Daisy Flour Sweet Pie Contest Winners
In a three-generation sweep, the Mother/Daughter team of Leslie and Laura Davidson--using their Grandmother Davidson's recipes--separately swept all of the first prizes in the Brooklyn Kitchen/Daisy Flour Pie Contest. 
More than $1500 was donated to the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry, where breakfast, lunch, and supper are provided every day for people who come hungry, from the street, to Greenpoint Reformed Church.
- A full crowd enjoyed beer with their pie while they took notes for the coming November 12 version of the Pie Contest to feature Savory Pies and Quiches.
- In November, each contestant will again pay a fee to pick up and create a crust that uses Daisy White Pastry Flour and Daisy Whole Wheat Pastry Flour in a ratio that is consistent with the nature of the savory pie filling. Entries will be limited again so register soon and get some flour for practicing your crusts.
First Prize--the People's Vote--went to Leslie Davidson for a beautiful classic Cherry Pie.
Brooklyn Kitchen owner Harry Rosenblum presented a top-of-the-line Cuisinart Food Processor to Leslie, who said: "Mother and I worked together in the kitchen to make our pies. We used Grandmother's recipes, like we always do, and we conferred back and forth during the baking session."
These recipes--from the heyday of Daisy Flour in the 20th century--that old family recipes really perform at their show-winning best when using this organic Daisy Pastry Flour milled from local soft wheat. We asked for the recipes. They looked at each other and said: "Do we want to give them up?" Keep watching for them. If we can get them to at least describe the process, we will share them at www.DaisyFlour.com
First Prize--Judges Choice--went to Laura Davidson for her Lemon Chiffon Pie.
Second Prize--Judges Choice--went to David Mellor for a tart Citrus Pie, based on a River Cottage recipe. David adapted the meringue-topped recipe by using fresh juices in this ratio: 2 parts each Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, and 1 part Orange Juice and Orange Zest.
Third Prize--Judges Choice--was earned by Carrington Morris for a classic Berry Rhubarb Pie with latticework top.
Criteria for the judging made the job manageable without tooo much eating of tooo much pie. First, the judges moved along the table full of entries and created a list of the best looking pies.
Then we agreed, there is nothing worse than a pie that looks great, and tastes bad. That made the primary list a little bit smaller. From there, judges looked at:
Flaky Crust (including the all-important, not-soggy bottom crust)
Flavor
Consistency of the filling
Creativity
Each judge tasted one plateful of samples, picked her favorites, and then compared them to get the finalists. Most important were the consistency of the pie. We tended to like the simpler presentations with really wonderful and unusual fillings and flaky crusts baked to just the right degree of doneness.
Judges were:
- Christina Tosi, pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar
- Rachel, who owns and bakes for The Blue Stove
- Ann Kansfield, co-pastor of Greenpoint Reformed Church
- Roberta Strickler, representing Daisy Flour
|
