Saturday, April 26, 2008

Heritage and Invention Recipes: What We Do

Here at Cutie Pies we specialize in two kinds of pie: Heritage Recipes and Inventions.

Heritage recipes are pies that your grandmother, great grandmother or great great grandmother would have made, recipes that haven't been seen or made in more than two generations. It is very important to me, on a personal level and as a baker, to keep these recipes alive. Not only are they wonderful testaments to the inventive spirit, skill and resourcefulness of these men and women, but also a much healthier one.

If you look at the ingredient lists of todays pastries, cakes, breads and pies you'll notice at least one ingredient over and over again: Corn syrup. Corn syrup is an evil thing, sweetening things that don't need sweeteners and causing all sorts of health problems. We prefer not to use things like corn syrup, food coloring, glucose, fructose or any such preservatives. It is unnecessary. Working with heritage recipes insures we will never have to use modern preservatives, as these products didn't exist when the recipe was written and used.

Instead an apple will snap in your mouth rather than taste like warmed over apple sauce and blueberries will sparkle with fresh lemon rather than bottled lemon "flavoring". What exactly is "flavoring" anyway? The idea behind Cutie Pies isn't just good, local, organic and fresh as humanly possible desserts, it's also about letting natural ingredients speak for themselves in a way we haven't let them in a long time.

Our other type of pie, the Invention recipe, come out of the heads of the Cutie Bakers. While still using the principles behind a heritage recipe (local, fresh) our bakers create a new heritage that may not have been possible in the past.

A good example of an Invention recipe would be our Orange Buttercream Dream. The inspiration for this delicious fragrant little pie was the Creamsicle, that wonder of excellent childhood memories. Our baker, Iris Monroe, asked how exactly could she create this flavor using fresh, organic oranges, but in the confines of our mission to keep everything as natural as possible. She achieved what can be called the closest thing to a Creamsicle, in pie form, that defiantly tastes like the original frozen treat.

The other idea behind Cutie Pies as a company and as a responsible local community member is something special not often seen in business today: Fun.

With our three sizes; Whole Pies, Cutie Pie and Tiny Taster, you'll experience something fun and wonderful to look at and to taste. Our playful flavors range from a mammoth mountain of chocolate pie named The Helepolis (Greek for Taker of Cities) to the silly Bada-Bing Cherry. As to size, well, nothing can beat a Cutie Pie for a delightful, single serving or a Tiny Taster for nothing but a bite, however even our Whole Pie size will create ohs and ahs, especially after the first bite.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our company and thank you for supporting a small, budding local business that wants nothing but to serve excellent treats to an adoring public.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I love Birthday Pies.

I love Birthday Pies.

It takes a kind of different person to forgo the usual cake thing and ask to have pie at their birthday party. Plus It gives Iris a chance to fuss about someone’s birthday besides Snorkles the wonder pug and me. Iris made a big huge blueberry pie for someone’s birthday and It was covered in pie crust stars and looked like a pretty flag.

We delivered it so fresh the pie dripped blueberry juice all down Iris’ hoody but even that came out in the wash.

-Shea-