I think many of you will remember my victorious turn in the 6th annual Oakland Pie-Off two years ago--my Ginger Peach (my second pie effort ever, I should add) came in 9th in a pool of over 90 pies. I regard this as one of my greatest accomplishments. I missed the 2004 contest, but this year's was yesterday. I'd like to thank the contributors to this year's pie--Matthew Africa (graphic designer, pie baker) and Brooks and Autumn (official taste testers).
Flavor? Banana cream.
How to make the perfect pie? Bake, bake, and bake again. We tried four variations on Saturday:
-Cook's Illustrated Vanilla Cream with bananas, traditional flake crust with graham cracker crumbs baked in.
-New York Times Cookbook sour cream banana filling, graham cracker crust
-Pie Every Day graham cracker crust and oreo crust (this second was a failure; apparently you're supposed to scrape out the cream filling before grinding the cookies); berry-cheese cake filling (I was in the mood for cheesecake)
The winner: Cook's Illustrated crust, NYT sour cream banana filling. The filling really is exceptional--I loved it and I don't even like banana pies.
The verdict? Nothing! There are 5 official pie categories, of which banana falls into "other." Apparently the judges this year decided that they would only advance "other" pies that were entirely non-traditional. Mango made it to the final round.
While both Matt and I are taking this loss hard, I'm determined to try again and crack the top five. Any votes for next year's flavor? Post a comment.
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1 comment:
I don't have a suggestion for next year but I do know I want a pie now. Sounds like fun.
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