The Pie Project cookbook: The best recipes from pecan pie to tiramisu

Whether you love them hot, cold, big or small, The Pie Project’s pies are all deliciously sweet, with boozy fillings and delectable toppings

The baking book features 60 different pie recipes

Tiramisu handpies

My mum, Debs, is a born entertainer. Growing up, our house was always the house to drop into just to say “Hi”, and the house for fantastic dinner parties. I loved knowing it was a dinner party night and loved all the “special” food that would appear. I wanted to know the types of cheese my mum had bought for the cheese plates, I wanted to know what she was cooking for the main course, and I desperately wanted to be involved in the dessertmaking. I always remember the excitement of a tiramisu. My job was to soak the Italian biscuits in the coffee and liqueur, just enough so they weren’t dry but not too much that they completely fell apart in my hands. I took this job very seriously and have loved this dessert ever since.

– Kirsten

Makes 6

250 g (9 oz) plain chocolate biscuits (cookies)
85 g (3 oz) unsalted butter, melted then cooled
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
3 tablespoons pure icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
250 g (9 oz) mascarpone cheese
250 ml (8½ fl oz/1 cup) thick (double/heavy) cream
2 teaspoons Marsala (optional)
1 tablespoon crushed cacao nibs to serve
2 teaspoons good-quality cocoa powder to serve

Pulse the biscuits in a food processor to coarse crumbs. Add the butter and pulse again to combine. Press the crumb mixture into the bases of six 11 cm (4¼ in) pie dishes. Stir to dissolve the coffee in 1 tablespoon of boiling water, then set aside. Place the egg yolks and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the hot water). Whisk for 6 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, and whisk for 5 minutes or until cooled completely. Turn off the mixer and add the vanilla, icing sugar, mascarpone and cream, then whisk for 1-2 minutes until stiff peaks form – be careful not to overmix.

Halve the mixture and fold the coffee mixture through one portion. Fold the Marsala (if using) through the other half. Divide the coffee filling among the pastry cases and top with the other filling. Scatter with cacao nibs and cocoa to serve.

Plum, almond and orange blossom crostata with sugared thyme

When we showed my family the first round of photographs from this book, they all pointed to this as their favourite. I think it’s partly because it looks so accessible and easy, which it is. No rolling of pastry, and frangipane is so simple to master. I’m super-fussy when it comes to stone fruit, as my parents grew the most amazing fruit on their orchard when I was a kid. Plums remind me of our big old dehydrator whirring through the night, and waking up in the morning to beautiful sweet and sour semi-dried plums. While everyone else was having roll-ups at school, that’s what my sisters and I were eating!

– Phoebe

Serves 12

435 g (15½ oz) frozen Careme vanilla bean pastry, thawed, or other bought sweet shortcrust rolled to a thickness of 3 mm (1/8 in)
180 g (6½ oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
240 g (8½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar 
finely grated zest of 2 oranges, plus pared zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
3 eggs, plus 1 egg white
300 g (10½ oz/3 cups) almond meal
2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
1 kg (2 lb 3 oz) ripe plums, halved and stones removed
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
6 thyme sprigs 
icing (confectioners’) sugar, to dust (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper and lay the pastry on top. Chill until needed. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and caster sugar until pale, reserving 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Beat in the orange zest, orange blossom water and vanilla, then the whole eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, beat in the almond meal and cornflour to combine.

Spread the frangipane mixture over the pastry, leaving a 1 cm (½ in) border all the way round. Fold in the edges to partially enclose. Top with the plums, and scatter with the demerara sugar and the pared orange zest. Lightly whisk the egg white and dip the thyme sprigs into it, then coat them in the reserved tablespoon of caster sugar. Scatter over the crostata and bake for 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the plums are soft. Once cool, dust with icing sugar, if desired.

Golden syrup and chocolate pecan pies

I grew up by the beaches in Sydney and my two loves were surfing and surf club, and food. I joined Wanda Surf Club when I was seven and took part in races up until I was 22; every summer weekend was all about being down at the beach and being in the water. When we’d left the beach after surfing for the day, it was all about what I was going to eat. One day when I was about 11, my coach Jeff “Charlie” Brown brought those two loves of mine together. Being totally aware of the incredible nerves I suffered before a race, he did something that completely distracted me: he said to me, “If you win this today, I will buy you a whole pecan pie that you don’t have to share with anyone else”. Well, I was so determined to win that pie (not really the race) that I went out there... and won the pie. To this day I could eat a whole pecan pie if you gave it to me, and this golden syrup and chocolate pecan pie proved very hard to walk away from.

– Kirsten

Serves 12

Makes 2 × 20 cm (8 in) pies

2 × 300 g (10½ oz) frozen Careme chocolate pastry, thawed, or other bought chocolate shortcrust rolled to a thickness of 3 mm (1/8 in)
250 g (9 oz) soft brown sugar
350 g (12½ oz/1 cup) golden syrup
80 g (2¾ oz) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
80 ml (2½ fl oz/1/3 cup) pouring (single/light) cream
1 teaspoon ground allspice
3 eggs
350 g (12½ oz) toasted pecans, chopped
100 g (3½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two 20 cm (8 in) shallow pie dishes with the pastry and trim the edges to neaten. Line the pastry cases with baking paper and fill with baking beads (or uncooked rice or dried beans). Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is just dry to the touch. Remove the paper and baking beads and leave to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (320°F). Gently cook the sugar, golden syrup, butter, vanilla, cream and allspice in a saucepan over low heat for 4 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Leave to cool, then stir through the chopped pecans and the chopped chocolate. Divide evenly between the two pastry cases and bake for 35 minutes or until set on the edges but with a gentle wobble in the centre. Cool to room temperature before serving.

The Pie Project by Phoebe Wood & Kirsten Jenkins (Hardie Grant, £18.99) Photography: Kirsten Jenkins