A dozen pie options are available to customers at The Crust & Crumb Baking Co. at Thanksgiving, ranging from a chocolate-infused midnight pumpkin pie to coconut cream pie to pork pie. The downtown Concord bakery has glass cases full of desserts, including a forest berry crumb pie that owner Alison Ladman pulled from a case one October afternoon.
Apple crumb pie. (GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff)
Despite her range of options – with cakes, cookies and whoopie pies, among other treats available – it’s the traditional items that prevail at Thanksgiving.
“Classics are popular,” Ladman said. “New England loves classic.”
The shop, which has been open for about 3½ years, finds that come Thanksgiving, people want what they know.
“People want pie and rolls for Thanksgiving,” Ladman said. “Rolls are just where it’s at for Thanksgiving.”
Shaker squash rolls and butter rolls are available for order, as are a couple of bread options. Rolls are made in the thousands, Ladman said, and pies are made in the hundreds, a process that begins in late October.
“Best sellers are always the classics: apple pie, the pumpkin pie, we do a forest berry pie, which is all the berries mixed together,” she said.
Crust & Crumb, a certified local shop, makes its products from scratch, a long but worthwhile process.
“Our pie crust is hard to make and it takes a long time and it takes a good amount of skill level. That’s why our pie crust is so good. There’s no shortcut to good pie crust,” she said. “Everything’s made completely from scratch. We start with flour and go from there.”
For someone planning to make their own pie this holiday season, Ladman says that store bought pie crust will do, but homemade pie crust is preferable. Apple pie is a good option, in terms of difficulty level, to make, she said. A good apple pie – whether or not store bought crust is used – comes down to the apple selection.
“You don’t want to pick something that’s totally going to break down into mush and then you have an applesauce pie,” she said.
Firm apples – some on the sweeter end of the spectrum, some more tart – are important. Golden delicious, gala, fuji, granny smith and mcintosh are good options easily found at local grocery stores. “You can get macs at the local orchards. Those are great,” she said.
Ladman sells other desserts, including cakes and whoopie pies, but finds that those are not the most desired – though children do love whoopie pies.
“It’s a fun dessert,” she said. “You can be running around playing football and grab a bite of whoopie pie.”
The bakery does not limit itself to the classics, though. Customers enjoy the flourless chocolate torte, the Shaker lemon pie, and a variation on a pecan pie, which is Ladman’s personal favorite. Because of nut allergies in her family, Ladman does not have to share her maple bourbon pecan pie. “I get the whole pie to myself,” she said.
For more information, visit thecrustandcrumb.com.
The post ‘New England loves classic’ pies appeared first on Ag & Eats.