There is a reason our friends across the pond supply us with such a wealth of pie related news. That’s because they eat ‘em for lunch, dinner and dessert. Savory pies rule the pub roost and I’m not going to discriminate.

Craig Hennessey and his Cumberland Tattie Pot

Yeah, it’s a corporate event sponsored by a pre-made pastry company, but I’m all for getting more people to make their own savory pies. Every year they crown a winning recipe and this year’s victor balances out the pre-made crust with local meat and produce. It also highlights an ingredient you just can’t find in the US: Hogget (even my spell check can’t handle it) . What’s hogget? It’s an adolescent or young adult sheep. It’s a lamb once it has entered that awkward, rebellious teenage phase; not quite as tender as lamb, but more flavorful. The recipe also calls for black pudding (aka blood sausage—my Irish fiancé’s favorite), so I doubt many American home cooks will be making this pie.

So the next time you are in Cumbria, stop in at the Queens Head Inn for some a Cumberland Tattie Pot. For now, you’ll just have to settle for these tatties.

Maggie Austin Cakes' Tiffany masterpiece based on the famous Pond Lily motif.

I’ve been looking at tons of wedding cakes, but this one, err…takes the cake. Sorry. If I lived anywhere near DC I might be considering an about face on my own decision (don’t worry, Betsy, I’m not). Find out more about Maggie and her fabulous cakes in this Capitol File article. It’s pretty interesting stuff. She used to be a ballerina and you can definitely see that delicate influence in her designs.

You’ll be seeing more of me soon. Wedding planning has taken up a lot of my time lately, but I’m off to Austin for SXSW and Techmunch tomorrow. I’ll be reppin’ pies hard in the land of BBQ and cupcakes (seriously, there are one thousand cupcake parties at SXSW). If you are going to be there please hit me up or meet me at Pie Hard.

I can't really express how amazing this tart tastes!

Pumpkin? Pecan? I made this crowd-pleasing Chocolate Caramel Tart with Sea Salt. It sure looked luscious (especially on my sister’s beautiful dessert plates)! This is one of my favorite, most indulgent recipes to make when I know I’ve got to impress a crowd. My chocolate tempering skills still need some work (for the ganache) and, unfortunately, I got a nasty burn on my finger while making the caramel…but, I think it was worth it in the long run.

I’ve got a few more pies ahead of me this weekend as I gear up for the Bay Ridge Pie Social at my friend Justin’s art school for kids: The Art Room. We’ll have more on that later (plus the reveal of my citrus experimentations), but for now why don’t you let us know what kind of pie you dug into on Thanksgiving down there in the comments.

There have been rumblings for a while now. Pie is on the up and up. And now, the newspaper of record has taken note.

Pie had been lurking below the radar in recent years: taking cover during the ice cream trend, perhaps waiting to see which way the macaron tide would turn. (For proof that the cupcake craze has gone too far, consider the new turkey cranberry cupcake with gravy in the batter from Yummy Cupcakes in Los Angeles.)

Suddenly, New York and San Francisco are national centers of pie innovation.

Go read the article already! It mentions some of my favorite Brooklyn pies, including Diner’s dope Rye Pecan Pie and a few specialties from the ladies of Four and Twenty Blackbirds (they’re Salted Caramel Apple pie rides food trends without being trendy). It’s pretty cool to live in the epicenter of pie innovation!

My camera died, so please excuse this "soft focus" iPhone image.

Don’t worry, it’s totally legal. So where did the name come from? This dense and decadent chocolate mousse pie is fragrantly spiced with pink peppercorns, cinnamon and a touch of ancho chili powder, so I wanted a name that evoked the spice route and honor the flavors that make this treat unique. Never used pink peppercorns? They’re fragrant, sweet and spicy! And while they are also peppery, they are not actually peppercorns, but the berry of a South American plant called Baies Rose. How exotic. And if the richness of the fancy chocolate decked with spices seems a bit intense for you, the tangy crème fraiche topping does a great job of cutting through the noise.

Intrigued? Read on for a recipe that will make you a hero this holiday season. And apologies for the lack of pretty pictures. They’ll be back!

CHOCOLATE OPIUM PIE

One 9-inch Gingersnap Crust
(I really love Karen Demasco’s version made with homemade gingersnaps, but that’s a lot of effort, so sometimes I buy high quality ones and proceed from there)

Chocolate Mousse Filling
8 ounces of the deepest, darkest chocolate you can get–anything above 70% cacao will suitable knock your socks off! I use Madécasse when I’m splurging and Endangered Species when I’m not.
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3 eggs–separated
1 cup heavy cream–chilled
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping teaspoon pink peppercorns–ground up with a coffee mill or in a mortar and pestle
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder (how hot do you like it)

Crème Fraiche Topping
1 cup heavy cream–chilled
1 cup crème fraiche–chilled
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Before we get started, stick your metal mixing bowl and beater for your mixer into the freezer for a few minutes. You’re really going to need a mixer (hand or stand) for this one, unless you are really strong and have the endurance of an ultra-marathoner.

1. Melt the butter and chocolate (break it up) in a heat resistant bowl set over a small pot of boiling water. If you are fancy and own a double boiler, use it. Whisk the chocolate until it is entirely melted. Remove the bowl from heat and let it cool for  a minute. Then whisk in the egg yolks one at a time and add your ground up peppercorns, cinnamon and ancho chili powder.

