Summer Pies Should All Be Deep Dish

There are situations and scenarios in which you need more pie. Ha ha, just kidding. THAT’S EVERY PIE SCENARIO. Which is why we the people of Bon Appétit, in order to form a perfect pie union, advocate for the deep dish pie dish.

First, you get more pie—more filling and crust for ALL. (Slab pies, which are essentially bars, don’t cut it, we deserve that exterior wall of crust.) And visually, it’s stunning. Tall and dramatic, dense with fruit. When it’s sliced, you get generous wedges that look like cartoon slices of pie.

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen uses the Pyrex 9.5" pie plate because the clear glass means you can peek at the bottom of the pie to see if the crust is browning. For some reason, none of these pie plates actually call themselves “deep dish”—it’s confusing. So look for any 2" tall pie dish—I have this cute ruffly Crate and Barrel one, for example. In comparison, a regular pie dish is only around an inch high, giving you lots of crust in every bite but not as much fruit. That’s fine for a custard or chocolate cake, but in the summer when berries and stone fruits are at their peak, we need deep dish.

Exhibit A:

It’s blueberry season. When the good, limited-edition fruits are in season, you need to consume them in gigantic quantities to make the most of it. (It = life). A blueberry pie should overfloweth with berries (did you see that beauty above?). Cornstarch, lemon zest, some sugar, and let those eight cups of blueberries sing within the walls of buttery, flaky crust. This recipe is so good, to make it in an average pie dish would be woefully unsatisfactory: people would come back for a second slice because they only got like, ¼ cup of blueberries in their first slice. They want more! And what if you run out? Deep dish pie dish is the serving slice size that gets the job done.

Get the recipe: BA’s Best Blueberry Pie

Exhibit B:

Strawberry-rhubarb pie. Same story. This rhubarb ain’t gonna be here much longer. Maximize its potential by maximizing your pie.

Get the recipe: BA’s Best Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Exhibit C:

Apple pie. Apple season, according to me, is year-round. Others in the BA offices feel it is late August to early September. No matter what, deep dish apple pie is a county fair–winning American delicacy. Readers always think the four pounds of apples called for in this recipe is a misprint. It isn’t.

Get the recipe: BA’s Best Deep Dish Apple Pie

Every pie can be a deep dish if you so desire. I suggest this deep dish-ready apple pie crust as your base—and honestly, that’s a good pie dough for any occasion because it rolls out generously so you never have that stressful moment when the dough comes up short inside the pan, or gets rolled so thin it tears. Most pie recipes call for enough filling to fit in a deep dish, but if you’re worried it’s looking skimpy, up the fruit filling by 50 percent, mounding it on top like a fruit mountain. (And always bake on a foil-lined baking sheet to catch fruit juices bubbling out.)

Now, I’ve met a single person, named Christina Chaey, who prefers a crust-heavy ratio in her fruit pies. She wants nothing to do with deep dish pies. She prefers a slice of pie that’s closer to a Pop-Tart it’s so crusty. Okay, fine. I guess both kinds can exist in this world. But if you’re coming over to MY house, with MY rules, we’re diving into the deep dish.

Buy it: Pyrex Easy Grab 9.5" Glass Pie Plate 2-pack, $13 on Amazon

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Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit