Pie Books at Powell's in Portland

My friend Jay Francis of The Fried Chicken Blog started me taking photos of recipes to test them out before buying the book, so I was snapping away in the pie aisle at Powell's Books.

DK Eyewitness

At this point I'm getting jaded on finding pie fillings or even new pie styles that I haven't heard of before, but I found some good late summer fruit recipes and even a few new pie styles in a pretty awesome DK Eyewitness book called "Pies Sweet and Savory". I'm a big fan of their travel books because the books show a lot of pictures to help you visualize what you want to see on your trip.

Prune and almond tart

Apricot almond galette

Bavarian Plum Tart

Victoria Plum Pie

Mediterranean Jalousie

Nectarine and lavender crostata

Four and Twenty Blackbirds 

Here are two recipes from Four and Twenty Blackbirds that I couldn't find online. Until I spent time driving around the Northwest I never realized how Mediterranean their climate is. Unlike Houston with it's hot wet summers and dry winters, they have hot dry summers and cold wet winters. So plants that like being in dry sun like lavender grow wild here and to enormous size (like 12 foot butterfly bushes), so baking with summer lavender makes sense here.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Lavender Honey Custard pie

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Egg & Grog pie

Momufuku Milk Bar

I'm not always on the same page as the pastry chef from Momofuku Milk Bar since a lot of her recipes are very candy-like, but she has some very creative ideas for crust.

Pistachio Crunch recipe from Momofuku Milk Bar

Thai Tea Crunch from Momofuku Milk Bar

Powell's Pie Books

Look at all of these shelves of books of nothing but pie books! If you have never been to Powell's the experience is overwhelming. Most bookstores I find one shelf of books that I'm interested in. Here every obscure topic you are interested in has two or more whole bookshelves on that topic. There are a lot of celebrity pastry chef books to be spotted here. Enjoy your virtual browsing experience below.