If you're bringing pie to Friendsgiving, these three recipes give you a few good places to start. There's apple butter pie with a smooth spiced filling, maple pecan pie with a nutty top, and no-bake chocolate pie with a cookie crust.
The apple butter pie is the one that first caught our eye. A whole pie with that golden edge looks so good on a dessert table. Then you cut a slice and get a soft apple filling instead of the usual layers of fruit. It's a fun change if apple is already your favorite fall flavor.
Each section below credits the recipe's creator and links to the full recipe. You can compare the fillings and planning needs here, then head to the original page for the ingredients, steps, and baking notes.
Three Friendsgiving pie recipes to choose from
Choose apple butter for a smooth fruit filling, maple pecan for a nut-filled pie, or chocolate when you'd like a no-bake option. You can bring one favorite or split the list with two friends and turn dessert into a small pie tasting.
Before anyone claims a pie, check what your host already has planned. If someone has the pecan pie covered, the apple butter or chocolate gives you another flavor to share. For the rest of the meal, our ideas for what to bring without a full kitchen include ready-to-share food and useful extras.
You don't need matching pie dishes or a full dessert display. A spot for the pies, a stack of plates, and a server for each one give everyone room to help themselves. Little labels with the pie names are useful, too, especially when two brown fillings look alike from across the table.
Apple butter pie by Kelli Avila
Kelli Avila of Everyday Pie makes this apple butter pie with a smooth apple custard filling and a spelt crust. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves give it its fall flavor. The filling has cream and eggs, so the cut slice looks quite different from a pie packed with sliced apples.
Kelli's recipe allows homemade or store-bought apple butter. She also shares several crust options if you'd like something other than spelt. Her suggested maple whipped cream sounds like a lovely finish (and a good reason to leave a little room on the plate).
This is a plan-ahead choice. Kelli calls for at least six hours in the fridge after the pie cools so the filling can firm up. Keep that chill time in mind when choosing your baking day, rather than counting only the time in the oven.
Pick this one when you want apple on the table with a smooth filling. The whole-grain crust also gives it a different look beside a glossy chocolate pie or a pecan-topped slice.
Get the full apple butter pie recipe from Kelli Avila at Everyday Pie.
Maple pecan pie by Sally McKenney
Sally McKenney's maple pecan pie uses pure maple syrup instead of corn syrup. Pecan halves cover the top, with a brown sugar filling below and a pastry crust around the edge. A little flaky salt is her suggested finish.
This is the pie to pick if you're looking forward to the nuts as much as the filling. The pecan halves give each slice a different texture from the two smooth pies on this list. That salt on top is a pretty detail, too.
Sally's recipe includes a partially baked crust and time for the finished pie to cool. Her page also has make-ahead and freezing notes, which are useful if your week is already full. Follow those notes for this recipe rather than swapping in instructions from another pecan pie.
For a two-pie table, maple pecan and apple butter give you two fall choices with different fillings. If chocolate has a strong following in your group, pair the pecan pie with the next one instead. There may be some very small second slices involved.
Get the full maple pecan pie recipe from Sally McKenney at Sally's Baking.
No-bake chocolate pie by Kelli Avila
Kelli Avila's chocolate pie has a chocolate sandwich-cookie crust, a creamy chocolate filling, and a thin ganache top. A pinch of flaky salt finishes the pie. It's a full chocolate choice, right down to the crust.
This recipe is worth a look when the oven is busy with the rest of dinner. Kelli gives you a no-bake crust option as well as a baked one. The pie still needs time to chill, so no-bake doesn't mean it's ready to slice as soon as you've filled the dish.
The cut edge is part of the appeal: dark cookie crumbs, a lighter chocolate filling, and the smooth darker layer on top. It brings a different look to the table beside the golden pastry edges of the other two pies.
Choose this one for the friend who always checks whether dessert includes chocolate. If your group is planning games to play after Friendsgiving dinner, dessert can come first. A slice of chocolate pie and a seat near the game table sounds like a good arrangement.
Get the full no-bake chocolate pie recipe from Kelli Avila at Everyday Pie.
Make room for a little of each
A small slice of each pie lets you try all three fillings. If you're sharing dessert duties, send each baker the original recipe link and agree on who brings the servers and plates.
Check ingredients with your guests before settling on the menu. The pecan pie contains tree nuts, and these recipes also include ingredients such as dairy, eggs, or wheat. Use each creator's full ingredient list when checking a guest's needs. A pie's name alone doesn't tell you everything that's in it.
For the table, we'd keep the pies in their dishes and put the plates nearby. Add a few folded napkins and leave enough space to cut a slice without bumping the next pie. The apple butter pie gets the first spot. It did start the list, after all.
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