Contrary to every fiber in our being, the grill isn’t just for meats & savory foods. That’s right, you can go ahead and keep the heat on after you’ve grilled up the steaks because we’re about to introduce you to the wonderful world of grilled pie! Seeing as this is about pie, we’re not going to waste any more time not talking about grilling pie recipes!
Grilled Berry Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust from a pack of two or you can use a homemade crust
- 3 cups berries fresh or frozen, see note
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar plus more for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
- Zest of 1/2 a lemon about 1 teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon heavy whipping cream
- 2 disposable foil pie pans or square baking pans
Directions
- Preheat grill to as close to 350°F as you can get it.
- Place berries in a large bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest. Toss with your hands.
- Unroll pie crust and place it in a disposable foil pie plate (or a disposable foil square pan). Place fruit in the center and fold up the edges to form the crust. Brush the edges with heavy whipping cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar (optional).
- Place a second foil pie plate or square baking pan upside down on the grill. Place the pie (in its pan) on top of the inverted pan and close the lid to the grill. Cook until the crust is cooked through, from 20-30 minutes depending on how hot your grill is. Check it at 15 minutes and then every few minutes after to make sure it doesn’t burn.
- Carefully remove pie from grill. Cool before slicing. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Grilled Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 2 tbsp. flour (divided)
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 cup shortening (chilled)
- 5 tbsp. ice water (or more if needed)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. cloves
- 8 cups apple (sliced, about 6 large apples)
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup butter (cold)
- Optional: vanilla ice cream
- Optional: extra sharp cheddar cheese
Directions
- Gather the ingredients.
- Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and salt. Add shortening and cut into flour and salt with a pastry blender until coarse and crumbly.
- Stir in ice water, a little at a time until dough forms in a ball. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll out dough into a circle and fit into a pie plate.
- Preheat charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking at 400 F.
- In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.
- In a separate large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice (to prevent the apples from turning brown). Then add the sugar/flour/spice mixture to the apples and toss to coat the apple slices with the spice mixture.
- In a medium bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup flour with the brown sugar. Add the pieces of butter, and cut in with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the apples.
- Place the pie on a cookie sheet, and bake over indirect heat until the apples are tender and bubbly about 50 to 60 minutes. Remove the pie and let sit for at least 10 minutes to cool before serving.
- Serve with generous scoops of ice cream and slices of extra sharp Cheddar cheese.
Grilled Strawberry Pie
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh strawberries (about 2 2/3 cups), quartered SAVE $
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 refrigerated pie crust, softened as directed on box
- 2 (9-inch) disposable foil pie pans
- ¼ cup strawberry preserves
Directions
- Heat gas or charcoal grill to medium-high heat. Try to maintain heat around 400°F.
- In medium bowl, mix strawberries, sugar and cornstarch; set aside.
- Unroll pie crust. Place in ungreased pie pan. With back of spoon, spread preserves evenly on crust. Spoon strawberry mixture on top. Slightly fold crust over filling.
- Place second pie pan upside down on grill to make elevated surface. Place pan with pie on top so it is elevated off grill. Cover grill; cook 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Remove from grill; cool 10 minutes before serving.
Grilled Blueberry Galette
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour, divided, plus 2 tablespoons
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 15 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
- 3 large egg yolks
- 6 tablespoons ice water
- 1 qt blueberry
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ⅔ cup sugar, divided, plus 1 tablespoon
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 2 cups whipped cream
Directions
- Sift 3 cups (375 g) of flour and the salt together into a large bowl.
- Using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour, breaking up the cubes as you go until no large lumps remain. Shake the bowl to coax any large chunks of butter to the surface. If you have warm hands or the process is taking too long, chill the bowl in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to cool down–you don’t want the dough to be greasy at all!
- Mix the egg yolks and ice water together in a small bowl with a fork until evenly combined.
- Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, reserving ¼ or so in case you don’t need all of it–you don’t want the pastry to be too wet. Quickly mix everything together with a fork until the dough just starts to come together. Add more liquid to the driest parts of the dough, if needed. The dough is ready when it holds together in a ball when squeezed in your palm.
- Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and bring the dough together. You don’t want to overwork the dough, but it should be a cohesive disc with no real cracks or very dry bits.
- Divide the dough into 2 discs, 1 slightly larger and 1 slightly smaller. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 days.
