I made you a pie. 😉 I don’t bake pies that often, probably because I live alone, and I didn’t inherit the pie crust gene. This book gave me some good crust tips and filling ideas. Savory anyone?

My review of Amish Pies, by Laura Anne Lapp, is based on a digital ARC (Advance Reader Copy) from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review of this book. Please keep in mind that the book is still being edited, so my review is based on a book that is still unfinished and/or incomplete.

I have to say that overall, I really like this book and am looking forward to trying out some of the recipes. As a baker, I was attracted to the cover and title, and assumed there might be some unusual or interesting recipes inside, and I was right. While there are some standards, the author - who is a member of the Amish community - has included a few lesser known Amish pie recipes to share with the world.

As of the time of this review, the book offers 60 recipes and is divided into several categories as follows: Pie Crusts; Fruit Pies; Nut Pies; Cream and Ice Cream Pies; Chocolate, Vanilla, Shoofly, and More Pies; and Savory Pies.

In the Pie Doughs section we have: 3 pie dough variations of the flaky variety (more on these later), and recipes for an Oatmeal Crust, Graham Cracker Crust, and Cookie Crust. Most recipes will refer back to one of these crusts in the instructions.

In the Fruit Pies section we have: Apple, Apple Crumb, Fresh Fruit, Fresh Strawberry, Fresh Peach, Fresh Blueberry, French Rhubarb, Rhubarb Custard, Lemon Meringue, Lemon Sponge (a custard-like filling), Sour Cream Lemon, Grandma's Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin (variations 1-3), Layered Pumpkin (a shoofly-like bottom with a pumpkin layer on top), Snitz, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb, Frozen Strawberry Pie (variations 1 & 2), Plum and Pear pies. Note that the Fresh Strawberry and Fresh Peach each use a flavored Jello base (with a sweetened cornstarch slurry), and in the Fresh Blueberry pie, the blueberries are layered with a sour cream-based custard.

In the Nut Pies section we have: Pecan (with 3 variations), Peanut Butter, Peanut butter with Chocolate Crust, and Peanut Butter Cup pies.
In Cream and Ice Cream Pies we have: Sour Cream Pear, Pear Custard, Peaches and Cream, Raspberry Swirl, Raisin Creme (2 variations), Maple Cream, Cream Cheese Pecan, Ice Cream Pie with Peanut Butter Crust, and Cappuccino Ice Cream pies. It's worth noting here that the 2 ice cream pies use store bought ice cream.

In Chocolate, Vanilla, Shoofly, and More, we have: Chocolate, Chocolate Chess, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Vanilla, Vanilla Crumb, Shoofly (2 variations), Chocolate Shoofly, Butterscotch, Oatmeal, Coconut Oatmeal, and Sweet Potato (2 variations) pies.

In the Savory Pies section we have: Tomato Pie, Potato Pie (a mashed potato crust with a quiche-like filling), and Chicken Pie (similar to chicken pot pie)

Lastly, in my ARC there was a section labeled Index that contained Metric conversions (though Imperial (not metric) is used throughout (at this point anyway), but no other recipe index to speak of (again, at this point). This could be coming with the final touches to the book.

I did find the categorization of the pies a little confusing, and am hoping that with the final edit things will be organized a bit better. For example: In the Fruit Pies section we have a couple of fruit-cream and frozen pie variations (which I might expect to go in the Cream and Ice Cream Pies section), as well as five pumpkin pie recipes and variations, which of course is not a fruit at all. Similarly, in the Cream and Ice Cream Pies section we have several pies that also have fruit, as well as another pecan pie variation, even though we have three pecan pie variations in the Nut Pies section. All this to say I found the organization, as is, a bit confusing. But again, ARC's are rarely in perfect order, so hopefully these and other tics will be sorted out before publication. But there are some fun and interesting recipes here, along with full color photographs of just about each pie, which really make you hungry and want to jump in and get started baking right away! My only gripe with the photos is that they aren't labeled. Most of them I could figure out because of the ingredients or their placement, but it was harder to tell which was which when there were multiple variations to a recipe. This is a relatively minor concern though.

I think there are a few things worth noting:

1) As can be seen from the lists above, multiple recipes have several variations that count as their own recipe. Sometimes the variation is significant (as with the pie doughs), but often it is a minor tweak;

2) the "flaky" doughs all use shortening vs butter (her crumb recipes use butter);

3) the author primarily provides Imperial measurements, such as cups, with one notable exception: her recipe for many/crowd crusts uses pound measurements (e.g. 4 lbs. pastry flour, 2 lbs. bread flour, etc.). I don't think I've ever seen bread flour used as part of a pie recipe before.

