Epic Pie Tasting.

As always, we had a tremendous amount of fun at our monthly epic pie tasting last Thursday evening.  (We call it monthly, but really...we hadn't hosted one since last September because of all the crazy of October, November, and December preventing any schedule availability.)   And I guess we weren't the only ones excited to welcome back this event...it sold out in less than 24 hours after posting to Facebook. Of all the events we do, pie tasting is a Team PJP favorite.  (If it tells you anything, it isn't uncommon for members of Team PJP to attend pie tasting on their own time, solely for the fun of it.)  We spend a lot of time planning our menu for the evening and ALL DAY baking for the event.  And more than any other event, we use Epic Pie Tasting as a barometer for our growth as bakers and as entrepreneurs...in our early days, we would terror sweat while slicing pies as all of our guests stood there and looked at us (or helped).  But last week, we were done by mid-afternoon with almost no struggle or panic.  I KNOW.

So, top pies on last week's tasting menu included an Irish Cream, a Blueberry Lemon, a Boston Cream Pie, Jeanne's famous cookies (as a pie), a Peanut Butter/Banana "Elvis" pie, an Apple Cheddar, and a Bacon Mushroom quiche.  Without question, the Irish Cream won rave reviews (though, a few of us were basically drunk in late afternoon from all of the sampling we did when trying to figure out how much Bailey's Irish Cream is too much Irish Cream...).  This pie was completely delicious and will start to go into rotation at PJP Buttonwood this week.  Surprisingly, the Boston Cream Pie was also a big hit.  Incorporating a pie crust, this pie layered the cream filing on a baked crust, covered with chunks of homemade pound cake, and a chocolate ganache drizzle.

Collectively, our 22 guests and Team PJP felt the Blueberry Lemon needed a bit more tartness (though it is a super pretty pie that will be sure to arrive on our shelves in the spring with some extra lemon).  The Elvis pie was great, but didn't cut that well (and may not translate well to a deeper baby pie tin).  Jeanne's famous cookies were delicious as always, but A LOT of sweet in a pie crust.  The Apple Cheddar left us all confused...does the cheddar go in with the apples on on top of the crust?  Or both?  None of us were sure and it left most of us with a meh feeling.

And finally, I make quiche a lot for us for lunch at PJP.  I basically use whatever we have on hand because it is easy and then we can all eat and keep working.  There has been a lot of discussion about selling quiche because everyone at PJP loves it, but I dismiss it...until it became the favorite of last week's pie tasting.  We had calls on Friday to order quiche from people who tried it the night before or who had heard from someone at pie tasting that the quiche was top notch.  I made it for several orders over the weekend, but normalizing it into our daily routine is another undertaking to consider.  All that said, #WorldQuicheDomination does have a certain ring to it...