April 23-25, 2010 

photo courtesy of bitzcelt

The festival will be held at Lakeside Park at 631 Sycamore St. in downtown Celebration. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, April 24; noon to 5 p.m., Sunday, April 25. Admission to the festival is free, with tickets for the Never-Ending Pie Buffet priced at ($10 adults, $5 ages 65 and up, and $5 ages 6-12.)

A national pastime will attract national attention as contestants from across North America sift through their most treasured recipes in hope of finding one that leads to an award-winning pie. Perhaps it’s a family favorite that’s won praise for generations or a new creation that’s pleased a friend, but dedicated pie makers — from contestants with decades of blue ribbons to a new generation who are warmed up and ready to enter the competition — will be rolling out fresh dough and carefully measuring ingredients as they prepare for the three-day APC/ Crisco® 2010 National Pie Championships® April 23-25.

The competition heats up at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate as Commercial, Professional, Amateur and Junior Chef pie makers test their tasty creations in a variety of categories.   Last year, more than 170 judges graded pies created by 138 bakers who entered 465 commercial, 130 professional and 266 amateur pies.   Emile Henry USA, makers of the finest quality ceramic bake ware and gourmet cooking products, has returned for 2010 as the “Official Pie Dish” of the National Pie Championships.   Each junior, amateur and professional competitor receives an Emile Henry ceramic pie dish, valued at $45 each.   For 2010, Best of Show winners in the amateur and professional divisions will each win $5,000, a new Sears Kenmore range and a Crisco® gift basket, while the top winner in the Junior Chef division receive a $2000 Crisco college scholarship and a Crisco® gift basket.  First place ribbons and bragging rights will be awarded to Commercial Division winners.

To enter, APC members pay $15 per pie entry for amateurs and $20 per pie entry for professionals.  Non-members pay $35 per pie entry for either category.  Junior entries are free.

This year’s contestants will whip, puree and roll their way to victory in a wide range of categories: Amateurs are judged in 15 categories including Apple, Citrus, Crisco® Classic Cherry, Crisco® Classic Chocolate, Cream, Cream Cheese, Custard, Fruit/Berry, Nut, Peanut Butter, Pumpkin, Open, Raisin, sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board, Splenda, and Sweet Potato. First place winners in each category receive $200 cash and a Crisco® gift basket, second place winners receive $150 cash and third place winners take home $100 cash.

Professional bakers enter pies in nine categories: Apple, Citrus, Crisco® Classic Chocolate, Crisco® Classic Cherry, Fruit/Berry, Cream, Nut and Open and new for the 2010 competition — Raisin, sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board.  First place winners in each category receive $200 cash and a Crisco gift basket.

Junior Chefs who are in high school and between the ages 14 to 17 can test their pie-making skills with entries in Apple, Cream, Fruit/Berry or Open categories.  Three first place winners will receive a $100 gift certificate to Emile Henry USA, a $100 gift certificate to Cuisipro USA, a source for popular professional chef tools, as well as a Crisco® gift basket.

Commercial bakers competed in categories including Apple, Blueberry, Fruit/Berry, Open Cream, Citrus, Open, Nut and Chocolate, and Raisin, sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board.

The APC is now accepting registrations for the upcoming championships. Participants are encouraged to join the American Pie Council prior to registration in order to receive discounted entry fees.

Ten minutes from Celebration, the host hotel Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is offering a special $129 per night room rate for those attending or participating in the pie championship or pie festival. To book the American Pie Council special rate, call 800-843-6664 and identify yourself as associated with the APC.  For more information, visit the Front Porch Celebration Community Web Site at www.celebration.fl.us; or the American Pie Council®, www.piecouncil.org

Crisco®  is a registered trademark of The J. M. Smucker Company.  For more information, visit www.crisco.com.

The American Pie Council® is the only organization committed to maintaining America’s pie heritage, passing on the tradition of pie-making and promoting America’s love affair with pie. The APC offers personal, professional and commercial memberships. For more information, please visit www.piecouncil.org.

The American Pie Council (APC) is excited to roll out National Pie Day this January 23.

photo courtesy of ralph and jenny

This year, the APC is encouraging pie lovers to show their “pie-triotism” by sharing a pie with a hero in their life. Whether it’s baking or buying a pie for a member of the military or their family, the local fireman, teacher or your parent, the gift of pie is a sincere gesture of kindness. APC members are also offering coupons on to make buying or making a pie more affordable, as well as offering their own special pie day activities. For details, go to www.piecouncil.org or friend them on Facebook.

