The Simple Trick That Makes Serving Pie For A Crowd Even Easier

Think your favorite pie only serves six to eight? Think again! When it's time to feed a sweet-toothed crowd, transform your go-to pie recipe into pie bars for easier slicing and serving. Pie bars deliver the same flavor pie lovers know, love, and expect, with far easier prep for the baker (and tidier munching for guests). Thanks to the pie bars' super-easy sliceable-ness, this delivery allows foodies to slice the dessert into smaller portions for party snack tables, picnics, bake sales, and more. 

There's no need to worry about nailing an unbroken top crust here, either. Even if you choose to top this sheet pan dessert with a lattice crust (ambitious and cute), no one will notice a broken spot or two once the pie has been sliced into bars. Plus, serving pie in handheld bar form totally eliminates the need for a fork and knife (hooray for environment sustainability at the function).

For easier make-ahead prep, pie bars also hold up well in the fridge and lay flat in their thin tray, not demanding too much refrigerator real estate space. Foodies can whip up a tray of pie bars the night before an event, cover them in tin foil, and grab them when the moment strikes. Sheet pan desserts are super easy to transport, as well. An 8x8-inch baking pan will yield 12 larger pie bars or 24 smaller servings. To give your pie bars their due structural integrity, be sure to wait until the pie has fully cooled before slicing.

To translate your pie recipes into bar form, start by lining a baking sheet with an overhanging layer of parchment paper. It makes for easier clean-up later on, and also helps the pie's delicate bottom crust stay intact after slicing. Then, line the sheet with a layer of homemade or store-bought pie pastry crust. We use this same technique for our sheet pan quiche recipe. Alternatively, if your pie calls for a graham cracker crust (like these high-protein key lime pie bars), press the graham cracker crust into the parchment-paper-lined baking sheet as you might regularly form it.

From there, simply pour in your pie filling as normal and bake. Happily, 8x8-inch pie bars use roughly the same ingredient proportions and baking times as regular round pie recipes. For instance, our vegan pumpkin bars (8x8-inch baking pan) and our classic pumpkin pie (standard 9-inch round pie pan) are both based on one 15-ounce can of canned pumpkin. Regarding bake time, our classic pecan pie and our bourbon pecan pie bars both bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Make your go-to pie filling as normal and fill the baking sheet to the top. Intuition totally works here. Just keep an eye on those pie bars toward the end of their regular bake time to avoid accidental overbaking. If using a larger 13x9-inch baking sheet, your pie ingredients will likely need to be increased a tad to match the bigger pan.