PIE DAY!

In September when I ate a crapload of food with the Serious Eats crew who were in town to do research for their upcoming book, one of the highlights was walking into Hoosier Mama and ordering every one of each available slice. Yesterday, I headed back with four other people to do a modified version of the same: five people sharing 10 slices of pie. It was actually supposed to be 6×12 but Carrie decided not to come, thereby securing a prime spot on the not invited list for the foreseeable future.

Anyhow, the five of us enjoyed the following:

I initially tried to list these things in order of deliciousness, but that’s simply an impossible task when dealing with so many incredible pies. We ate nearly every single bite. The orange cream and lemon meringue were both outstanding, but even on a table full of pie they stood out as extremely sweet; about two bites of each of those was left behind. The mince pie was actively disliked by 4 of us, but it reminded Philip of his childhood and he was happy to polish that one off.

For me, the first three pies pictured really stood out. Pecan pie is my favorite type of pie yet I’d somehow never had it at Hoosier Mama. That was a mistake. I’ve had some excellent pecan pie in my life, but this maple pecan had the best flavor of them all. Texturally, I like a pecan pie with a little more chewiness, but that’s barely worth mentioning. The apple and quince pie was as good as a fall fruit pie on a traditional crust can possibly be. Quince, which I don’t remember eating previously, is like an apple but a little lighter in flavor and a softer texture. Every crust at Hoosier Mama is delicious, but this one was warm and the butter sang through. The apple/pear/cranberry pie is one I’ve wanted to try there for a while. The outstanding fruit was a shade tart thanks to the cranberry, a sensation that’s balanced by the crumble top.

The group outing to Hoosier Mama was a brilliant idea and one I intend to replicate every three months.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 20th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.