Maybe a pie's a pleasant shade of brown (5)
I believe the answer is:
sepia
'shade of brown' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'maybe a pie's a' is the wordplay.
'maybe' indicates an anagram.
'pies' is an anagram of 'sepi'.
'sepi'+'a'='SEPIA'
'pleasant' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sepia that I've seen before include "brownish colour" , "tone of pictures?" , "Brown tint" , "Pigment got from cuttlefish ink" , "source of ink" .)