Sweet and Savory Pies for Pi Day!

Happy International Pi Day!

Around the world, people celebrate mathematics on March 14.  Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter; which is approximately 3.14159 but can be calculated out to about a trillion decimal places!
Here at gThankYou! we take the liberal view of Pi – in order to celebrate gThankYou! Pie Gift Certificates and delicious pies of course!
Deep Dish Winter Fruit Pie with Walnut Crumb
Pi Day comes at a rather inconvenient time for pie bakers, when the fruits of summer are still a long way off. Solve that problem with this deep dish beauty, which combines dried figs, fresh apples and pears, and either fresh or frozen cranberries for a pie tasters describe as “amazing” and winning “rave reviews” from “gaga” guests.

Find the recipe, taken from “Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More” by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson, on Epicurious.
Pear and Almond Tart

The difference between a pie and a tart is really very minor. According to The Kitchn, a pie is “a sweet or savory dish with a crust and a filling. The sides of a pie dish or pan are sloped,” unlike a tart pan, which has straight sides. A pie “can have a just a bottom, just a top, or both a bottom and a top crust,” while tarts are open face. And pie crust, made from flour, salt, butter or lard and cold water, can go either sweet or savory, while a tart crust often contains sugar.

Double Crust Apple Pie

For one entire summer, Evan Kleiman, the host of KCRW’s popular radio show “Good Food,” made a pie every single day.
Serious Eats reports that after all the variations on “shepherd’s pie, ice cream pies, cream pies, fried pies, galettes, crostatas, small French tarts, and bastillas,” her favorite pie was this one — the double crust apple pie.
“It has everything,” she wrote. “The yielding sweetness of fruit cooked in sugar with a hint of cinnamon. If I were an apple, it’s how I’d like to go.”
Savory Pork and Peas Pie
Nicole Mourian won four ribbons at the Fourth Annual Good Food Pie Contest in 2012, at least one of them for her humble-sounding pork and peas pie.

The secret to this recipe is twofold: controlling the temperature, and high quality ingredients. According to the Good Food blog, “It’s a combination of slow roasted Niman Ranch pork shoulder, pork belly, carrots, chopped Gravenstein apples and peas that she had shucked and frozen last spring.
“She combined the braising liquid from the pork belly with a little flour and rosemary to form a gravy. And as if that weren’t enough, her pie crust is made with the unctuous European Style Butter from Straus Family Creamery in Northern California.”
Still, there’s little doubt those of us without access to Niman Ranch and Strauss Family products can still come up with something pretty amazing for a chilly March night. Who says pie has to be sweet to be delicious?
We hope we have given you plenty of reasons to celebrate Pi(e) day tomorrow!  Brighten someone’s day with a pie.  You’ll be glad you did.

About gThankYou, LLC
Turkey Gift Certificates and Turkey Or Ham Gift Certificates by gThankYou! are two of America’s favorite employee gifts and can be redeemed for any Brand (Turkey or Turkey Or Ham), at virtually any Grocery Store in the U.S.
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