Pies you like

What do you think of when summer comes around? Is it pies? It probably not pies.
OK so maybe it's not pies, but you might be thinking of shortcrust pastry. Who isn't?

I've recently been getting into making my own shortcrust and applying that to my cooking. 
The biggest push towards making pies was simply that I wanted to eat a pie. This was back around Easter. I had some friends over for lunch, and I thought, well why not bake a couple of mini-pies. 
It went down like a peach. Is that a saying? Why not. Let's make it a saying.


The pie were loaded with sauteed spiced potatoes, garlic mushrooms and feta cheese. Served up with a simple green salad and it's a winner.

As the weather heated up it was time to think towards the desert-end of shortcrust.

I wanted something refreshing and light that could be a sweet dish for afternoon tea or dinner. 

I like to serve individual tarts/pies/other shortcrust based dishes. Not only do I think they look better, they are much easier to plate up. 

Strawberry season was in full swing, so my tart had to include one of my favourite fruits. Keeping it a trim fresh flavour in the mouth was key. 

Thinking over it I whipped up a lime mascarpone cream to fill the pastry. The lime complements the strawberries perfectly, and add that to the smooth light mascarpone, and that's a dish worthy of serving up. 

My pastry baking didn't end there though. Recently we were entertaining family who had come over from India.

While they were here I wanted to give them dishes they had never had before. Tarts and pies are certainly those. 

I was feeling slightly decadent and gave a shot at making chocolate torts topped with fresh raspberries. That's a flavour combination that doesn't get old. 

Chocolate isn't an ingredient I work a whole lot with, so I'm still crawling before I can sprint. Putting together the ganache was quite a challenge, and to be honest I didn't get it to the perfect softness. The flavour was there, and that's the important part. 

What's your favourite pie/tart/tort/shortcrust?