On 3/14 we celebrate National Pi Day, and though mathematics has never been my favorite, pie is, so I’m all in. If you are, too, here are some of my favorite pie recipes to make for National Pi Day. And if you’re thinking, bake pie in the middle of the week?! you’re still at the right place, because I’ve also included a few shortcut and pie-inspired recipes that you can whip up in 3.14th the amount of time.
No, that’s not a real number, but hey, I told you that math was never my thing.
Top: The Prettiest Pi Day Pie | King Arthur Flour blog
–This post has been updated for 2022 —
We have some Cool Mom staffers who swear by store-bought pie dough and if you are on team store bought pie dough, our favorite is the Trader Joe’s Pie Crusts. But making your pie dough is really very simple with our easy homemade pie dough recipe.
If you do make your own pie dough and feel ambitious — like really ambitious — you HAVE to check out the tutorial for the The Prettiest Pi Day Pie at the King Arthur Flour blog (pictured top). In fact, it’s so amazing, you should check it out anyway. The step-by-step photos make it look, dare I say, doable! Can you imagine the kids coming home to this? Or, more likely, making it with them over the weekend? So cool!
Mixed Berry Pie | Bakers Royale
It’s not summer yet, but if you’re jonesing for fruit pie, I’d go for the Mixed Berry Pie that we found at Bakers Royale while rounding up our favorite must-bake fruit pies, because you can grab whichever berries look good at the market. I’ve actually found some decent blueberries and raspberries all the way here on the east coast that will bake up nice and sweet… with the right amount of sugar.
Blueberry Puff Pastry Tart | Handmade Charlotte
Also, if you aren’t sold on making your own dough or you just feel like trying something different, our fruit pie round-up includes a clever and very easy recipe for 3 Step Blueberry Puff Pastry Tarts at Handmade Charlotte that makes baking up Pi Day treats very easy to accomplish, unlike math problems using π (well, at least for me).
Related: 6 creative pie crust alternatives
Nutella Swirled Sweet Potato Pie | Catz in the Kitchen
If you’re going to make pie for your family in the middle of the week, I say use a vegetable. (That’ll show ’em. Ha!) This Nutella Swirled Sweet Potato Pie at Catz in the Kitchen looks killer and the kids will surely not whine about sweet potato with all that Nutella goodness swirled in. But then again, I’m not sure how much nutritional balance is actually maintained. Oh whatever: A math lesson can be taught no matter what. Yay, Pi Day!
Mini Apple Galettes | Sugar Spun Run
Alright, since we’re talking Nutella, here’s one more recipe that calls for the good stuff. These Mini Apple Galettes at Sugar Spun Run are stuffed with the chocolate-hazelnut spread and thinly sliced apples — though Sam says that the Nutella is optional (don’t listen to her). Besides that, I like that galettes are supposed to look imperfect, which is the perfect excuse to divide your pie dough up and let each kid make their own.
Lemon Icebox Pie | Vintage Kitty
Baking is nice and it’s been lovely scrolling through these mouthwatering pictures. But, I know: we’re parents and National Pi Day falls in the middle of the week. So perhaps one of our favorite easy icebox pie recipes is the way to go? It’s honestly hard to choose just one. The Lemon Icebox Pie looks insanely delicious and, if you don’t feel like prepping a crust, could go into a store-bought graham cracker crust.
Related: An amazing herringbone pie crust tutorial. Whoa!
Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Pies | Carlsbad Cravings
The Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Pies at Carlsbad Cravings are a super tasty no-bake treat that you can make right in a muffin tin — and peanut butter has protein, right? Ha!
Apple Pie Panini | Just a Taste
And it just gets easier and easier… because, parenthood. Sometimes you’ve got to take inspiration from the real thing and improvise with what you’ve got. And what we parents have got is not a lot of time, so this round-up of 10 delicious twists on apple pie recipes that includes this recipe for an Apple Pie Panini from Just a Taste might be just what you need to get in the Pi Day spirit.
Are these recipes pie? No, not exactly. But they make creative use of ingredients to deliver apple pie flavor in a fraction of the time that it takes to bake a pie. And that’s innovative thinking that, I believe, celebrates the spirit of π.
