No-roll pie crusts for simple summer desserts

By Dawn Perry, The New York Times

The allure of a homemade effect pastry is real: Just ideate a bubbling double-crusted blueberry fig cooling by a breezy window. But the imaginable of rolling dough connected a steamy time tin nonstop adjacent assured cooks packing. To crook retired stellar pies showcasing summer’s ripest effect — without heating up the room — you privation the easiness of crumb crusts and chilled fillings.

Just astir thing you tin crush into crumbs, you tin usage for a no-roll crust. Graham crackers are an evident choice, but different crumbly cookies, salty crackers and adjacent not-too-sugary cereals tin physique a tender, cookielike instauration beardown capable to clasp rich, creamy fillings. You tin premix and lucifer crusts and fillings with nary bounds but your imagination.

There are a fewer keys to producing an perfect crust. Make definite crumbs are blitzed into a azygous sandy pulverization earlier adding sweetener and butter. A flat-bottomed measuring cup, preferably 1 with a reasonably squared-off edge, works champion for pressing the crumbs into an adjacent layer. Your hands are good tools, but a cupful helps make a much structurally dependable shell. Start by compacting the sides archetypal — it’s easier to sound borderline crumbs backmost into the bottommost than it is to enactment excess bits up the broadside of a buttery dish. Use your escaped manus to forestall the crumbs from spilling implicit the edge. Then, property the remaining crumbs firmly crossed the bottommost of the plate, paying peculiar attraction to the corners wherever gaps tin spell unnoticed.

When it’s clip to bake, spot the pastry sheet connected a rimmed baking expanse truthful it’s casual to get successful and retired of the oven. Sometimes, a no-roll crust volition puff oregon slump portion baking, but that’s nary large deal: Check it halfway done baking and, portion the crust is inactive warm, usage the aforesaid measuring cupful oregon solid to mildly property it backmost into place, past cook until set.

Once cool, capable arsenic you like. The recipes beneath see a panna cotta-like custard, a honey-sweetened pudding and frozen yogurt swirled with berries. They each spell into the fridge oregon freezer to chill truthful that you tin bash the same. For an adjacent easier option, capable the cooled crusts with your favourite store-bought crystal cream, letting it soften somewhat earlier smoothing and freezing again. Top immoderate of the options with piles of sliced chromatic effect oregon saccharine summertime berries, and you’ve turned a humble pick pastry into a existent showstopper.

These desserts are a triumph for pastry lovers everywhere, particularly travel precocious summertime erstwhile astir of america would alternatively beryllium outside. With results truthful bully and reliable, they are precisely what sunny days telephone for: a airy assistance for a overmuch sweeter season.

Strawberry Cream Pie With Chocolate Cookie Crust

David Malosh, The New York Times

Strawberry pick pastry with cocoa cooky crust, successful New York, May 14, 2021. The cleanable pies for lazy days harvester buttery press-in crumb shells with no-bake fillings and piles of caller fruit. Food styled by Simon Andrews.

Total time: 30 minutes, positive chilling

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 6 ounces (170 grams) cocoa wafer cookies (about 35 cookies)
• 1 tablespoonful sugar
• 1/4 spoon kosher brackish (Diamond Crystal)
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the filling:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin (from 1 packet)
• 1 3/4 cups (420 milliliters) sour cream
• 1 spoon vanilla legume paste oregon axenic vanilla extract
• 1/2 cupful (120 milliliters) dense cream
• 1/4 cupful (50 grams) sugar, positive much if needed
• 1/4 spoon kosher brackish (Diamond Crystal)
• 1 lb (454 grams) strawberries, halved, quartered if large

Preparation

1. Make the crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack successful the mediate position. Place cookies, sweetener and brackish successful a nutrient processor and process until finely ground. (You should person astir 1 1/2 cups). Add food and pulse until the substance looks similar bedewed sand.

2. Transfer substance to a modular 9-inch pastry plate. Using the bottommost of a flat-bottomed measuring cup, property the substance up the sides and into the bottommost of the pastry plate. Bake connected the mediate rack until adust and set, 20 to 25 minutes. (If the crust slumps oregon puffs portion it bakes, mildly property it backmost into spot portion inactive lukewarm with the measuring cupful and proceed.) Let chill completely.

3. Make the filling: Place 3 tablespoons acold h2o successful a tiny bowl. Sprinkle gelatin implicit apical and fto basal until softened, astir 5 minutes. In a ample bowl, whisk unneurotic sour pick and vanilla until smooth. Combine cream, sweetener and 1/4 spoon brackish successful a tiny cookware and bring to a simmer implicit mean heat. Whisk successful gelatin substance until wholly dissolved, past whisk pick substance into sour cream. Pour filling into cooled crust and refrigerate until set, astatine slightest 2 hours and up to 2 days. (If making ahead, wrapper tightly erstwhile set).

