Ruth from Oshkosh, WI (2018 Week 5: Pies)

Baker

Ruth

Location

Oshkosh, WI

Baking Challenge

American Pies

Give your pie a name based on the ingredients and decoration.

Banana Custard & Cream, Chocolate Maple Pecan with Smoked Sea Salt, Lemon Chess with Blueberries, and Apple Cheddar

Tell us about your proudest moment – or humble failure – in this week’s baking challenge.

There were a lot of both this week. It's the week before the EAA airshow and I wanted to send in edible encouragement with my husband. The people working get accolades during and after the airshow, but there is a lot of work before the show. The basic recipes for the Banana, Pecan and Lemon pies were all taken from a Hoosier Mama pie book. Though they came out decent, there were so many things that I tweaked that could have gone better. The cream on the banana was not very vanilla (should have added vanilla beans). The ganache on the the pecan was too thick (should have been 1/3 inch instead of 1/2). The blueberries on the lemon didn't hold together they way I wanted. The pecan, even with extra chocolate, was the best I have ever eaten. I doubted the banana pie and chess pie but both came out with a lot of flavor, much more than I expected. The cheddar apple . . . well . . . it's still the best apple pie I have ever eaten. It strays substantially from a chunky apple. The apple slices are thinner. It has a lot of different spices. I used apple water peeling the apples and lemon juice. The cheddar that is in the crumble is a combination of 4-yr and 6-yr. So good!

Describe how you added a Wisconsin twist to your creation.

There are so many products from Wisconsin in these pies. The blueberries are from Door County and Bear Creek. The apples are from Malone. The maple syrup, cheddar, milk and butter are from several different places around Wi. The eggs (five dozen) are from Oshkosh Farmers' Market. And last, but very important . . . I have to give a huge, gigantic, colossal shout-out to Penzey's spices.

How did you do?

Absolutely lovely.