Don’t bake your own pie for Thanksgiving! By all means, roast the turkey and bake the stuffing, potatoes and side dishes, but leave the most important dish on the feast menu to experts.
I’m normally the last person to discourage DIY pie. I’ve spent years encouraging pie-making, teaching scratch pie classes and judging amateur pie contests. But the biggest pie day of the year is different.
If you’re already an experienced pie maker, enjoy yourself. If you visit family and your grandmother in a flour-dusted apron offers to tutor you, grab the opportunity. Otherwise, this may not be the best time to make your first one, given the crust challenge. If you’re the host, you have a lot of other dishes to worry about.
The reality is that most cooks never bake pies from scratch. However, you don’t have to settle for those cheap, mass-produced supermarket pumpkin or pecan pies. Get your pies from an independent Boulder County bakery.
There is a catch. If you want to slice into beautiful handmade pumpkin, pecan or Key lime pies at your Thanksgiving feast, you have to order it NOW. Today would be best. This is the busiest time of the year for bakeries and other pie bakers and many have deadlines in the coming days. Don’t dawdle and be disappointed.
Boulder
Blackbelly Market (blackbelly.com): Bourbon pecan and Dutch apple pies, plus pumpkin cheesecake, carrot cake and cinnamon rolls.
Boulder Baked (boulderbaked.com): Apple and pumpkin pies, plus dozens of varieties of cookies and cupcakes.
Great Harvest Bread Company (ghboulder.com): Pumpkin, apple and pecan pies plus cinnamon rolls, breads, brownies and pastries.
Hinman Pie (hinmanpie.com): Pecan, salted maple, apple and pumpkin pies plus pork green chile hand pies. Available at the Boulder and Longmont Farmers Markets, at South Street Market, and through the BCFM online store: bit.ly/shop_BCFM
Lucky’s Bakehouse (luckysmarket.com/bakehouse): Gingersnap pumpkin pie, salted maple pecan pie, spiced apple pie, and chocolate chess pie.
Meals on Wheels (mowboulder.org): Bake-at-home apple, cherry, blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb and pumpkin pies, along with quiche available at Boulder’s Niche Market. Purchases support Meals on Wheels Boulder.
The Pie Lady (pieladypies.com): Delivery in Jamestown, Boulder and Nederland of caramel apple crumble, triple berry, bourbon pecan and pumpkin pies.
Shamane’s Bakery & Cafe
(shamanesbakery.com): Pecan, sweet potato chocolate ginger, pumpkin, apple, sea salt caramel apple crumble pies, as well as quiche, cakes, cookies, muffins and holiday breads.
Spruce Confections (spruceconfec tions.com): Pumpkin, pecan, chocolate pecan, cherry, apple streusel and peach raspberry streusel pies, as well as cookies, rugelach and pastries. $1 for each pie ordered donated to Community Food Share.
Sweet Sisters Bake Shop (sweetsisters
boulder.com): Gluten-free pumpkin, pecan, coconut cream and banana cream pies.
Tip Top Savory Pies (tiptoppies.com): Gunbarrel shop offers individual New Zealand-style apple, strawberry rhubarb, pumpkin and blueberry pies, savory pies and buttery pastry for home pie-making.
Walnut Cafe (walnut cafe.com): The Boulder restaurant only makes 100 pies for the holiday: Pumpkin, pecan, Dutch apple cranberry, coconut cream, chocolate cream, chess and Dutch cherry pies.
Longmont
Love’s Gluten Free Bakery (lovesgf bakery.com): Apple, pecan, pumpkin, chocolate pecan, triple berry, cherry, and French silk pies.
Longmont Bakery (longmontbakery.com): Chocolate bourbon pecan, cherry, pumpkin, Dutch apple, coconut cream, banana cream, French silk and custard pies.
Mountain Fountain (themountain fountain.com): Hygiene market offers gluten-free pecan, pumpkin apple, cherry, strawberry blueberry, Key lime, pear blackberry and pear cranberry pies.
Louisville
The Huckleberry (thehuckleberry.com): Peach huckleberry, cherry, apple crumble, pumpkin and chocolate bourbon pecan pies. Gluten-free and vegan pies are also available.
South Street Market (southstmarket.com): Offering Hinman Pie pecan, pumpkin and salted maple pies as well as gluten-free vegan pumpkin pies.
Lafayette
Button Rock Bakery (buttonrock
bakery.com): French silk, pumpkin, pecan, coconut cream, gluten-free apple crumb, gluten-free cherry crumb and other pies, plus holiday side dishes, quiches and pastries.
Cherry’s Cheesecakes & Delights (cherryscheesecake.com): Pumpkin, caramel apple, bourbon pecan, cherry, sweet potato and Key lime pies, as well as bread puddings, cheesecakes and smoked turkeys.
Tip Top Pies (tiptoppies.com): Individual New Zealand-style apple, strawberry rhubarb, pumpkin and blueberry pies, savory pies and buttery pastry for home pie-making.
Other local holiday pie and tart sources include Bittersweet Cafe in Louisville, Le French Café and Breadworks in Boulder, Jeannot’s Patisserie in Lafayette, Stacey’s Kitchen in Erie, St. Vrain Market, Lyons Dairy Bar, Niwot Market and The Enchanted Oven in Broomfield.
Local Food News: Get Some Dim Sum
• Sparked by the recent openings of Ginger Pig and Alice & Rose, The Hill’s hot dining scene will add another attraction when Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings opens at 1125 13th St.
• Day Day Up Tea is open at 535 S. Boulder Road in Lafayette, properly serving traditional Chinese teas.
• Wing Shack, a Northern Colorado-based restaurant group, opens its first Boulder location at 2690 28th St. on Nov. 10.
• Coming soon: Illegal Pete’s opening in the Table Mesa Shopping Center in December.
• Longmont’s beloved Winchell’s Donut House is set to reopen in January.
• Sushi Yoshi, a longtime favorite in Louisville (and previously in Superior), has closed. Primitive Beer is closing its Longmont location on Dec. 24.
• Besides at their Gunbarrel and Lafayette shops, look for Tip Top Savory Pies’ new trailer location in the roundabout in Nederland for hot pies on the way to Eldora.
Culinary Calendar: Learning to Smoke
Your barbecuing skills could probably use an upgrade. Learn from the best when Michelin Award-winning AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q in Denver hosts its BBQ 101 Cooking Class on Nov. 12. Reservations: pitbarbq.com High tea is not a form of drinkable cannabis, but a lovely relaxed holiday tradition. Boulder’s St Julien Hotel hosts high tea Sundays through Dec. 17. Traditional teas, scones, sandwiches and petit fours will be served to live jazz. Bored, dressed-up children can decorate gingerbread people. Reservations: stjulien.com
How to pick ‘em
Get restaurant-choosing advice in Boulder Weekly’s new 2023 Best of East Boulder County special section. Reader-voted dining recommendations in tasty categories include Fine Dining (24 Carrot Bistro), Barbecue (Georgia Boys BBQ Co.), Burgers (The Waterloo), Pizza Restaurant (Urban Field) and Seafood (Reelfish Fish & Chips). See the other winners at: bit.ly/3Qtc2Bb
Words to Chew On: In Your Face!
“‘Entarting’ is delivering (by ‘lovingly pushing’, not throwing) a cream pie into the face of a deserving celebrity, preferably in full view of the world’s media, in order to make a point.”
— Janet Clarkson, “Pie: A Global History”
John Lehndorff is the former executive director of the American Pie Council and chief judge at the National Pie Championships. He hosts the Global Pie Society group. Join at: facebook.com/groups/piekind.
