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A little reason to celebrate

Homemade Pie Day

Food · August 1

A day for pie made in your own kitchen, from rolling the crust to choosing a filling and pulling a bubbling dish from the oven.

Homemade Pie Day falls on Sunday, August 1, 2027. That is 278 days away.

Pie starts with very little. Flour, cold fat, a pinch of salt and a few spoonfuls of water become a crust, and almost anything sweet or savory can go inside. Making one at home is mostly about patience and cold hands.

The crust is where most of the nerves live. Keeping the butter or shortening cold leaves small pieces in the dough, and those pieces turn into flaky layers in the oven. Overworking it makes it tough, so the usual advice is to stop mixing a little before you think you should. A rest in the refrigerator helps the dough relax before rolling.

Fillings split into a few broad families. Fruit pies like apple, cherry and peach bake with the fruit inside a top and bottom crust or under a lattice. Custard pies such as pumpkin and pecan set in the oven because of eggs, so they need to bake until the center is just firm, and they keep in the refrigerator afterward. Cream pies use a cooked filling poured into a crust that was baked ahead. Savory pies, like chicken pot pie, bring the same crust to dinner.

A homemade pie rarely looks like the photo, and that is fine. Juice runs over the edge, a corner of the crust browns faster than the rest, and a strip of foil around the rim fixes it. Fruit pies slice more cleanly after cooling for a few hours, which is the hardest step of all.

Ways to celebrate

• Try weaving a lattice top, even on a small practice pie.
• Bake a savory pot pie for dinner instead of dessert.
• Share slices with a neighbor or coworker.
• Try an all-butter crust and compare it with one made using shortening.
• Let a fruit pie cool fully before cutting and notice the cleaner slices.

Dates

All national days on August 1

Also on August 1

• Friendship Day
• National Girlfriends Day
• Spider-Man Day
• National Sisters Day
• National Raspberry Cream Pie Day
• National Planner Day
• World Wide Web Day

Categories: Food days