut cream pie
• Dutch apple pie
• Grape pie
• Key lime pie
• Lemon meringue pie
• Lemon pie
• Lime pie
• Mixed berry pie
• Orange pie
• Peach pie
• Pecan pie - usually filled with pecans and corn syrup
• Rhubarb pie
• Shoo-fly pie - a pie filled with molasses
• Pickle pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Sour cream raisin pie
• Strawberry-rhubarb pie
• Strawberry pie
• Vinegar pie

• All-purpose pie crust

In Vodun, Pie is a soldier-loa who lived at the bottoms of lakes and rivers and caused floods.