The act of sharing America’s quintessential dessert brings with it an extraordinary heritage. In many homes family recipes go back for decades and, quite often, special kitchen utensils have been passed down over generations. As with family reunions and special get-togethers, what takes place in the kitchen also brings families together as children and parents and husbands and wives experience the pleasure of working together and creating something special for someone else.

This year’s championships are April 23-25 at the Omni Championsgate Hotel in Celebration, Fla. Commercial, Professional, Amateur and Junior Chef pie makers will compete throughout the weekend. The Great American Pie Festival sponsored by Crisco® is held in conjunction with the championships, April 24 and 25 at Lakeside Park in Celebration and is free and open to the public.

Apple Deep Dish Pie #4623

Cookies and Cream Pie

Mountain Berry Tart

Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake

Today I’d like to feature a few of my favorite prepared desserts from Market Day. They are all perfect for Thanksgiving. Homemade treats without all the work! Why start from scratch when you can just… bake and serve!

Here are my top 4:

Apple Deep Dish Pie (kosher and diary free)
Cookies and Cream Pie (New!)
Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake (kosher)
Mountain Berry Tart (New!)

For information on all the ingredients, preparation and nutrition or to place an order, please visit marketday.com.

About: Market Day, the Original Fundraising Food Cooperative®, is the nation’s largest food fundraising company. Market Day is dedicated to meeting the needs of kids and communities across the country by providing fundraising programs that offer quality and value. Through its mission of giving back, Market Day has raised funds for important resources such as books, computers and playground equipment through its flagship monthly grocery program. In addition, Market Day offers a variety of fundraising options that can be tailored to meet the needs of organizations. Since its inception over 30 years ago, Market Day has raised over $450 million for America’s schools and communities.

Market Day offers a wide assortment of high quality food products for every meal of the day, from delicious breakfast foods to lunch favorites, nutritious family meals and delectable desserts, and Cups for Hope, a private blend of coffee. Market Day takes pride in offering nutritious choices, including many all natural and low calorie selections. Many items are exclusive to Market Day and not available in retail stores. MarketDay.com

photos courtesy of Market Day

Ingredients:

Crust -
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup chilled lard, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling -
2/3 cup Thompson seedless raisins
1 cup Finger Lakes Distilling Maplejack Liqueur
9 NYS Cortland apples, peeled, cored & sliced thin
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
Place raisins in a shallow, non metallic container and cover with Maplejack liqueur. Cover and let sit for at least 1 day but preferrably 3 days. Uncover occasionally to stir and add more liqueur as needed so that the raisins are always completely immersed. When you are ready to make the pie, drain the raisins, reserving the liqueur.

Crust – Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Add butter and lard, blend with pulse button until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Add 5 tablespoons ice water and mix with fork until dough begins to clump together, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough together. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into disk. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.

Mix sugar & cinnamon together in a small bowl. Line bottom of pie dish with one crust, making sure it overhangs the pie dish enough to crimp together with the top crust. Arrange apple slices in the crust making sure to cover the entire bottom without any gaps, then continue until the crust is half full. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar around the entire top of the apples. Sprinkle half of the raisins on top of apples evenly. Repeat for a second layer to the top of the crust. Dot butter around the top of the apples. then top with second crust. Crimp crust edges together & pinch in a wave pattern. Tear off thin strips of aluminum foil and fold over the crimped crust. Place pie on a baking tray and position rack in center of the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 375 and bake a further 35 – 40 minutes or until apples are soft and crust is golden. Cool for 45 minutes and serve warm with vanilla ice cream with remaining maplejack liqueur drizzled over ice cream.

About: “Apple-pie Eyed” apple pie – recipe developed by Finger Lakes resident, Michelle Charles, and used with permission.

It seems that the American Pie Council is still looking for contestants as well as judges for this year’s Pie Festival, April 25-26. The Pie Festival is held in Orlando,Florida. Costs for the Never Ending Pie Buffet are: $10 adults, $5 ages 65 and up; $5 ages 6-12.

