Saturday August 11th was Pie Day at the Indiana State Fair. Pie Day is when all the pies for the state fair get turned in. It used to be the day that Pillsbury or Gold Medal held their sponsored pie contests but neither sponsored a contest this year so it was "just" state fair pie entry and closed judging.
There were three new pie categories this year - sugar cream, coconut cream, and lemon meringue. Traditionally pies containing meringue, whipped cream, cream cheese, custard or other similar dairy products were not allowed due to food safety rules. This year, provided you brought your pie in a cooler, you could enter one of these "refrigerator" pie categories.
I entered one pie. Sugar cream.
I have a great sugar cream pie recipe. I created it for a pie contest that the Indianapolis Star held in 2009. It's basically a traditional Indiana sugar cream pie but made with a coconut graham cracker crust... because, as it's well known, I can't roll a decent crust.
I hadn't made this pie in several years so I made a practice pie on Thursday, in between making my nine bazillion orange scones... and the filling separated. Ugh. It tasted fine but just didn't look good. I almost thought then that I wouldn't do a pie this year. Oh, but then I changed my mind.
I couldn't figure out why my filling separated - like there was a thin film of "fat" on top when it came out of the oven - so I started looking up other filling recipes... then I thought about Crack Pie.
For those not familiar with Crack Pie, it's chef Christina Tosi's signature pie that's sold in her Momofuku Milk Bar stores. I knew the filling was very similar to a sugar cream pie so I looked it up. The difference was that it had eggs, which made it a custard. I didn't think it would pass for sugar cream. But... it also used corn powder. I'd forgotten about corn powder. I really like the depth it gives and I thought the additional starch might keep my filling from separating. So, I made another pie. I used Christina Tosi's oat cookie crust recipe for the crust. The recipe made two crusts. I figured if my second sugar cream pie was a failure I'd make a Crack Pie with the extra crust and not enter a pie. I made my new filling, baked my second pie, then put it in the refrigerator to set up. This still Thursday night. My thought was that if my second pie didn't set up properly or separated again I was done with pies this year.
Friday evening I got home from the Fair and cut into the second pie. The filling was smooth and it had set up perfectly.
Pie #2
Looks like I'm entering a pie! I made pie #3. But... of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I thought my filling was a wee too sweet, especially with the oat cookie crust, so I added an extra tablespoon of corn powder. I poured the filling then scraped the remnants out of my saucepan as the pie baked. Ugh. The filling tasted grainy. Crap.
Saturday, I got up at 7 am to take sugar cream pie #3 to the Fair. Pie Day is always a zoo. It's the second Saturday of the State Fair so everybody and their brother is there. Shoup's BBQ Contest was also going on and the Giant Pumpkin weigh off is also always on the second Saturday of the Fair, plus who knows what other special events were going on. So many years I have spent having an anxiety attack sitting in traffic on 38th Street trying to get inside the gates... so now I go early. Pie drop off was from 7:30 am to 11:30 am. I drove through the gates at 8 am, dropped off my pie, got stamped so I could come back later, then went home. I realize I'm lucky I can do this. With no traffic I can get to the State Fairgrounds in 40 minutes. For many of my competitors it takes much longer so they don't have the luxury of running back home.
I figured the judging would get done around 1:30 pm. This time when I drove back, traffic was at a stand still on 38th Street. I suspected the infield parking was already full. Since I have a drop-off hangtag I hoped that that would at least get me inside the gates, then I would FIND somewhere to park. After spending 40 minutes out on 38th Street I was surprised to find that they were still letting cars in through the gate. However, once inside the gate I saw that they were waving all the cars into hangtag only lots. I think they ran out of parking in the infield but didn't realize it and now they were putting cars anywhere there was room. I got waved around to park behind the rabbit and poultry barn. Totally not where I'm supposed to park, but heck, it's right next to the Indiana Arts building where I want to go, and it's not like they were gonna get a tow truck in here today...
I finally got back to the Indiana Arts building at 2:30 pm. I was worried the judging was over and all my friends had already gone home. I went downstairs and found Mary Alice and Barbara waiting for results. Phew. Still judging. I talked to Mary Alice and Barbara for quite some time. Mary Alice had brought 19 pies. Barbara brought 21! This photo is from Mary Alice's Facebook page. I had to put it here because it's so darn impressive.
Mary Alice's pies
To put this in perspective for those that don't bake, most pies have to bake in the oven for an hour. That plus your prep time, all your do-overs, and the nonstop washing of baking pans and utensils all add up to a crap load of time!
Both Mary Alice and Barbara had problems getting into the fairgrounds. They weren't the only ones. So many competitors got stuck in traffic that they extended the entry time for at least an hour and took all late entries... thus they were still judging.
I went and found some lunch then went back. Still judging.
