Pie day! To be honest, I’d be content not to look at another pie until Thanksgiving. Or maybe that’s a lie…no pie until someone else makes one. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Today, we put the pastry skills we learned yesterday to good use in a pie-baking contest. Each of us were assigned a different pie recipe, so the chef thought it would be fun to turn our bake-a-thon into a little competition. The challenge: we had from 10 am until 3 pm to create a perfect pie. The prize: entry into next year’s Iowa State Fair pie-baking contest. Easy, right?

(Okay, so no one is actually going to the Iowa State Fair. You caught us.)

Harder than it sounds, actually. The pie recipes weren’t your run-of-the-mill ones found on the back of the Libby’s can; many were quite gourmet, and all (except mine, ironically) were health-supportive, which meant lots of crazy ingredients and unusual techniques. I was assigned the caramelized onion tart, which I decided to take a step further by purchasing a wedge of Gruyere cheese at Trader Joe’s during my quick lunch break.

For the tart, I made a traditional butter crust with whole-wheat flour, then carmelized onions in butter. I blind-baked (when you cook the crust without the filling) the crust halfway before filling it with the onions, then poured on a mixture of heavy cream, eggs and shredded Gruyere. Extra cheese went on top, just to gild the lilly.

It was probably the ugliest pie of the bunch, but my gosh…the smell of this thing was like a vat of warm, bubbly French onion soup.

Which was exactly what it tasted like. Heavenly. I love cooking with cream and butter. They’re so forgiving.

Unfortunately, as popular as mine was (I think it was the savory aspect amongst all the sugar-coma contenders), it didn’t win. That was okay, though- now that I’ve been defeated I can admit that I actually preferred the sweet pies to my own creation. There was an apple crumble:

Tender coconut-oil crust, lightly sweetened interior…I would have liked a little more sweetness in the “crumble” part, but the Natural Gourmet doesn’t do hardcore sugar.

Coconut-lime custard:

Made with coconut milk and lime gelled with agar, this was light, creamy and slightly tangy. The filling was good enough to eat alone with fruit salad!

Two versions of vegetarian shepherd’s pie, made with seitan. One included extra-sharp cheddar cheese in a butter crust:

And the other was totally vegan.

I wasn’t a huge fan of either since they had a mushroom stock base, but surprisingly the vegan one actually edged out the cheesy one in competition!

Vegan Swiss burnt pecan pie:

A favorite of mine! I loved the candied pecan taste and gorgeous presentation.

Sweet cranberry pie:

Another favorite. Usually I like my desserts sweet (like I don’t say it enough, right?), but cranberries are the exception to this rule. They were really tart and paired perfectly with the sweeter glaze and carby crust of the pie.

Cranberry-pear pie with a latticework crust:

There’s something so charming and pretty about a lattice crust. Again, I dug the cranberries.

Another burnt pecan pie (non-vegan this time), which actually won the whole contest!

Perfectly arranged poached pear tart. This came from the same girl who did the beautiful basket-weave carob cake last week. She seriously has a career in pastry making!

This one was light and fresh tasting- like yesterday’s galette, I think it would make another great fancy breakfast dish.

Vegan French walnut pie:

It hadn’t quite set by the time we had our tasting, but the ooey-gooey walnuts were actually the best part.

Sweet-potato pecan pie with a gluten-free crust:

The crust was the best part of this. Eaten alone, it tasted like a cookie.

And classic pumpkin pie, which was later topped with fresh homemade whipped cream.

Made me crave Thanksgiving! And the whipped cream was literally some of the best I’ve ever had- apparently adding just a splash of vanilla extract was the secret.

So I didn’t make it to Iowa, but all the pie was a damn good consolation prize. I’m a weirdo and like the crusts better than the filling, so I had a field day with all the scraps left over. Yum.

Tomorrow we have a pastry test, followed by the first official planning session for our Friday night dinner. Woohoo!

What’s your favorite kind of pie to make? To eat?