Organic apple and blueberry pie. photo courtesy of aloalosabine

Here are more details from the organizers:

American Pie Council Seeks North America’s Top Bakers to Compete in Prestigious 15^th Annual APC/Crisco® National Pie Championships 

APC Now Registering Amateur, Professional and Commercial Bakers, as well as  
Junior Chefs at www.piecouncil.org 

CHICAGO, IL (Feb. 2, 2009) – Calling all amateur, professional and commercial bakers as well as budding junior chefs — the American Pie Council (APC) is now accepting registrations for the 15^th Annual APC/Crisco® National Pie Championships to be held April 24-26, 2009 in conjunction with the Great American Pie Festival at the Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort and Convention Center in Celebration, Fla.

      Once a year, bakers of all skill levels, all ages, and all degrees of training, from all over the United States and Canada gather in sunny Orlando to celebrate the continent’s love affair with pie and to vie for Best of Show bragging rights — and often some serious prize money. Exciting new flavors and ingredients are regularly added to the roster, while more traditional pies like apple, pumpkin and cherry remain popular. Creative bakers in all categories are invited to dream up even more unique recipes in the “open” category.

      Amateurs are invited to enter the competition in one of 15 categories: Apple, Citrus, Crisco^® Classic Cherry, Crisco^® Classic Chocolate, Cream, Cream Cheese, Custard, Fruit/Berry, Nut, Peanut Butter, Pumpkin, Open, Raisin, sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board, Splenda and Sweet Potato. The overall Amateur winner will take home the Best of Show title and $5,000 in prize money, as well as a new Sears Kenmore range.  Sears has joined the event as a sponsor and is supplying amateur and professional winners with a brand new Sears Kenmore range so that contestants can have the latest, most desirable home appliance for taking their baking to the next level.  First place winners in each category will receive $200 cash, second place winners receive $150 cash and third place winners take home $100 cash. The entry fee is $15 per pie for Amateur members of the APC; $35 for non-members.

      Professional bakers may enter pies in eight categories: Apple, Citrus, Crisco^® Classic Chocolate, Crisco^® Classic Cherry, Fruit/Berry, Cream, Nut and Open, with the overall winner taking Best of Show and $5,000 in prize money as well as a new Sears Kenmore range. First place winners in each category will receive $200 cash. The entry fee is $20 per pie for Professional APC members; $35 for non-members. There is limited space for on-site baking available in the professional category; early entries are encouraged.

  Junior Chefs who are in high school and are between the ages 14 to 17 are encouraged to test their pie-making skills with pie entries in Apple, Cream, Fruit/Berry or Open categories.  The Best of Show winner in the Crisco^® Junior Chef division will win a $1,000 gift certificate to the Chef Depot, a source for all Professional Chef Tools. Four first place winners will receive $200 Chef Depot gift certificates. Junior Chefs may enter the competition for free.

      For the amateur, professional and junior chef divisions, limited on site baking times are available.  For entrants choosing to bake on site, state-of-the-art Sears Kenmore ranges will be available for use.  To assure a spot, early entry is encouraged.

      Commercial bakers return this year to compete for Best of Show with flavor options including Apple, Blueberry, Fruit/Berry, Open Cream, Citrus, Open, Nut and Chocolate, and Raisin, sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board. Competitors must assign their pie entries based on wholesale cost and size of the pie. Independent bakers with $1 million or less in annual pie sales will be placed in their own category within the commercial bakers’ competition.

Not only do winners in each category take home a prestigious title, but also, winning an award at the National Pie Championships has been proven to increase market share of that product.

Entry fee for Commercial APC members is $125 per pie; $250 for non-members.

      Crisco® is a registered trademark of The J. M. Smucker Company.  For more information, visit www.crisco.com.

      Participants in the National Pie Championships are encouraged to join the American Pie Council prior to registration in order to receive discounted entry fees. The American Pie Council offers individual membership for amateurs as well as professionals and commercial bakers.  Pie lovers receive multiple benefits including the “Pie Times” e-newsletter, membership directory and member-only online “pie talk” access for idea exchange, pie recipes, coupons and discounted entry into the annual APC/Crisco^® National Pie Championships. 

      The American Pie Council® is the only organization committed to maintaining America’s pie heritage, passing on the tradition of pie-making and promoting America’s love affair with pie.