4. Toss strawberries with sugar, if needed, and fto beryllium for 10 minutes. Pile strawberries and immoderate accumulated juices connected apical of pastry conscionable earlier serving.

Milk and Honey Pie With Cereal Crust

David Malosh, The New York Times

Milk and chromatic pastry with cereal crust, successful New York, May 14, 2021. The cleanable pies for lazy days harvester buttery press-in crumb shells with no-bake fillings and piles of caller fruit. Food styled by Simon Andrews.

Total time: 30 minutes, positive chilling

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 6 ounces (170 grams) cornflakes (about 5 cups)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 spoon kosher brackish (Diamond Crystal)
• 8 tablespoons (115 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the filling:

• 4 ample ovum yolks
• 1 ample egg
• 1/4 cupful (60 milliliters) honey
• 1/4 cupful (50 grams) sugar
• 5 tablespoons (40 grams) cornstarch
• 1/2 spoon kosher brackish (Diamond Crystal)
• 1 cupful (240 milliliters) full milk
• 1 cupful (240 milliliters) dense cream

For serving:

• 1 cupful (240 milliliters) dense cream
• 1 lb (454 grams ripe plums, pitted and sliced
• 1 to 2 teaspoons chromatic (optional)

Preparation

1. Make the crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack successful the mediate position. Combine cornflakes, sweetener and brackish successful a nutrient processor and process until finely ground. (You should person astir 1 1/2 cups). Add food and pulse until the substance looks similar bedewed sand.

2. Transfer cornflake substance to a modular 9-inch pastry plate. Using the bottommost of a flat-bottomed measuring cup, property the substance up the sides and into the bottommost of the pastry plate. Bake connected the mediate rack until adust and deeper aureate brown, 25 to 30 minutes. (If the crust slumps oregon puffs portion it bakes, mildly property it backmost into spot portion inactive lukewarm with the measuring cupful and proceed.) Let chill completely.

3. Make the filling: Whisk the ovum yolks, egg, honey, sugar, cornstarch and brackish successful a mean saucepan. Whisk successful beverage and pick and spot implicit medium-high heat. Cook, whisking continuously, until substance thickens and starts to bubble, 4 to 7 minutes. Continue to cook, whisking continuously, for 1 infinitesimal more. Pour substance into the cooled crust and dispersed successful an adjacent layer. Press integrative wrapper straight onto the aboveground of the pudding and refrigerate until firm, astatine slightest 3 hours and up to overnight.

4. To serve: Beat pick utilizing an electrical mixer until brushed peaks form. Dollop pick connected apical of pie, apical with plums and drizzle with chromatic if desired.

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt Pie With Cracker Crust

David Malosh, The New York Times

Blackberry frozen yogurt pastry with cracker crust, successful New York, May 14, 2021. The cleanable pies for lazy days harvester buttery press-in crumb shells with no-bake fillings and piles of caller fruit. Food styled by Simon Andrews.

Total time: 30 minutes, positive chilling

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 6 ounces (170 grams) Ritz crackers oregon saltines (about 50 crackers)
• 1 tablespoonful sugar
• 1/4 spoon kosher brackish (Diamond Crystal)
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the filling:

• 6 ounces (170 grams) caller oregon frozen blackberries
• 1 tablespoonful sugar
• 1 tablespoonful caller citrus juice
• 1 cupful (240 milliliters) dense cream
• 1/2 cupful (120 milliliters) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cupful (240 milliliters) full-fat Greek Yogurt

Preparation

1. Make the crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack successful the mediate position. Combine crackers, sweetener and brackish successful a nutrient processor and process until finely ground. (You should person astir 1 1/2 cups.) If you don’t person a nutrient processor, spot successful a resealable integrative container and bang with a rolling pin oregon nutrient mallet until crushed. Add food and pulse until the substance looks similar bedewed sand.

2. Transfer cracker substance to a modular 9-inch pastry plate. Using the bottommost of a flat-bottomed measuring cup, property the substance up the sides and into the bottommost of the pastry plate. Bake connected the mediate rack until adust and aureate brown, 20 to 25 minutes. (If the crust slumps oregon puffs portion it bakes, mildly property it backmost into spot portion inactive lukewarm with the measuring cupful and proceed.) Let chill completely.

3. Make the filling: Combine blackberries, sweetener and citrus foodstuff successful a nutrient processor and process until evenly crushed. Using an electrical mixer, bushed the pick and condensed beverage until stiff peaks form. Give yogurt a fewer stirs to creaseless it out, past mildly fold into whipped pick mixture; transportation to the cooled crust. Spoon blackberry substance implicit apical and, utilizing a spoon, cautiously swirl into the cream. Freeze until firm, astatine slightest 4 hours and up to 2 days. Let beryllium astatine country somesthesia for astir 30 minutes earlier serving; this volition marque it easier to slice.

This nonfiction primitively appeared successful The New York Times.