First Pittsburgh All-Comers Apple Pie Baking Contest

The Results Are In!

The bigBurrito Restaurant Group's peripetetic Corporate Chef Bill Fuller came to the East Liberty permanent farm market last Saturday morning to judge the First Pittsburgh All-Comers Apple Pie Baking Contest. Slow Food Pittsburgh sponsored the event.

Using unusual Western Pennsylvania apples was the point; contest rules precluded Delicious apples.

Two judges helped Chef Fuller assess the blind entries: a fluty-voiced "Julia Child," played by Linda Bazan of Point Breeze, and Fuller's son Jake, aged three. Judging was especially blind in Jake's case because he was not tall enough to see the entries. He did not know from which pies the forkfuls offered by his father came. His vote was tabulated by bites swallowed from each pie.

Awards went to five bakers:

A crackley caramel apple brown betty pie filled with Cortland apples, submitted by the wife of Rick Zang, a market vendor, won "Best Overall Taste" and the Fuller Award, "Sexiest Knife Feel."

Deemed "Most Like Grandma's" was a stencil-cut butter crust pie with Kistaco Orchard's Cortland, Jonagold, Stayman and Northern Spy apples made by Suzanne Hileman, also a market vendor. East-Ender Paulette Kendall's butter-lard two-crust pie with a leaf decoration won for "Best Eye Candy."

A pie baked by Don Gibbon of Point Breeze won “Best Crust" for an old-fashioned oil-and-milk flaky pastry. Gibbon's pie also received "Best One-Apple Variety" (Stayman) and "Best All-American."

"Best Pie in the Show" went to Susan Barclay of Point Breeze, a Slow Food Pittsburgh co-leader. Barclay used Paul's Orchard McGowan apples and a Betty Crocker oil crust with a crumble topping.

Fuller said: "Those Betty Crocker and Joy of Cooking cookbooks made the recipes right. I have to have more of this pie."

Barclay's deep dish pie also won “Jake's Prize," for most bites of any pie eaten by Jake (four bites).

A good cause: Contest proceeds will help send Slow Food Pittsburgh's delegates to Terra Madre--Slow Food International's second global congress of leaders in sustainable agriculture. The conference takes place Oct. 26-31 in Turin, Italy. Representing Pittsburgh are Grow Pittsburgh's urban organic growers Barb Kline, Randa Shannon (Mildred's Daughters Urban Farm) and Mindy Schwartz (Garden Dreams). Don Gibbon, pie event organizer, is central to many good causes, including the region's Sierra Club.

WINNING RECIPE

“I used a Betty Crocker French Apple Pie recipe,” said Barclay. “This is the apple pie recipe my mother has made from time immemorial. She still has her original Betty Crocker cookbook given her by her mother when my parents got married in 1948.

The winning pie used Macoun (aka McGowan) apples from Paul’s Orchard, Frank Zibritosky, co-owner/grower, of Joffre, PA in Washington County.

French Apple Pie

You need at Pyrex 9.5 deep dish pie plate. Use local apples such as Summer Rambo, Macoun or other tart, firm, juicy apple and you’ll have a winner for your family.

Oil Pastry:
10-inch one-crust pie
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil such as canola or corn
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water.

Measure flour and salt into bowl. Add oil, mix until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl. (If dough seems dry, 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil can be added. Do not add water.) Gather dough together; press firmly into ball. Roll out.

Filling:
9 cup thinly sliced apples
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Crumb Topping :
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 cup all-purpose flour

Mix brown sugar and flour together then cut in butter to form a crumbly mixture.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pastry. Stir together sugar and cinnamon. Slice apples. Combine sugar/cinnamon mixture with apples, stirring to combine. Fill pastry. Top with crumb mixture. Cover edges with aluminum foil strips to prevent excessive browning. Bake 50 minutes. Cover top with foil last 10 minutes if top browns too quickly.

Source: Betty Crocker