For more details, to become a member of the APC or to register for the National Pie Championships, visit www.piecouncil.org 

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Approx. $700 million in pies (approx. 186 million units) are sold in grocery stores every year. This does not include restaurants, food service or price clubs, only grocery stores. If you lined up the number of pies sold at U.S. grocery stores in one year, they would circle the globe and then some.

cherry pie. photo courtesy of Snutur

According to a 2008 survey by Crisco® and American Pie Council:
•Nearly one out of five (19%) of Americans prefer apple pie, followed by pumpkin (13%), pecan (12%), banana cream (10%) and cherry (9%)
•Pie just isn’t for after-dinner dessert. Thirty-five percent of Americans say they’ve had pies for breakfast. Pies as lunch (66%) and midnight snacks (59%) also have a popular following.
•When asked what dessert Americans would prefer a friend or family member bring to their house for a holiday dinner, pie was the winner with 29%. Cake (17%) and cookies (15%) rounded out the top-three spots.

Pumpkin pie was first introduced to the holiday table at the pilgrim’s second Thanksgiving in 1623.

Pie was not always America’s favorite dessert – in the 19th Century, fruit pies were a common breakfast food eaten before the start of a long day.

According to a 2008 “Pie Slice of Life” Survey, conducted by Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America, Inc., Carol Brady of The Brady Bunch was picked by 40% of survey respondents as the TV mom that would bake the best pie. The Cosby Show’s Claire Huxtable was second with 22%, Desperate Houswives’ Bree Van de Camp was third with 16 percent, Everybody Loves Raymond’s Debra Barone was fourth with 13% while The Simpsons’ Marge Simpson came in fifth with 8%.

The same survey also revealed that when asked “Who Makes the Best Pie?,” Mom rates highly (27%), and store bought convenience pie came in a close second with a 26% slice of the pie – beating out Grandma who garnered 17%.
This 2006 Four Points® Pie Portrait is an examination of how Americans enjoy their signature dessert, in honor of Four Points by Sheraton’s simple pleasures offerings: pie in all its restaurants, express pie via room service.

Pie By the Numbers
•36 million Number of Americans who identify apple pie as their favorite
•47% Americans for whom the word “comforting” comes to mind when they think of pie
•6 million Number of American men ages 35-54 who have eaten the last slice of pie and denied it
•27% Americans who believe chocolate pie is the most romantic to share with someone special
•1 in 5 Proportion of Americans who have eaten an entire pie by themselves
•113 million Number of Americans who have eaten pie for breakfast
•75 million Number of Americans who prefer to drink milk with their pie
•32% Americans who prefer no crust on top of their pie
•90% Americans who agree that a slice of pie represents one of the simple pleasures in life
•9% Americans who prefer to eat their pie crust-first
•7% Americans who have passed off a store-bought pie as homemade
•18% Men who say their wife makes the best homemade pie
•2% Women who say their husband makes the best homemade pie

Pie Personalities
If you love… You are likely to describe yourself as…
Apple Pie Independent, realistic and compassionate
Pecan Pie Thoughtful and analytical
Chocolate Pie Loving
Pumpkin Pie Funny and independent

Pie Preferences
•More than one-third of Americans have eaten pie in bed
•Nearly one in four women believe that they make the best pie – better than Mom or Grandma
•More than one-third of Americans have craved pie in the middle of the night
The first mention of a fruit pie in print is from Robert Green’s Arcadia (1590): “thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.”

The wet bottom molasses pie, Shoo-fly pie, was used to attract flies from the kitchen.
Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.

The wealthy English were known for their “Surprise Pies” in which live creatures would pop out when the pie was cut open.

At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.

“As easy as pie” is an American expression. In the 1890’s, “pie” was a common slang expression meaning anything easy, a cinch; the expression “easy as pie” stemmed quite readily from that.

Boston Cream Pie is a cake, not a pie.

Pies are favorite props for humor, particularly when aimed at the pompous. Throwing a pie in a person’s face has been a staple of film comedy since the early days of the medium, and real-life pranksters have taken to targeting politicians and celebrities with their pies, an act called “pieing.”

State Pies:
•Key Lime pie was just adopted in the state of Florida as the official pie in 2006.
•The state of Vermont adopted apple pie as the official state pie in 1999.

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Source: www.piecouncil.org Check out their website for more info on pies!