Pies! 2014 edition

November 9, 2014 • 1:56 pm

Save your fork—there’s pie! Or at least there was yesterday, when I attended the yearly South Side Pie Challenge held as a fundraiser for the local Ray School. The pies were at least as good as last year’s, and I bought four pieces ($3 slice/ four for $10: a bargain), consuming two on the spot (caramel whipped-cream pie and a luscious blueberry pie) and saved two for later (lemon meringue pie with candied lemon peel and a peanut-butter cream pie).

O! Ye! of other nations who have not sampled one of America’s great contributions to world gastronomy*, gnash your teeth and see below!:

The welcoming sign:

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The tables of entries laid out. Chocolate pies and pumpkin/sweet potato pies:

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Fruit pies and more cream pies:

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More cream pies and fruit pies:

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And some lovely items, first a “forget the election” cashew cream pie (Hyde Parkers are liberals):

Cashew cream pie

A “mustikkapiirakka” pie, which tasted like blueberry to me (it was good!):

Blueberry

A “pie-rat” chocolate pie, emblazoned with the appropriate skull and crossbones:

Pie rat chocolate pie

A lovely apple-raisin pie (each contestant baked two pies, one for the judges to sample and the other for general purchase and consumption):

Apple raisin pie

A dulce de leche pie:

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What I thought was the prettiest item, a “devilish pie”:

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A real killer: a salted caramel chocolate cream pie. I much regret that my stomach, swelled by two pieces already, didn’t permit me to try this one:

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Finally, one of the adorable Ray School students (who assisted in the vending of comestibles) inspecting her wares in the pecan/nut/squash pie section:

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Which pie would you take?

________

*We’re not talking about savory pies here, like pork pies, so we don’t need to hear from the UK Pie Police.

 

68 thoughts on “Pies! 2014 edition”

  1. I’m not completely sure what it is, but I’ll have a slice of the mustikkapiirakka pie.

    And the skull and crossbones pie wins the “most adorable” award.

    2. I’ll take that “mustikkapiirakka” also. Mustikkapiirakka is finnish and means blueberry pie. Mustikka is blueberry and piirakka is pie.
      It is a very common summer delicacy here in Finland.

  2. I want them all. If I had to choose just one it would be a toss up between something with nuts on top and something containing chocolate. (The two combined are not necessarily better than one or the other on its own.)

  4. That devilish pie is a cutie.

    I would have to be there to choose, and what I would be looking for is what American pie bakers do best: a double crust (bottom and top, that is) with the most juicy fruit. So there should be flaky bits around the pie on the table and spots of congealed fruit juice which erupted through the crust. That would be my baby, and I would take the entire pie home. 🙂

  7. I’d probably want all the cream pies. Most likely I’d faint from being overwhelmed with choice, much like Robin Williams’s character in Moscow in the Hudson fainted when faced with many coffee choices.

    As a child I was confused by meat pies. I expected a sweet dessert and got meat. I’ve felt upset by meat pies ever since.

          1. My Grandma made her own, it was awesome! A good shot of brandy was a key ingredient. I have heard that Lamb’s Navy Rum is another acceptable additive.

    1. Yes, “mustikka” is Finnish for “blueberry” and “piirakka” means “pie”. “Mustikkapiirakka pie” would mean “blueberry pie pie”, so I guess the appropriate English form would be either “mustikkapiirakka” or “Finnish blueberry pie”.

  14. Living in Tokyo, I miss the availability of good pies. The only kind of pie people make here is apple, and it’s really expensive (and not very good). After seeing all those pie pics, I’m looking forward to my next trip back to America.

    1. Yes, for some reason Marie Callender’s and Anna Miller’s pie chains both tried but failed to establish themselves here, after first going gloriously traditional then gradually japanizing their assortment (bad move, in my opinion). Now there’s Bubby’s trying to make a go of it — they’ve got just a few pies, but they’re really very good.

      http://bubbys.jp/menu_shiodome.html#page2

  15. What a beautiful range of pies. Sadly I have lost interest in sweet things since having had chemotherapy a couple of years ago. Not a side-effect that anyone warned me of!

  16. devilish pie and chocolate cream cashew for me. Not slices, though, the whole thing. And a pumpkin pie and lemon meringue, too, if you please.

    Excuse me, I need to go to the store.

  17. “I much regret that my stomach, swelled by two pieces already, didn’t permit me to try this one:”

    If you can only fit two slices of pie perhaps you need more practice. 🙂

  19. what’s on that “devilish pie? looks like shards of chocolate meringues. I make a rockin’ lemon meringue pie with pure lemon curd as the filling.

