Pies and Tarts with Heart Cookbook

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Who doesn’t like Pie? I mean come on, you have endless possibilities of what can make up a pie. You can have cookie crusts, pastry crust, heck you can even make a vegetable crust <- Yes I said that, and no I’m not making it up! You can even make a cookie dough crust! Are you drooling yet? Hungry are you? I haven’t even started in on the fillings, you’ve got fruit, vegetables, cheese, cream, meat the sweet the sour the in between and do not ever forget the toppings!  The toppings, yum whipped topping , ice cream, warm homemade sweet fruit glazes.

How about now are you drooling? No?

Now are you drooling?  This Crumble Top Berry Pie came from the book Pies and Tarts with Heart by Dynise Balcavage.

Inspired by vegan recipes for both the sweet and savory pies this book brings on pies in a whole new light . I know you all have heard the saying, “Easy as Pie” . While yes it may seem hard, Balcavage has made it that much easier with bright colorful photographs throughout the cookbook you have the beginning to a wonderful start in pie making.

Easy to follow directions, you are walking through making your first crusts which is of course the base of it all. Go for nutty, go for gluten free or use that vegetable oil you have on hand. You have several different crusts to pick from and each one comes with step by step illustrated pictures to guide you smoothly through it. Tips and tricks are throughout the book making it extremely reader friendly.  Each recipe also has a quick code by pictures, need a Gluten Free recipe? Just look for the  wheat symbol crossed out. Short on time? There’s plenty of quick recipes, and if you have a special diet that needs to be low in fat they are all listed with quick code icons at the top of each page. Kid friendly recipes are throughout as well making it highly family friendly. Don’t feel like baking? Not a problem there’s no bake crusts and pies in here too like my kids favorite S’more Pie!

There’s something for everyone in this cookbook, I truly love the easy to ready, straight forward directions and the variety of recipes to choose from. In the beginning of the book you have a load of information that most cookbooks leave out.  Listing ingredients tools, which sweetener would best work with which pie and why!  Need to thicken a filling that didn’t come out right? Look to the beginning of this book, listed are different thickeners used from flour which you would have on hand every day to something like Arrowroot. There are so many more details in this cookbook that I could mention but it would take me awhile it’s just that good.  It’s very detailed but not overwhelming in any way, it comes across as making pie easy as well.. pie!

Pies and Tarts with Hearts starts you at the base of a recipe and builds you up to finish off with a grand topping, whether it be a sweet, or savory or hearty dinner pie-  this book has you covered with 60+ recipes you do not want to miss out on.

Pies and Tarts with Heart by Dynise Balcavage

Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: Quarry Books (August 1, 2013)

ISBN: 978-1592538461

$24.99 US/$27.99 Can

Also available in eBook form!

This review was shared by Have Sippy’s contributing  blogger, Melanie. You can enjoy more recipes by checking out her blog- My Side Of Life, Connect by Facebook and/or Twitter too!