Ruth from Oshkosh, WI (2017 Week 8: Wisconsin Week)

Baker

Ruth

Location

Oshkosh, WI

Baking Challenge

Mini Pies

Give your baked creation a name and tell us about your flavors. Also, what are you most proud of?

Cheddar Apple. Sharp cheddar, two types of cinnamon, and four varieties of apples come together to make a pie that is asked for every year. I’m proud of this pie. This pie comes out with a crunchy cheddar and oat crumble and a beautifully fragrant apple/cinnamon filling. Because of the differing types of apples, each bite comes with textures that range from melt-on-the-tongue to sink-your-teeth-in. I usually use an all butter crust, but wanting the pies to be free standing (like the British do), I used a cold version of the hot water crust used on the show.

The key to this week’s challenge is your creative presentation. Describe your display.

It’s an apple tree … with maple leaves? We had several leaf shaped cookie cutters and a couple of apple ones. I used a traditional cold butter crust for all of the cut outs so they would puff up. They added a nice decorative touch and were an extra Wisconsin nod with the sugar maple leaves. Used a bit of the left-over dough to make cinnamon sugar twists for the "trunk" of the tree.

It’s Wisconsin Week, so you need to showcase a super Wisconsin twist to your recipe and/or arrangement. Tell us about it.

Fall is my favorite season and I love that there are so many opportunities for families to visit farms and pick produce locally. I used apples from The Little Farmer (Fond du Lac) and Flyte Family Farms (Coloma). I used sharp cheddar from Steve’s Cheese. I used two types of cinnamon from Penzey’s Spices. This week, I was really excited that pies were one of the challenges. During the summer, I donate pies each week to Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society’s Pie on the Porch (Main Street, Oshkosh). This week, the large pie went to them as my weekly donation and the six small pies were a "Thank You" to the workers that spend there Saturday mornings volunteering setting up and serving.

How did you do?

Absolutely lovely.