Jessica’s Apple-Cranberry Pie earned her a third place ribbon in the fruit category at the Third Annual Good Food Pie Contest.  Keep reading for her story and her recipe…

My name is Jessica Kubel and I was thrilled that my Apple-Cranberry pie won 3rd place in the fruit pie category! A friend had told me about the KCRW pie contest, and I entered as soon as I could. I was a little overwhelmed when I saw so many people and competitors that day!  I love to bake, and desserts are …

The Third Annual Good Food Pie Contest was a roaring success.  Sixteen judges judged almost 200 pies in the Fruit, Nut, Cream, Savory and Tim Burton inspired categories and the contestants served their pies to an enormous crowd in the courtyard of LACMA.  Judges’ favorites included a savory Persian Tart and a traditional Banana Cream Pie, but the hands down winner was Stephanie Shaiken who made a Classic Apple Pie.  Stephanie won first place in the Fruit category and also won Best in Show.  If you didn’t get a …

PIE-A-DAY #65
If you like eating pie for breakfast as I do this is a great pie to try.  You’ll notice from the photo of the slice that it’s not too full of apples.  The Gravensteins are lovely and become very tender and collapse a bit.  If you want a higher pie just use more apples than are called for in the recipe and adapt the other ingredient amounts.
This pie was inspired by a leisurely stroll through one of my favorite gourmet food shops, Surfas in Culver City, CA.  There …

Ever since I was old enough to make an edible pie I’ve made myself an apple pie for my birthday.  It’s my favorite dessert, although I prefer eating it for breakfast.  To me, that’s a birthday celebration, pie for breakfast every day till there is no more pie.
But now that I’m a farmers market shopper I sometimes feel guilty making an apple pie in July.  I mean, with all those berries and stone fruit around and apples traveling from other hemispheres I really should give up the apple pie …

PIE-A-DAY #28
This pie comes to us from Shannon O’Malley and Keith Wilson or Apocalypse Cakes. The two maintain their website and also published a cook book - Apocalypse Cakes: Recipes for The End.
If we’re all going to drown in an epic sea of warm trash we should enjoy some Global Warming Hot Apple Pie. This is what my friend Keith and I were thinking when we made this pie one weekend. We’d been working on our “art” project, Apocalypse Cakes, for about 6 months and after making other pies and cakes in …

PIE-A-DAY #21
This recipe comes to us from Beth Kendrick, avid baker and author of the novel, “The Bake-Off.”
Keep reading for the recipe…

PIE-A-DAY #7
This recipe comes to us from Dave Lieberman, writer for OC Weekly and a judge for this year’s Pie Contest!

I was always one of those kids who hated eating the back, hard part of the crust of the pie. Once the crust that adhered to the filling—including that crackly, crumbly, sugary, flaky top—was done, I was done eating the pie. Wasteful! When I got old enough to experiment, I deliberately made messy fillings so there’d be enough left on the plate to provide a dip for the …

PIE-A-DAY #33
This pie comes to us from James Overbaugh, Executive Chef – The Peninsula Beverly Hills:

For those of you who have seen the movie “Ratatouille” and recall this sequence you’ll quickly understand why I love this pie: Remember when Remy and Linguini prepare a special ratatouille for Anton Ego?  Remember how he was instantaneously transported back to his childhood through the power of the culinary memory?  That’s exactly what happened to me today when for the first time in years I made and tasted my grandmother’s apple pie.
I grew …

PIE-A-DAY #31

If I had to choose one pie to eat over and over it would surely be an Apple Pie.  That said there are so many ways to make an apple pie.
Some apple pies have a glossy, transparent filling of diced apples that still have some crunch.  Those aren’t my kind of pies.  No judgement, it’s just that I’m after something else.
I want a pie where the crust is as important a part of the whole as the filling.  It is flaky/tender and buttery with a hint of lift.  The apples inside the crust …

Barbara Treves won Best in Show at KCRW’s first ever Good Food Pie Contest:

Forever Favourite Apple Pie
Crust
1-1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached, organic all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla powder
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
3 T sugar
1-1/4 cup sweet butter, unsalted (freshly made if possible)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar, chilled
6 – 8 Tablespoons ice water
Measure out all dry ingredients, combine and place in freezer, keep butter & liquid ingredients in refrigerator for at least one hour prior to preparation.
When ready, add dry ingredients to food processor …