4) As mentioned, there are 3 flaky pie dough variations, mainly using different base flours and providing different yields. One of the recipes makes lots of pies...but the wording makes it confusing to understand just how many. For example, the yield for Pie Dough (Variation #1) says: Yield: 4 (9-inch) pie crusts (enough for 2 double crust pies). That is very clear. For Pie Dough (Variation #2), it says: Yield: 1 (10-inch) pie crust, top and bottom. I *assume* this means 1 10-inch double crust pie. And for Pie Dough (Variation #3) we have: Yield: 15 (9-inch) pie crusts, top and bottom. Again, I *think* that means enough for 15 double crust pies...BUT it could also mean 15 crusts total, to be used for a top or bottom crust, To make it crystal clear for the reader, I would suggest using consistent language throughout, continuing the format used for Variation #1, which is to tell us how many single and/or double pie crusts the recipe will make. That way there is no question what the yield will be before we start a recipe. Also - and maybe this is nitpicking on my part, but since each of these pie doughs are fundamentally different (e.g. one uses use pastry, one uses AP flour, and the third uses a combination of pastry and bread flours... though she does tell us in the introduction all can be made with AP flour with good results), why not give them each their own name to differentiate them, such as Single Double-Crust, Double Double-Crust, and Crust for a Crowd, etc.? Just a suggestion!

Editorial issues aside, I am a baker with several pie cookbooks in my collection and there are still so many pies here that I want to bake, including the new-to-me Snitz Pie, I was so intrigued, I did a little research on it. Turns out, Snitz pie is a uniquely Amish selection that tends to use either applesauce, apple butter, a combination of the two, or reconstituted dried apples, plus a thickener of some sort for a uniquely textured apple-tasting pie. Ms. Lapp's recipe uses applesauce with granulated tapioca and looks simply delicious.

To summarize, I think this is a unique pie cookbook with some very delicious and interesting recipes, and I would recommend this book for pie bakers looking for something a little different.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I enjoy older recipes and recipes that have history. Amish Pies provides a variety of crusts, a range of pies including sweet, savory and protein based. I really enjoyed the unique recipes as well as the antidotes about the recipes added by the author. The photos, variations and details gives a solid basis for baking pies. I would recommend this book. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity.

I really like this book! It has a lot of variety and different pie recipes and maybe give some inspiration to try new things. I love that the crusts have an own chapter in the beginning and the rest basically is about the filling. The pictures and descriptions are great and it seems like they’re easy to make and you don’t need a ton of ingredients.

Oh this book just made my mouth water!!! I can't wait to add it to our kitchen cookbooks. The pies all sounded absolutely wonderful. It was a beautiful book

If you love pie, and seriously who doesn't, this is the book for you! A great variety of recipes, some really not too available, and straightforward instructions. Easy as pie (wink).

• Simple but eye catching layout
• Nice pictures of each pie, very aesthetically pleasing
• I enjoyed the introduction and the tips on pie crust
• I like the recipe note included in each recipe
• A good selection of pie recipes that are easy to follow
• Delicious recipes that I can't wait to try!

I love to bake. I love Amish baking. So I was immediately drawn to this cookbook. I loved there were photos of every pie. I loved the layout. And I'm going to love trying these recipes!

Many thanks to Net Galley and Skyhorse Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love pie, so this book really appealed to me. This book was a great resource for experienced bakers and novices alike. There were so many great recipes in this book. I love that there were multiple variations of some pies. I also like that there was a mix of well-known and more unique pies. I also like the addition of savory pies. Most pie books solely focus on sweet pies, so I found this a great addition. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Amish Pies.

Amish Pies gets straight to the point. This is a book about pies, no muss, no fuss.

There's no lengthy intro on baking tools, ingredients, and spiel on the author's motivations and personal experiences on writing this book.

You get a simple tutorial on making pie crusts (not as hard as you might think), and it's off to the pie making.

There's a pie for every taste, and variations using easy to find ingredients nearly everyone would have in their pantry.

The instructions are brief, simple, and easy to follow, no long paragraphs or complicated steps.

I'm definitely no baker but I think even I could make some of these pies.

The photos came out great on my Kindle and there's a photo for every pie. Amazing!

I love how straight foward the way this is written. It's easy to understand. There is not much preamble, which I like. The pictures are great. And it is really responsive on the Kindle! All the Chapters and recipes are links, so you can very quickly get where you need to be, which is super helpful.