A Completely Delicious Guide to Popular Types of Pie

Remember that show “I Dream of Jeannie?” Insert the word “pie” in place of Jeannie and that’s my M.O. Fruit pies packed with layers of thinly sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon and dotted with butter. Cream pies filled with a luscious vanilla pudding and topped with a billowy torched meringue. Free-form rustic galettes layered with frangipane and sweet pears. There are so many different types of pies and pie fillings to fall in love with throughout the year.

Certain types of pie, like pecan pie and Key lime pie, are staples decade after decade. However, others have seen a resurgence in popularity. Most recently, home bakers couldn’t get enough of desperation pies (aka depression pies). This type of pie was originally born in the 1930s during the Great Depression; the idea was that bakers could use whatever inexpensive ingredients they had on hand to bake a dessert. Recipes for desperation pies called for eggs, sugar, butter, and flour, but other variations included a vinegar pie, mock apple pie, and a water pie, all of which use the ingredients in their name to make creative imitations of fruit flavors. And if you think you’re reinventing the wheel with a new filling or type of pie crust, think again. “If you think there is a pie that hasn’t been made, just look through an old farm cookbook and you’ll probably find it,” says Emily Elsen, co-founder of Four and Twenty Blackbirds, a pie shop in Brooklyn, New York.

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* This article was originally published here