pi(e) recipes for pi day

If you know anything at all about what it’s like to go to an all-girls high school, you know how important snacks are. We had a soft-serve machine on campus. For Field Day every spring, they rented us a cotton candy maker. Once, my AP calculus class stole what I can only describe as a vat of Goldfish from the cafeteria and locked it in our classroom. The frantic man who supervised the cafeteria thought it was a prank; we planned to eat it.

My particular school was a kind of upside-down institution where it was actually somewhat cool to be smart, so that plus the snacks fixation meant we were probably some of the world’s most enthusiastic celebrators of Pi Day. (It probably doesn’t hurt that I’m from St. Louis, area code 314, a city that overlooks no excuse to look inward and celebrate itself while the rest of the country calls it names.)

So, in honor of plaid skirts, math tests and St. Louis: Happy Pi Day to all who celebrate, and may your day include at least one piece of pie. Here are two of my favorites I’ve baked lately.

Bon Appetit’s Best Coconut Cream Pie (from renowned St. Louisan and baking guru Claire Saffitz)

Sweet Potato-Miso Pie with Chocolate-Sesame Crust (please excuse the surface bubbles I had no time to mask with whipped cream)