Went to check out the winning Giant Pumpkin in the Ag/Hort Building...
1250 lbs!!
... then went back. Still judging.
Checked out the rest of the Indiana Arts building then went back. Still judging.
Finally, at 4:30 pm, I gave up and went home after stopping by the Ag/Hort building again to buy my Burton's Maple Syrup for the Maple Contest on Monday. I was too tired to stay and I had other things to do. I needed to get started on my entry for the Burton's Maple Syrup Contest. I got a text from Becky saying she had gone home even before I arrived but she had a friend who was staying for results. Finally, at 5:30 pm I heard they were starting to post results but no refrigerator pie results yet and Becky's friend was going home. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait til I go back on Monday.
Saturday night I started working on my Burton's Maple Syrup entry. The contest is any recipe containing at least 1/4 cup of maple syrup. The first year Burton's sponsored this contest was in 2014 and I made Maple Baklava. I managed an Honorable Mentioned but finished out of the money because they couldn't taste enough maple flavor. Ever since then I make sure my entries are loaded with maple syrup. I also feel that in these sponsored contests your entry really needs to be over-the-top unique in some way to stand out. I won in 2015 with Maple Bacon S'mores by making my own maple syrup marshmallows, toasted them, rolled them in bacon and sandwiched them between homemade maple shortbread cookies. I came back and won again in 2016 with my "perfect" Magnificent Maple Cake. One of the best cakes I've ever made. I didn't compete last year. Could I possible manage a three-peat?
I settled on making a stacked cheesecake. Maple cheese cake on the bottom and maple cake on the top. I made maple shortbread cookies and crushed them for the crust. I made a maple icing to hold the cheesecake and cake together then made maple sugared pecans to decorate the top. I made my practice cake on Saturday night, put it in the refrigerator to set up, then went to bed... at 1 am.
Sunday I got up and tried my creation...
This was a final cake I entered on Monday...
After turning my entry in, I went to check on my pie. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much because I thought my filling tasted grainy. Becky had texted me though and said Jennifer had seen the pies and thought I'd either gotten Third or an Honorable Mention. In the back of my head I thought, surely, that couldn't be. It was grainy, plus the pie had come out of the oven with a couple bubbles on top so I had popped them hoping the filling was still runny enough to smooth out the top, but it wasn't, so I didn't have a nice clean top. It was cosmetic, but still...
I FREAKIN' GOT THIRD!!!
I was incredibly happy to find out I had actually placed! Congrats to Becky. She won the Class. Jennifer got Honorable Mention.
After checking out the pies I went back upstairs to hang out with my friends at the contest.
Mary Alice and me
Darl and Raymond
Michael and Becky
Mary Alice made little bite size Pecan Tarts with Maple Syrup and Butterscotch Chips. Darl made Maple Bacon Crack. Raymond made Maple Ice Cream with candied Maple Walnuts and Maple Swirl (I really wanted a scoop of that!) Michael made on Ooey Gooey Maple Pear Upside Down Cake and Becky made bite size Maple Peach Love Cakes.
There were a LOT of entries so judging took over 2 hours. Annie Watts was the extension judge and George Neely was the professional chef. Mine ended up being the third entry judged. I breathed a silent sigh of relief when they cut into it and the cheesecake had the right consistency and the cake didn't have any tunnels.
Annie judged in 2016 when my cake won and I used the same cake recipe in this entry. I'm certain she knew it was my entry and even made the exact same comment she had in 2016 about how I used pears in my cake to keep it moist. George Neely has judged my entries before too and looked directly at me when he made his comments which made me incredibly uncomfortable. Then Becky whispered he knows this is your cake. I kinda wanted to crawl under my chair at that point. Overall though, I could tell they liked my entry.
FINALLY, judging was done. The judges looked really tired towards the end and they looked like their taste buds were fried. I'm glad my entry wasn't towards the end, but I was also worried it got judged so early, as I was worried they'd hold back on giving out a high score early on.
Christine Rienecker got Honorable Mention with her Streusel Topped Maple Blueberry Cupcakes.
Phyllis Hine got Third with her Maple Apple Pie. George Neely had commented during judging that it was one of the best pies he'd ever tasted.
Then they said that it had been really close between first and second. I could feel the adrenaline rushing. It's been awhile since I'd had this feeling...
I got Second.
John Baker won with his Maple Bourbon Tiramisu with Maple Leaf Cookie. Like me, he had make multiple maple items in his entry. I had met him downstairs while looking at the pies. He sells his baked goods at several of the local farmer's markets and Robin had introduced me to him several years ago.
Christine's sister, Phyllis, me, and John
Photo with the judges
George Neely is on the left and Annie Watts is on the right
No 3-peat but I can't complain!