2. Whip up your heavy cream with that chilled bowl and beater. Once it is nice and thick (but before it is butter) stash it in the fridge. Thoroughly wash your beater (if you’ve only got one mixer bowl transfer the whipped cream to another vessel and thoroughly was that, too). This is really important! If there is any fat (from the cream) left on your beater/bowl your egg whites won’t whip up properly.

3. Now whip those egg whites until you get soft peaks. I like to start on medium and then kick it up to high. Gradually add the sugar, a little bit at a time, and keep on beating on until you’ve got stiff peaks (they should be shiny).

4. Gently fold the chocolate into the egg whites. I like to start with 1/4 of the egg whites and then add another 1/4 at a time until they’re all in there.  Then fold whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.

5. Scrape your mousse into your crust. I like to tap the pie plate on the counter a few times to get any air bubbles out. Refrigerate your pie for a couple of hours.

7. To make your topping, combine all of your remaining ingredients in a bowl and beat away (you don’t need to clean your beater for this round of fluffing). It’s done when it’s thick enough to spread. Now spread this tangy deliciousness  on top of your pie and dig in.

***If you are feeling lazy, just make a parfait out of gingersnap crumbs, chocolate mousse and crème fraiche topping. It’s got all the great tastes without all of the assembly***

It's still a winner!

For the second year in a row I took home “Prettiest Pie” at Enid’s Apple Pie Contest.  I guess my pie success really hasn’t been a fluke.

It's also pretty on the inside.

There were fewer pies in contention this year, but the competition was still pretty fierce. I went with judge Harry Roseblum’s advice and used a tried and tested recipe: Apple Black Crystal Pie.

I’m happy to report that some of the big honors went to folks I know and have competed with before. Michael Stewart and Charlie Mirisola brought home the big prize with this Bourbon Butter Apple Pie.

I wish I got to try it, but it was gone in a jiffy.

FYI, Michael once made an epic Peter Pan Donut Pudding Pie that is now all the rage in Germany (seriously).

There is also a donut INSIDE of the pie.

Now I’ve got 12 months to come up with a new way to wow the judges. Maybe next year I’ll even place for taste!

I’ll post more soon, but for now I’d like to give a big shout-out to the awesome judges. They put a lot of effort into tasting and ranking all of the pies. I stole a peek at one of the judging forms and was really impressed with all of the elements they took into consideration for each pie (and I’m not divulging their secrets). You can check out more about some of the judges here:
Harry Rosenblum of the Brooklyn Kitchen.
Matt Tilden of the delicious Scratchbread.
Michael Harlan Turkell of epic photography excellence and Edible Brooklyn.
Einat Imber and Erin Dieboll who make art and devour pies on the regular.

You should go.

Last year’s contest was my first ever pie competition and I brought home the prize for Prettiest Pie.

Stop snickering!

It was my first apple pie in years and, while it impressed the judges in the aesthetics department, I don’t think it was particularly tasty, since it didn’t win, place or show in the taste category.

I’m a bit nervous. Last year’s contest was jam-packed. I don’t think they were ready for the number of people who eventually showed up. This year, they’re only accepting the first 50 pies and you are “not allowed” to show up early. And there isn’t even an exception for the previous years’ winners. I need to show up with all of the common people!

This year, I think I’ve got a good chance at placing in either the looks or taste category, but I’m not holding my breath. There are some great bakers in Brooklyn, but I think I’ve got a winner up my sleeve (and no, I’m not divulging my secrets). Check in early next week for some results and pie porn!

For those of you who want a peek at my prizewinning pie from last year, here she is:

Carefully placed, fluted rounds topped with a rustic, egg yolk wash and demerara sugar.

That picture doesn’t do it justice…it really was a gorgeous pie.

FYI: Enid’s is a fun, local bar with strong drinks and very good food.

He's a baker, not a divider. A pie divider. He wants a whole pie to himself.

For those of you who have something else to do let me sum it up for you. “The Administration, the progressives…the Marxists” think there is just one pie in the world…and it needs to be cut up and distributed based on government handouts, feelings of guilt and anti-business sentiment. Free Market thinkers, like Mr. Beck, think we all have the potential to make more pies. For ourselves. Who knew the world was that easy to understand!

Now, I get. Pies make the concept of distribution easy to understand. That’s why we’ve got pie charts:

Pie Chart! via GraphJam

Is he going to make an egg wash?

But Glenn Beck should step away from the pies. For starters, he doesn’t even know how they are made. You don’t need eggs to make a pie!
For those of you who need a little backstory, Beck has used the pie analogy before. He always credits Michelle Obama for his obsession because of something she said on the campaign trail about some people giving up a bit of their pie so we can all live better lives. COMMUNISM!

Pie Throwing's earlier, more gamorous days.

Go sign the petition. RIGHT NOW!

From Times Online

Marks & Spencer won the Times’ taste test. I’ll have to try these when we (hopefully) go over there for Christmas.

Of course, as article points out, the rise of the whoopie pie comes at the expense of the cupcake. Intrepid whoopie investigator Huma Qureshi got to the bottom it:

But if, like me, you struggle with the disproportionate slather of overly sweet frosting on cupcakes (Gerhard Jenne, the founder of the upmarket bakery Konditor & Cook, once told me that he couldn’t stand them because he always gets frosting up his nose), then you will appreciate the ease of sinking into a whoopie pie: the buttercream is kept neatly in the middle, like a sweet hamburger in a bun.

For the record, when I get a cupcake I usually rip off the bottom and smush it on top of the frosting. I am, in essence, turning it into a whoopie pie and keeping the frosting out of my nose.