I've got a bit of a backlog of pies to share with you. I have still been making them, I just haven't got around to writing about it! These first two I made for our life group - one straight up apricot pie, the other a yogurt custard with mixed fruit. I found the apricot to be just slightly more tart than I would have wanted it, but others thought it was exactly right. My personal favourite was the yogurt custard. I used the most amazing vanilla bean yogurt from Tree Island, as well as duck eggs from a neighbour, and a mix of apricots, cherries, and raspberries for the fruit. This was a lovely little pie and a super easy process. Chop fruit. Mix custard. Pour over the fruit in the prepared pie shell and bake!

This month we had our holidays, and I took this opportunity to make some heritage pies with my Nana. We took a break from the regular basic pie crust recipe since of course we had to use my Nana's secret recipe! So far I have never had anyone be able to guess the secret ingredient!

The first pie was a very interesting vinegar pie. The main flavouring is apple cider vinegar and I was not sure how it was going to come out. The few reviews I could find online suggested it was a unique flavour that not everyone appreciated, but a few people absolutely loved.

As a side note, I have such beautiful grandmothers (inside and out). I hope to grow up to be just like both of them.

This pie looked super weird when it was cooking. Like really incredibly strange. The custard was boiling in the oven, and I was wondering what kind of texture it would have when it finished. The bubble that the top photo shows was twice as large when I opened the oven door! In the end the custard was so perfect. When we cut the slices the edges were sharp - almost like jello!

The flavour was very interesting and seemed to change over time. The vinegar was much stronger tasting in the leftovers we had in the next day or so. What was really interesting was how much the apple flavour came through. I would like to try this pie with different vinegars like the fruit scrap vinegars I am making right now. No time to try things twice right now, but this is one from the overall list that I would definitely come back to again once I am done with this pie challenge I have set for myself!

The other pie we tried was a raisin pie. I am no fan of raisins in baking and I purposefully decided to do this one when there were lots of raisin lovers around me. However it turns out I needn't have worried. Something about this recipe elevated the humble raisins into something even I could appreciate!

The recipe called for golden and dark raisins and that made a rather pretty pie filling. The sauce they were cooked in to make the filling made the raisins so juicy and accentuated their flavour. A little bit of lemon zest is not always called for (and often overused) but it truly does help the overall flavour profile here.

I had a lot of fun making these pies with my Nana. Not pictured here was the deep dish apricot and pineapple pie we also made. It was incredibly tart, but when paired with vanilla ice cream it was perfect! Some pies just aren't complete without ice cream!