Judging pies for a good cause
It wasn't my normal breakfast of eggs and toast Friday. It was much sweeter and, oh, so filling.
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My breakfast consisted of sampling eight slices of homemade pie for the Lakes Area Pie Contest sponsored by the Lakes Area Senior Activity Center.
Brainerd Dispatch staff writer Jennifer Stockinger tasted one of the pies that was entered in the Lakes Area Pie Contest. The contest Friday at the Lakes Area Senior Activity Center in Brainerd was part of the center's fourth annual Herb and Mike's Rib Fest Dinner fundraiser that was planned for Friday night.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
DeAnn Barry, senior center director, initiated the pie contest because she thought it would be fun, plus she wanted to have homemade pies to serve for the center's fourth annual Herb and Mike's Rib Fest Dinner fundraiser that was planned for Friday night.
Eleven delicious pies of all kinds were spread along the table at the senior center. James Wallin, Brainerd mayor; Darrel Olson, Baxter mayor; Colette Pohlkamp, Brainerd School District food services director; Billy Holiday of KUAL 103.5 radio; Dan Hegstad, Lakeland Public TV; and Dave Freiday, senior center kitchen manager; and a Dispatch reporter were the lucky judges.
Colette Pohlkamp, Brainerd School District food service director, showed the other judges in the Lakes Area Pie Contest why one of the pies was going to be disqualified for not being baked thoroughly as Dan Hegstad (second from left), Brainerd Mayor James Wallin, Dave Freiday and Billy Holiday (sitting) looked at the pie.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
We had to judge each pie by appearance and by taste on a scale from 1 to 5. Before the judging began, three of the pies were disqualified because they were not baked thoroughly. So we had three pies to try in the classic category that included lemon, pumpkin and pecan. And five pies in the original category that included sour cream and apple, berry, banana berry, peanut butter and cookies and cream.
"I starved myself for five hours," Hegstad said to save room for the pies.
The judges inspected the pies in the classic category for their appearance. Holiday said the pumpkin pie looked really good because there were two little knife cuts in the middle of the pie. Wallin said the lemon pie looked nice.
When eating the pies, Olson said the pumpkin pie had a nice crust and the filling had a lot of flavor. When Olson tried the pecan pie he said, "I've never met a pecan pie I didn't like."
Personally, I voted the lemon and pumpkin pies the same for flavor and the pecan pie did not get a high vote from me. I'm not a huge fan of pecan pie.
The winner of the classic pies went to the pumpkin pie that was made by Kathy Tusa of Brainerd. Tusa won a $50 gift certificate at the center's Golden Years Gift Shop. The total scores of the pies were pumpkin received 50 points, lemon had 44 points and pecan had 28.
In the original category of the five pies, the winner was the sour cream and apple pie made by Lynda Hummel of Brainerd, who also won a certificate. The total scores of the pies were sour cream and apple received 74 points, peanut butter had 41 points, berry had 39 points, cookies and cream had 34 and banana berry had 32 points.
All the judges had their own opinions about the five original pies. Freiday said the appearance part of the judging was a little unfair as the people who made the no-bake pies had more control of what they pie looked like.
Freiday said he was disappointed with the berry pie. He gave it a high rating for its appearance, but when it tasted it he didn't give it as high of a score as he thought he would have. Holiday said the berry pie was "a whole lot of sweet."
Wallin said the banana berry pie was pretty and looked like a rainbow, something he'd want to eat. Wallin said he does not care for peanut butter, so the peanut butter pie was not high on his list.
In the end, Freiday and Pohlkamp - the food experts in the judging group - both agreed that the winners were the deserving winners of the pie contest.
"I was pleasantly surprised with the sour cream and apple pie," Pohlkamp said.
I agreed with Pohlkamp on the sour cream and apple pie, as I didn't think I would like the pie, but it was good. I thought to myself "Sour cream and apple together in a pie, really?" But it was good and one of the better pies in the bunch.
I like many pies, but my favorites are peanut butter or chocolate pies. The peanut butter pie had a nice appearance to it, but I was surprised with the color of the inside of the pie. I thought it looked more like a lemon pie, but my taste buds set me on the right track and it was indeed peanut butter, and it was pretty tasty.
One of the most interesting parts of the contest was how many pies received high marks on their appearance, but not on taste, and vice versa. None of the pies received high marks for both appearance and taste. The lemon pie and sour cream and apple were the only pies that received about the same amount of points for both judging categories.
People had to enter two pies that were 8 inches or larger and the recipe, including the list of ingredients and directions for making the pie. One of the pies was used for judging and the other pie was used at the dinner. Contestants had to be 18 or older.
There were two categories of pies for the contest, classic and original. Classic pies were the pumpkin, apple and pecan pies and holiday pies. The original pies were the mixed fruit and other unusual pies.
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851.