We’ve all heard the expression “easy as pie”, but anyone who has tried making pie from scratch knows that it's pretty tricky.
Plus, it involves locating and dusting off that rolling pin your mom gave you when you started college.
Let’s leave the pastry to the professionals at the local bakery, shall we?
The person who coined that phrase must have been referring to frozen and no-bake pies, which anyone can pull off. Plus, these don’t-worry-be-happy desserts make great treat for friends and family.

There are typically just two elements:
1. A ready-made pie pie crust, which you can buy in the baking section of the grocery store, or a homemade graham cracker crust
2. A filling that requires a few ingredients and very little effort

Here are some ideas and recipes for making easy pies:

Ice Cream Pie
You can concoct a very simple pie without a recipe. Buy a ready-made pie crust (or make a graham cracker one) and a tub of ice cream or frozen yogurt. Set the ice cream out to soften. Once you can scoop it easily, fill the pie crust, smooth the top and add any toppings you want (nuts, whipped cream, chocolate sauce). Then put it back into the freezer until serving time.

Pudding Pies
Simlarly, you can make a custom pie with pudding and fruit. Just buy a box of pudding mix – chocolate, vanilla, or another flavour – follow the directions, and pour it into a ready-made pie crust. Top it with sliced bananas, strawberries, or whatever you like. Refrigerate until dessert.

Frozen Lemonade Pie
The folks over at Baked Perfection tried this recipe (from the Food Network show Down Home With the Neely’s) for a Fourth of July party and fell in love with it. Set in a graham cracker crust, its sweet, lemony filling calls for frozen lemonade concentrate, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk. An easy alternative to a baked lemon meringue pie!

Nutter Butter Frozen Pie
Hello, peanut butter fans? It’s your dream pie calling. This one has a crust made of crushed Nutter Butter cookies (but feel free to substitute a pre-made one) and a frosty peanut butter and cream cheese filling.

Frozen Oreo Pie
Who can resist the Oreo cookie? We already know that Oreos keep our milk from getting lonely, and that it’s great fun to twist off the top of the cookie and lick out the filling. So, now, let’s crush them and use them in this frozen pie!

Frozen Blueberry Pie
This pie is not frozen in the sense that it sits in the freezer; it’s a baked blueberry pie that calls for frozen blueberries and a frozen pie crust. I’m including it because summer is the time for blueberries (even frozen) and this is a very easy version of your typical fruit pie that calls for crust made from scratch.

Chocolate Fudge Pie
After you read Kathy's post on this decadent pie, you'll never look at silken tofu the same way again. It's one of the keys to this pie's creamy fudginess.

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Banana Tofu Pie
Here's another recipe that involves tofu. This pie uses either a homemade or store-bought graham cracker crust to hold an intense filling. It takes about 15 minutes to make, then goes in the fridge or freezer for a couple of hours.

No-Bake Mango Pie
Anything mango is great in the summer. This one contains mango puree (which the author found at an Indian grocery store), whipped cream and mascarpone cheese. How can you go wrong?

No-Bake Key Lime Pie
A can of frozen limeade concentrate is what gives this simple pie its lime flavour.

No-Bake Strawberry Cream Pie
In this recipe, you puree some strawberries, add milk, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice, et voila!

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P.S. For those of you ready to tackle the pie dough making challenge, our friend Heidi at the Ward Street Bistro has a wonderful pie crust recipe that does not require "rolling out" the dough. This "Press in the Pan" pie dough recipe looks great for anyone intimated by a rolling pin!

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