Nut Free

Single-serving patriotic pies—each slightly different from the rest—are embellished with a host of cutout and appliquéd shapes. Use cookie cutters to make pastry-dough stars in various sizes, and a pastry wheel to cut strips that stand in for stripes; arrange them in whatever patterns you please. Here, a top crust is spangled with tiny star cutouts; a ring of stars frames a bed of blueberries; and stripes and stars suggest the American flag. Red raspberries, sliced strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries in the fillings carry along the Fourth of July color scheme.

It’s as nice a Mother’s Day present as a bouquet of fresh flowers, but even sweeter: Delicate poached apple slices, rolled up to resemble blooms, make a pretty arrangement atop a bed of buttermilk cream in a flaky puff-pastry shell. You can bake the pastry and poach the apple slices a day ahead; refrigerate apples submerged in the poaching liquid. Because the filling needs half an hour to set, spread it on the cooled baked pastry and shape the roses (page 342) while you wait.

John Barricelli, an excellent baker, television host, and a longtime friend of Martha’s, learned to make this Italian grain pie, known as pastiera, from his grandfather. The wheat berries are fitting for the Easter holiday, as they symbolize rebirth and renewal. The grains get soaked in water overnight before they are cooked in milk. Afterward, they are mixed with ricotta cheese and pastry cream to make an exceptionally delicious filling. John sells the pies—and many other wonderful baked goods—at SoNo Bakery in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

Petite chocolate tarts pair the sophistication of truffles with the playfulness of brightly colored Valentine candies—in this case, piped meringue hearts. Each tart is sized for two valentines to share; you can also make one large tart in a ten-and-a-half-inch heart-shaped pan (as pictured on page 242). The baking time will remain the same.

The crimson filling is only part of this pie’s allure. A gorgeous, sugar-coated crust is also sure to impress any valentine, and you can take your pick of two different styles: Heart-shaped cookie cutters create windows in a double crust, near right, and fashion an overlapping shingled top, far right. Baking times are the same for either variation.

A lattice crust is easily altered to replicate a number of artisanal basketweave designs, such as this striking six-point star pattern. The filling is also out of the ordinary—a blend of dried, not fresh, fruits is poached in a fragrant spiced syrup.

A thin double-crust slab, baked in a rimmed sheet pan, is perfect for pie lovers who prefer a high crust-to-filling ratio. The pâte brisée crust is peppered with polka-dot cutouts made with a round pastry tip; you can try this technique on a double-crust pie in any shape, size, or flavor. For easy unmolding, line the baking sheet with parchment paper with a one-inch overhang on long sides before baking the pie.

A familiar motif can inspire kitchen artistry: Here, a double-crust strawberry tart is adorned with a stylized bandanna pattern. Aspic cutters, available at baking-supply stores, are used to create the punched grid of tiny ovals and dots.

A winning combination of tart and sweet, this county-fair favorite is marked by a tightly woven lattice crust. Sour cherries enjoy a short season—typically a few weeks in late June and early July—so snap them up when you see them, and freeze any extras: Line a baking sheet with parchment and freeze pitted cherries in a single layer. Transfer frozen cherries to a resealable bag; they should keep in the freezer up to one year.

For this woven pie-dough pattern, the spacing of the strips is varied to create a seemingly complex geometric design that is actually no more difficult than a basic lattice. Rum-poached pineapple pieces peek out from beneath the open-weave crust.

This dessert is a specialty of Pennsylvania Dutch country. Chock-full of dark and golden raisins, and flavored with cinnamon, the pie has become a Martha Stewart Living reader favorite since the recipe was first published in the magazine.

The layered finish that tops this apple pie is created by shingling the leaves. Pastry cutouts in any shape can be arranged in this manner; here, a flurry of leaves accentuates the pie’s autumnal nature.

Rather than weaving strips of dough under and over one another, the latticelike design for this pie is formed by cutting squares from a round of rolled-out pâte brisée. The cutouts are arranged around the edge of the pie plate, in overlapping fashion, for a striking frame.

A cluster of grapes is cut from the top crust of this tart to suggest the fruit inside. Sweet, musky Concord grapes are first made into a jam, then sandwiched between the pastry rounds. You will need a nonreactive pan and a candy thermometer for the jam.

These fanciful tartlets are easy to construct with make-ahead components. The fresh figs can be roasted and then chilled, with the flavorful cooking syrup, for up to a week. The cream filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated; the fluted pastry shells also can be baked the day before and held overnight at room temperature.

Swiss meringue is best for piping into shapes that will be baked until crisp. It can be kept at room temperature and rewhipped, if necessary.

In classic French cooking, a large dessert shell made entirely of meringue is called a vacherin, so called for its resemblance to a well-known cheese; it is usually layered with whipped cream and fruit. Here, small-scale meringue shells are filled with lime curd, whose bright color is especially striking in contrast with the crisp white shells.

With scalloped pastry edges and a fruit-streaked, creamy filling, these tarts are almost too pretty to eat, but they’re too delicious not to. The filling is similar to a British spoon dessert called fool, which consists of a fruit sauce (in this case, blackberry) folded into whipped cream; more sauce and fruit is spooned on top. Elderflower cordial, another English specialty, flavors the whipped cream; you can omit the liqueur from the recipe if you want. You could also use it to flavor homemade ice cream to serve alongside.