A Little Pi(e) Fun

Hello friends.  For those of you who might have missed it, today is Pi Day.  What is Pi Day? Well….that takes a bit of a mathematical thinking and, quite honestly, I do not have a math cell in my brain.  Not one.  I can add (and subtract!) three digit numbers and I am rather pleased with myself when I do  so.  Borrowing in order to subtract is about the limit of my math understanding.  I’m much more of a “let’s diagram sentences for fun” kind of a girl. (Do they even teach diagraming sentences anymore??)  But this I know, not only are pi and pie homonyms but, in school, pi day always meant pie!  Enough pi/pie for you:)

All that to say, earlier this week I had an idea.  And if my husband were reading this, he would be saying, “oh boy…” as he wondered where this was going.  He is a doubter:)  But this was a tasty idea.  I thought I would treat my family to pie on pi day.  Whether we understand the definition of pi – or not! – we could enjoy a bit of pie fun.  And pie yumminess.  There were only a few problems with my idea.  One, I rarely make pie.  I am not a good crust maker but I do occassionally make chocolate pie.  A very simple chocolate pie with a graham cracker crust.  Problem two is my family does not really enjoy pie (which may be a result of problem number one).  But I was not to be deterred by a couple of simple problems.  I could purchase a yummy pie!  I would not need to try my hand at crust making and I might even find my family a new after dinner treat.

I started looking for a bakery or other pie shop near me, and was surprised to find quite a few.  Who knew?  Then I had another idea:)  I would try several bakeries near me and we would have a pie competition!  And I thought I would share our experience – and a bit of pie fun – with my blog friends!  Mind you, I do not take good photographs but I did get some pictures…and we did do quite a bit of dessert tasting (the sacrifices one will make for their blog) and I think we have a winner.  Are you intriqued?  Well, read on.

The first bakery I visited had great reviews and is rather popular.  I had high expectations.  Until I parked out front.  Could there be any more unassuming bakery?  I thought the outside was just sad and, unfortunately, the inside was not much better. I did not bother to take photos inside.  It was basically a very small lobby with two banks of display cases.  There was virtually no customer service.  Not even a hello really.  What they did have were a lot of pies.  And I mean a very large selection.  There were meat pies, quiches and all sorts of dessert pies.  Many, many to choose from.  They were also quite pricey. There was a sign advertising half-off any frozen pie.  Well, that was fine with me so I inquired about a frozen berry pie in the case and was told it was $18.95.  I asked, “Then with the discount?”  Oh no.  That was 50 percent off.  I asked (again), “This pie is originally 36 dollars?!?”  And the less than impressed clerk told me, “It is a very large pie.”  Um, not that large.

I opted for a single slice of pie.  This was the only bakery that offered pie by the slice.  There were fewer choices by the slice but I chose a berry peach slice.  I have to admit both my husband and I were underwhelmed.  Disappointed actually.  The crust was mediocre but the berries were so incredibly sour.  Is a dessert pie supposed to be sour?  On a scale of 1-5, we both gave this pie a 2 and I don’t think we would go back to Pie Gourmet.  But, we were not deterred.

Two days later I drove out to The Amphora Bakery.  It is a bit of a drive from home but I was not disappointed.  It was so cute inside!  There were cute sofas, tables & chairs and even a cute upstairs that looked perfect for enjoying a delicious dessert, although I have to say the place was empty.  There were plenty of beautiful desserts – especially cookies (so many cookies!) – but, interestingly, not a lot of pies.

On their website, there were lots of pie options but, apparently, you have to order those.  They only had four pies for sale in the bakery and they were all fruit pies.  I was rather hoping for something different.  I actually ended up taking home two pastry type desserts instead of pie – a blueberry lemon custard tart (I suppose you would call it) and a chocolate creme brulee.  Both of them were delicious.  We all agreed they would make wonderful wedding desserts.  Not too sweet.  Light but full of flavor.  We liked them both but the blueberry lemon was the hands-down favorite!  I would definitely go there again.  Especially if I had an occassion for a special dessert.  It is a bit far so I don’t think I would go regularly or even too often.  Maybe that is a good thing.

I did think this cake was adorable.  Hard to tell with the glass reflection. However, nothing had prices.  I had to keep asking the ladies working there what exactly which dessert was (the flavor, etc) and the price of each thing.  They did seem annoyed but why not put up a price board or something similar?  I did not ask the price of the cake.  But oh…the bunny.  The gnome on top.  It was too cute of a cake.  (But this was pi(e) day.  Not cake day!)  By the way, both my husband and I rated our desserts from this bakery as a solid 4.  Could we find a 5??

We were willing to keep trying:) And just last night, we treated ourselves to an entire pie.  Finally.  This bakery, called the Upper Crust, is also a bit far from our house but, very fortunately, it is just a short walk from where my son works.  How convenient!  I asked him to bring us home a pie!  We said he could choose – and surprise us – but we were both secretly hoping for something other than a fruit pie.  We were not disappointed.  He showed up with the most perfect-looking lemon meringue pie.  It was as pretty as a picture.  Sadly, my pictures did not do it justice.  I am not even going to include them.  (By the way, my hat goes off to those who make food photography look so pretty!)  But trust me, this was a pretty pie.  Mile high meringue and just the perfect browning.  And, yes, the taste was just as impressive!  It was unanimous, this pie was a definite 5 out of 5!!

It was delicious!  I actually had a second piece.  Please don’t judge.  It was all in the interest of the blog!:)  It was super yummy…and reasonably priced, I might add.  This bakery also serves food – other than just desserts – which I had expected at the others but the first two were desserts only.  I would definitely make the trip to visit the Upper Crust again.

Well, there you have it.  My very unofficial but tasty ranking of local bakeries.  If you ever visit the nation’s captiol, not all the good eating is downtown.  Some of the best spots are worth the trip outside of the city.  For sure and for certain.  And a few lessons learned for me.  Sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover…or a shop by its entrance.  And if at first you don’t find the perfect pie…keep trying.  You will have fun in the process!!