- Meanwhile, make the blueberry filling: In a medium bowl, mix together the blueberries, lemon juice, ⅔ cup of sugar, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Preheat the grill on medium-high for about 10 minutes, to about 375˚F (190˚C).
- Lightly flour a clean surface and unwrap the smaller disc of chilled dough. Flour the top of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, giving it a quarter turn every few times, to spread the dough evenly and ensure it doesn’t stick to the surface. If any cracks form, smash them back together. Roll out the dough to a circle about ¼ inch thick and 8 inches (20 cm) wide. Use the star-shaped cookie cutter to cut about 12 stars.
- Roll out the larger disc of dough, creating a circle about 13 inches (32 cm) wide.
- Pour the blueberries into the center of the larger circle and form into an even circle, leaving a 2-inch (5-cm) border all the way around. Use your hand to fold the edges of the crust over the filling.
- Place the stars over the blueberry filling, slightly overlapping. Refrigerate the galette if not grilling immediately, up to 2 hours.
- Before grilling, brush the beaten egg over the crust and stars and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar all over the galette.
- Carefully transfer the galette to a 12-inch (30 cm) square piece of aluminum foil set over an inverted rimmed metal baking sheet. Fold the edges of the foil up to catch any dripping juices.
- Set the baking sheet at the center of the grill and close the lid. Grill for 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Check every 10 minutes and adjust the heat level as needed.
- Let cool for at least 30 minutes, then slice and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.
- Enjoy!
Smoked Pecan Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 8 Tablespoons very cold salted butter
- 4 Tablespoons ice water more if needed
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Filling
- 2 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup dark corn syrup
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup salted butter melted (but not hot)
Directions
- **Optional step if you really like smoke flavor** Prepare your smoker for cold smoking (temperatures between 40-70 degrees F inside your smoker). I used a smoke tube accessory filled with pecan pellets. Arrange the pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the smoker. Close the lid and smoke the pecans for 1 hour.
- Prepare the pie crust. Cut the chilled butter into cubes and put it back in the refrigerator while you prepare the flour. In a large food processor with a steel blade, place the flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter to the flour and pulse the food processor until the butter has broken down to the size of peas (12-15 times).
- Start the food processor and while it is running, pour the ice water down the feed tube until the dough begins to form a ball. Stop the processor as soon as the dough just starts to come together (there will still be a lot of unincorporated pieces of dough in the mixer bowl).
- Dump out on a floured board and press the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- While the dough is in the refrigerator, preheat your pellet smoker to 350 degrees F. You can use whatever wood you like, but I recommend pecan. At this higher temperature, you won’t get too much smoke flavor from the grill. If you want, you can bake in the oven. I recommend moving your oven rack to the lowest shelf.
- Unwrap the dough and place it on a floured surface and roll into a 12 inch round. Transfer carefully to a 9×2 inch pie tin and crimp the edges.
- Make your pie filling. Spread pecans evenly inside pie crust. Whisk the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and melted butter together in a large bowl until combined. Pour over pecans.
- Place the pie on your smoker (preferably above the fire pot, if possible) and close the lid. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until the top of the pie has browned slightly and the crust is golden brown.
- Carefully remove the pie from the smoker and allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. The filling will set as the pie cools.
Grilled Apple Crisp
(basically a pie without the crust?)
Ingredients
- 6-8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (may substitute ground nutmeg)
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into cubes
Directions
- Start grill. Adjust temperature to 300-350º. If using charcoal, you will want the skillet over indirect heat.
- In a large bowl, toss together apples, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Let sit a few minutes to let juices develop.
- Pour apples into a 9-inch cast iron skillet. Cover with foil.
- Grill for 20 minutes, then check apple tenderness by carefully opening up the foil and inserting a knife. Mine needed another 20 minutes.
- During the first phase of grilling, make crisp topping. Mix together flour and brown sugar. Add butter and work with hands or pastry blender till topping resembles crumbs. Set aside.
- Check apples again; if juices are bubbling and apples are tender, spoon on the crisp topping, leave uncovered and cook for another 15-20 minutes till topping is lightly browned. You may increase the grill temperature to 350-375º to cook the topping.
- Allow to cool till just warm or to room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Image used under license from Shutterstock.com
