Michele Stuart - Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes from Americas Pie-Baking Champion

Copyright 2011 by Michele Stuart

Photographs courtesy of Ben Fink Photography

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-345-52490-4

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.1

For my beloved grandmother

I told you Id make your pies famous some day!

And to my mom, who supported

all of my earliest

pie-making adventures

Some of the many first place ribbons won at National Pie Championships

When I opened the first Micheles Pies in December 2007, my goal was simple: to create a space where I could surround myself with the things I love most. Pies filled with the freshest, most flavorful ingredients from local farms and markets. The aroma of apples and cinnamon permeating the air; the feeling of my hands immersed in dough as I knead the perfect crust; customers happily chattering as they select their pies from my shops display case.

In a little more than four years Micheles Pies has won a total of twenty-six National Pie Championships Awards in the commercial division, and I have won two more (and three honorable mentions) independently in the professional division in categories that include apple, berry, cream, nut, and sugar free. People always want to know the secret to my award-winning pies, and I tell them, Theyre made by hand with love. And, although this may sound trite, its true.

My earliest childhood memories center around my grandmas kitchen, where she and I would spend hours on end peeling fruit, crimping dough, creating glazes, and carefully monitoring our creations to make sure they achieved perfect golden, flaky crusts. At first she would make the pies as I looked on. As time went by, I began to help her, adding flour under her watchful eye, tossing dough, and creating fruit fillings to go into her delicate crusts. For years I carefully observed her pie-making process, until, at last, I could make her pie recipes on my own. This was much easier said than done; my grandma didnt believe in following recipesshe preferred to feel (or, rather, taste) her way through a recipe.

After high school I was convinced that culinary school was for me. My parents, however, placed a strong emphasis on academics and believed a more traditional college education would be a better option. So while I started off on that intended path, life took on a direction of its own after graduation, and I embarked on a career as a nuclear medicine technician at New York Citys Mount Sinai Hospital. Although a standard nine-to-five routine set in, pies remained an integral part of my life. I never stopped making them, but they became a personal hobby rather than the professional endeavor I had once dreamed about. Still, after a long day of work at the hospital, I would escape to my home kitchen and lose myself in the comforting smells and rituals of pie making.

As is always the case, however, some surprises were in store for me. In 2000 my beloved mother passed away unexpectedly, and soon thereafter, I found myself back in my Connecticut hometown, caring for my widowed grandma, much as she had cared for me when I was a child. Once back in Connecticut, I made my first career shift, trading in my medical career for a job as a real estate agent. Though I wasnt passionate about the job, it allowed me the opportunity to be near to and care for my grandma. As we had during my childhood, the two of us spent a lot of time in the kitchen, making pies together.

When my grandma passed in 2006, the last thing I said to her was, Grandma, one day I am going to make your pies famous! About that same timeone afternoon in AprilI happened to turn on a television program about Americas top ten pie companies and how many of them had started at local farmers markets. An entrepreneurial spirit stirred within me. I can do that! I thought. Inspired, I immediately began researching and making phone calls, determined to find out exactly how I too could sell my pies at farmers markets. Unfortunately, I soon learned that Connecticut state laws would require me to work from a commercial kitchennot a financially feasible scenario.

After a little bit of wallowing, a new thought occurred to me: Just because I couldnt sell my pies in Connecticut didnt mean that I couldnt sell them somewhere else. My ski condo in Killington, Vermont, came to mindmaybe I could run my business from there. With just a few more phone calls, I learned that the laws in Vermont were much less stringent and would allow me to start a pie company right from the comfort of my own home kitchen. I was in business!

Within a week, I found myself in a tiny kitchen in Vermont, surrounded by commercial-size bags of flour, bushels of apples, and crates of berries. Soon I was frequenting the farmers markets and crafts fairs throughout the state, my pies in tow. Just a few months later, I took my business interstate, attending fall crafts shows and festivals in Connecticut. By the holidays, I was making deliveries throughout Vermont, Connecticut, and New York. It was a crazy and chaotic time, baking the hundreds of pies it took to fill these orders in my own kitchen and then delivering them myself, but it felt great.

Another stroke of luck came a little bit later, when a neighbor told me about her relative who lived in upstate New York and who would be a perfect romantic match for me. Although he was working in the refrigeration industry, he too had the dream of one day opening a bakery. I remember thinking that she was crazy: With my business starting to take off and a heavy workload, how could I possibly contemplate embarking on a long-distance relationship? Nonetheless, I ended up meeting the man who is now my husband and business partner, Kelly.

In fall 2006 the Food Network featured the National Pie Championshipsan event I was completely unaware of up to that point. I can do that! I once again thought. Just a few months later, I walked away with first place in the commercial nut category of the 2007 competition for my Micheles Pies was born.

When we first opened the shop in December 2007, I remember thinking how humongous the space was and wondering how we could ever fill up all that room. Well, luck was on my side once again. With very little advertising, word of mouth about the shop spread quickly, helped along by a surprise review of the shop in The New York Times. Then, in April 2008, I participated in the National Pie Championships once again, this time taking home four first-place awards.

Adding to the buzz, some of my customers nominated my Chocolate-Pecan-Bourbon Pie as a contender for Good Morning Americas Best Pie in America: Best Slice Challenge. I was completely unaware of this until I received a call from a GMA producer in November 2008, informing me that I was one of four national finalists. Although the award ultimately went to another baker, my shop had gone nationaljust a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Micheles Pies was slammed with orders, and my small staff and I worked all hours to fill them as the line of customers spilled outside and snaked all the way around our building.