Easy as pie with Martha Stewart

Whoever coined the phrase “easy as pie” clearly didn't bake much. Enter Martha Stewart... Again.

Stewart's latest cookbook — simply named “Pies and Tarts” — offers more than 150 recipes whose clear instructions, gorgeous photos and brevity (all recipes fit on one page) take the intimidation out of pastry. Organized by category from “classic” (think apple) to “free-form” (no pie plate handy?) to “artful” (double lattice crusts, shingled leaves), the book lets users pick pies according to their skill and occasion.

From savory tarts to mile-high meringues, the range of pastries offered makes the book useful for dinner or dessert, winter or summer, weeknights and weekends. Mini chicken potpies with herbed crust make a hearty winter meal, while vegetable tartlets filled with zucchini and tomatoes are an elegant summer lunch.

Everyday desserts such as the fruit tart with a cookie-like crust can be made all year long with whatever's in the market, and free-form galettes — in which the dough is simply rolled and folded over a mound of fresh fruit — are easy enough for a busy Tuesday night.

Even special occasion desserts like billowy Key lime pie with graham cracker crust and dainty tartlets filled with persimmon and caramel cream appear straightforward. For the holidays, you've got Neapolitan Easter pie filled with wheat berries and ricotta and a berry tart snuggled into a macaroon-like crust of coconut and egg white. And it is flour- and dairy-free for Passover.

True to the formula of Stewart's books, an instructional chapter offers the 1-2-3 of crust making, excellent tips about freezing ingredients so you're ready when guests pop by, and a graduated lesson on mastering pie-making skills from single-crust affairs to dried-fruit compotes with star-lattice designs.

Who knows? Maybe it was Stewart who called pie-making “easy.”