Party like you're Amish.

Our family likes to go camping and it just so happens that our favorite campground is located smack in the middle of an Amish community. We really enjoy seeing the horses and buggies, visiting the Amish grocery and learning about their culture. (My kids are simply fascinated by a life without technology.)

Each Saturday morning, two lovely Amish gals sell baked goods at the campground. A few weeks ago, I took one of my 11 year-old twin daughters with me to peruse the bakery.

As expected, there were all sorts of cakes, cookies and breads and everything looked delicious. Having spent my last bit of folding money on firewood and ice the night before, I had but one $5 bill to spend at the bake sale -- very disappointing since I spied several pies at the end of the table that would likely be out of my price range.

"Don't they take plastic?" my daughter asked as we stood in the long line of hungry campers.

"Nope," I responded, reminding her of the whole no technology thing. "These ladies don't have electricity in their homes, so they don't carry portable card scanners either."

Eventually the line began moving and we found ourselves at the front of the table, where I could study the pies.

It was easy to tell the different varieties. The bakers had cut slits for venting steam in the shape of various letters -- P for peach, A for apple. You just had to look at the golden brown crust to know which was which.

I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see the pies were out of my $5 price range, so we settled on a bag of maple rolls thinking they'd accompany our campfire breakfast of eggs and hash well.

Knowing the Amish are master bakers, I couldn't resist the urge to ask about the pies. Surely these pious ladies would be willing to share a pie-making tip or two with a newbie like me.

"Your pies look amazing. I'm new to pie making. Can you tell me, what's your secret for a good pie?"

The ladies looked at each other, surprised by my question. The younger one thought for a moment before giving her reply.

"Well," she said. "I suppose it's the lard. Good, cold lard makes the best crust."

I thanked her as we handed over the $5.

At that point, my daughter piped up.

"She's trying to win a contest," she said.

The ladies looked at each other in slight surprise. Obviously they don't want their Amish pie secrets used to clean house at a community baking contest.

I grabbed my daughter by the arm and yanked her away from the table, embarrassed.

"Thank you, we can't wait to dig into these rolls!" I called over my shoulder as we hurried back to our campsite.

At breakfast, we tasted the rolls. They were good, but crazy rich, making them a little hard to eat. I'm certain they were made with loads of butter and most likely a scoop or two of lard.

While I didn't get a chance to taste the lard-laden pie, it was helpful to study the golden crust and picture-perfect crimpped edges -- details I've filed away to refine my own technique.

I'm glad there are no Amish competitors in the Fourth of July pie baking contest -- not that contests are really their thing. And even if they were, beating the Yoder girl wouldn't be as satisfying, I'm sure.

Triple-berry peach pie - attempt #1

How did you spend last Friday night? At a movie? Hanging out with friends? Out to dinner at a fancy restaurant?

I spent mine researching peach pies.

I've been trying to decide what kind of fruit pie to learn to perfect and enter in the contest. The whole fruit category throws me off, because the only fruit pie I can think of -- that isn't a berry or apple (those are their own categories, remember?) -- is peach.

Well, I suppose other kinds of fruit pies include apricot, mango, plum and such -- but those aren't very common or popular. And peach just happens to be my favorite pie in the world. So my first inclination was to pursue the peach.

But, rather than just dive headlong into perfecting a peach pie, I thought I should at least do some research on what kinds of fruit pies typically win pie-baking contests.

Because after all, this isn't about favorites. It's about winning.

So I went online and had a tough time finding a winning fruit pie that wasn't an apple, berry or cream variation. And, to be perfectly honest, I found several instances where peach pies made decent showings, peach isn't really a front runner when being compared to Big Apple. (Apple seemed to win most often in all-around competitions.)

And my poor old memory is failing me when I try to recall the various kinds of pies submitted in last year's fruit category. I know there was a peach, but I'll be damned if I can remember the others.

So, unless I can get a hold of a judge or the event organizer, I decided to go with peach.

There are many variations on the peach pie and I'm pretty sure I want to do a peach with a little pizazz. After all, I think pizazz may be my secret ingredient.

So, this morning I decided to try my hand at a triple-berry peach pie. I know, berry is its own category, but berries can be incorporated as long as they're not the main ingredient.

I combined frozen fruit with sugar, butter and flour.

And brushed the top with egg wash to get that golden brown.

Pretty!

The pie was picture perfect, except where I didn't seal the seam on the top and lower crust and the filling oozed out some. Aside from that it had a golden, flaky crust and decent consistency inside.

I like the berry-peach combo, but I won't use raspberries in the recipe because of the seeds. The flavors were great, but I'm certain the judges don't want to have to pick seeds out of their teeth after the first bite. (I wouldn't.)

Plus, this pie would've pushed the rules on if it should be in the fruit or berry category. I'll need to increase the amount of peaches and lay off the berries next time.

In the end, it was a respectable pie, but it was no award winner.

Back to the lab!

Pie love

Even though I haven't posted in a while, I've still been busy in my quest to overthrow the long-established winners in my community pie-baking contest on the next Fourth of July.

And while my fingers haven't hit this keyboard in nearly a month, they've been plenty busy rolling dough. I've experimented with different kinds of doughs and baking techniques and I've learned a lot.

chocolate banana pudding pie

I've learned that pie weights really do work... and mine are simply a few cups of dried beans that I use over and over to keep crusts from rising up in the middle when prebaking (also called baking blind).

I've learned how thin to roll the dough (my rolling mat's guidelines help a ton) and also how to transfer a rolled dough onto a 9" pie plate. (That took some doing the first time.)

And, most important, I've learned to enjoy the process of pie making. I like that pies take less time than baking cakes and cookies -- and that people seem more impressed by pies than other baked goods. Pies are delicate and old-fashioned. Pies seem more thoughtful and artisan (if I can even use that word) than, say, a batch of cupcakes.

With each pie I bake, I enjoy the process more and more. (It helps that each pie I bake gets better and better.)

And so, I think I'm ready to shift my focus from crusts to fillings.

I have by no means mastered the art of the perfect pie crust, but I've found a recipe that I really like and will perfect its application as I explore various fillings.

cherry pie attempt #1

Because, and I'll be honest, it seems like a total disservice to dump a sorry-ass can of factory-produced pie filling into a shell that was prepared with so much time, love and attention. (See photo above.)

Where to start? Well, the four categories in the contest are cream, fruit, berry and apple. Because apples will be in season in a month or so, I'll hold off on those. Cream pies seem better suited for the winter months, so I'll focus my efforts of fruit for now. (Berries can wait, I guess.)

My favorite fruit pie of all time is peach, so I plan on developing a peach pie worthy of winning an award. I figure, if I'm going to spend hours and hours researching and (gasp) eating a fruit pie, it may as well be my favorite kind.

Although, maybe it'd make sense to learn which kinds of fruit pies historically win community pie contests...

Back to the library! It's time for more research!

PS - With all this pie baking and taste-testing, I've begun running. I'd prefer not to waddle up to that podium as I collect my awards next summer!