Tuesday was spent making bread. The Hogsdon Mills competition was Wednesday and I had to make an original loaf of bread using at least one cup of Hogsdon Mills flour. Problem was, it was hard to find the flour. Kroger carried the rye flour and that was it. Meijer, Walmart and SuperTarget did not carry the brand and that's pretty much my choices locally. I wasn't going to drive an hour for a sack of flour nor did I have time to order any online so rye flour it was.
I created a Parmesan Semolina Rye Onion Bread. 40% of the score was Appearance so I decided to make a free form loaf and did a round braid.
Loaf #1
Since this was a brand new recipe I cut into this loaf to try it. I liked the texture. I couldn't taste the Parmesan and I thought the bread was too flat.
So, Loaf #2... I added another half cup of Parmesan cheese and I tried to shape the dough into a ball for the second rise, hoping it would not spread out as much this way. I also tried an egg wash over the top. My plan was that if this loaf looked good I'd make a third loaf exactly the same early Wednesday morning, then take the fresher loaf unless this one looked significantly better.
Loaf #2 shaped for second rise
Loaf #2... which pretty much looks like Loaf #1
Well boo! Loaf #2 didn't bake any taller than Loaf #1. I'm sure it tasted perfectly fine but somehow I got fixated on Appearance. The other scoring components were 40% on Flavor and 20% on Texture.
So... I made Loaf #3. I also added another egg to Loaf #3 because the outer braid "strands" were "bursting" and I thought the dough was too dry. Hopefully this would make it more elastic. When it was time to shape Loaf #3, I made it a small ball on top of a big ball, hoping this would give the bread more height.
Loaf #3, shaped for second rise
Bread typically needs to rise 1 - 1.5 hours for the first rise and about an hour for the second. I pretty much babysat bread all day on Tuesday. Loaf #3 was done rising at 11:30 pm. However... when I went to go put it in the oven I found that the top ball had slid off the bottom ball and it was just one huge misshapen mass. Arghh!!!
Nothing to do but re-knead the whole mess and reshape it. Luckily, the more times you re-knead and reshape your bread, the less time it takes to rise. I threw in the towel on a round braid and made a 6-stranded straight braid.
Loaf #3, reshaped for second rise
I let Loaf #3 rise for another half hour, then threw it in the oven. It got done just before 2 am. I'd been baking the bread on a baking stone using the Silpat it had risen on. I picked up the hot Silpat to get the bread out, then proceeded to drop the whole thing on the floor! Arghhh again!! Luckily the bread stayed on the Silpat so it didn't actually hit the floor, just the Silpat. However, the force of it hitting the floor broke the crust on one side. Disgusted, I put the whole thing on the cooling rack and pushed the hot crust back in place hoping it would "mend" ...then I went to bed.
Loaf #3
I had my alarm set for 7 am on Wednesday morning but I couldn't fall asleep. I finally gave up at 6 am and started making ANOTHER loaf of bread. No changes this time. Made it exactly like Loaf #3. I had a meeting for work I had to call into at 7:30 am so I put on a headset and finished shaping my bread.
Loaf #4, after the second rise, ready for the oven
My meeting got done at 9 am and so did Loaf #4. Ugh. Loaf #4 was HUGE and most of the braid definition was lost. Definitely not a competition piece.
Now it was time to play eenie meenie minee mo. Should I take round Loaf #2 or straight Loaf #3? I thought Loaf #3 looked better than Loaf #2, but I was worried about the times I had reshaped it. Did I let it rise long enough after the last shaping? Would it be tough? Would they notice the broken crust I'd pushed back into place? Decisions, decisions...
One of G's friends wanted one of my loaves of bread. I had to pick G and her friends up from a coffee shop at 11:30 am and give her friend the bread so I had to make a decision. I gave away the round loaf and kept Loaf #3 to enter.
Off to the Fair at 12:30 pm. It was a gray rainy day. The fairgrounds were empty. Ahhh...
Judging started at 3 pm. It was a small competition. I think everyone was tired by now... and it was pouring rain... and this was a bread competition... and the flour had not been easy to find. Fifteen people had entered. Seven showed up. I was thankful, mainly because it would be short.
Annie Watts and Betsy Robin, both extension judges, judged. I couldn't tell if they liked my bread or not. They seemed to really like the sweet breads. I had thought my bread looked really good at home but now, looking at everyone elses', especially the ones that had beautifully risen in a loaf pan, I wasn't really sure. My bread looked flat.
With just seven competitors, my heart started to pound when it was time to announce the winners. I desperately wanted to place just to know that I was in the top half. Is that an awful thought or what?! But I wanted to place!
They brought four entries out. My platter was one of them. Phew! I was sure I'd gotten Honorable Mention but then they called Phyllis' name.
I got Third!!
Happy with Third
Look at everyone else's nice tall loaves of bread
One more competition to go!
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