    My husband and I make the very best meat pies. we take chuck roast, roast it until it is succulent and tender, then make gravy and place the meat/gravy mix into a cheddar cheese butter crust with just enough cayenne pepper to say “more”.

  20. Is this the pie in the sky that there will be when we die according to the long-haired preachers that come out every night trying to tell us what’s wrong and what’s right.?? I
    wonder how many have heard that song?

    1. My wife made two strawberry rhubarb pies a week and a half ago. They have been et.
      Lucky me.

  22. There’s one in the last photo that looks like a sweet potato pie. I’d take that one, and if there was a cassava pie! And a small taste of all the others too.

  24. I’m horrible at making these decisions.

    Every few weeks I treat myself to a few items from the bakery and it’s almost torture trying to decide what to get. I want it to be the perfect treat-eating experience.

    Does that sound crazy?

    1. Not at all crazy. My family of foodies is known for our food paralysis in just such situations.

      What happens to me is I often enough give in and get them all. Yesterday I encountered an incredible new bakery devoted exclusively to scones. Every flavor, from savory to sweet, looked too good to pass up.

      I came home with a big bag of scones!

      1. I’ve encountered a few restaurants where you can get a little bit of each dessert. Brilliant concept: either to pig our alone or share with the whole table.

  25. I’m a sucker for coconut cream and pecan pies. So I’d have to take a slice of the salted chocolate pecan pie. I’ve really come to enjoy salted caramel and chocolate deserts.

  27. Now that I have cleaned off the drool on my keyboard.. mustikkapiirakka and what would be my first choice if I HAD one “forget the election” cashew cream pie.
    Laurel and Hardy know what YOU need for this
    bit of PIE torture..and there won’t be any eating going on!

  29. I’ve always been a big fan of lemon meringue the addition of candied lemon peel sounds brilliant!

  30. “we don’t need to hear from the UK Pie Police”

    We, the undersigned, take great umbridge at being excluded by Professor Coyne from commenting on this post. It only serves to highlight the unpleasant national divisions inherent in baked goods when respected members of the consuming community take it upon themselves to exclude certain nations from engaging in discussion, argument and poorly constructed badinage.

    Sincerely

    Inspector Crust, UK Pie Police
    Commissionaire Croute, Controleur Nationale des Tartes et Gateaux
    Inspektør Skorpe, Kontor af Kager og Tærter

    1. I am eating a Melton Mowbray pie followed by a rhubarb crumble in protest. Washed down a nice cup of tea, naturally. So there!

    2. I see the Kuchen Polizei didn’t sign on. They probably don’t like those types of pies either.

  32. Some years ago, I stopped eating any and all sugary desserts just to see if it would help with losing weight (it did, about 5 lbs.) Then Jerry comes along and shows these wonderful pies. That blueberry pie looked like heaven (if there is such a place.) I feel myself weakening…!

    1. I do not pass judgement on anyone else’s method of losing weight as different approaches work for different people. But giving up sweet things or dessert sounds painful to me. I know I couldn’t do it. It’s one reason I could never adopt one of those super low carb approaches. I dropped 50 pounds around 4 years ago without cutting anything out from my diet, mostly by adjusting portion control, eating more sensibly most of the time, and getting daily exercise.

      Being a baked goods fanatic with some great bakeries nearby, every weekend I’m arriving home with pie, almond or chocolate croissants, fresh baked cookies, butter tarts, cake, you name it. I may as well be the devil to my wife who doesn’t want to put on weight, but I can’t help it.

      There’s a blue-berry pie in the fridge and scones on the counter. No Can Defend.

      1. I’m the worst for treating something sweet as a whole meal because of the calorie hit. 🙂 I just love the sweets!

        1. Same here Diana. I certainly wouldn’t feel guilty about it. Most of us grew up with the idea that a desert-type-sweet was something you always had in addition to a full meal. No wonder someone people can put on weight if they regularly added deserts that way.

          I have no problem deciding to have pie, or a slice of Red Velvet Cake for breakfast (I love sweets in the morning), or even as lunch. As long as it’s not an every day habit, and the other meals of the day are nutritious, it’s no problem in terms of weight gain or health, and I don’t feel deprived of anything at all.

  33. Oh God-Who-Doesn’t-Exist, that is torturous looking at all those delicious pies in the morning. Morning being my favorite time to eat pie.

    The ones that stood out for me were:

    apple-raisin pie
    dulce de leche pie
    salted caramel chocolate cream pie

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