Evan Kleiman Bakes a Pie A Day, For the Entire Summer
Pie: Every. Single. Day.
If I were forced to choose between pie and cake for the rest of my life, I'd pick pie in an instant, no contest. With pie you can go sweet, you can go savory, you can have chocolate, or you can choose from a rainbow of fruit pies. Pie-making, with the rolling out of dough and tossing of the filing, is such a superior tactile experience to the scoop, sift, and stir hum-drum of making a cake.
When my cousin got married, he and his wife chose to have a table full of pies and tubs of Straus ice cream instead of a big ol' wedding cake. I consider this a genius move, and way cooler than the "cupcakes-instead-of-a-wedding cake" craze that seems to be sweeping the wedding scene these days.
Evan Kleiman—the voice behind KCRW's delightful radio program Good Food and the Chef at Angeli Caffe in Los Angeles—has, bless her soul, committed to baking one pie a day for the entire summer. That's ninety pies!
Kleiman doesn't discriminate when it comes to pies. Some she makes are gorgeous, some are on the more homely side, but you can bet they all taste delicious. Kleiman doesn't plan the pie for the day—she just wakes up in the morning and gets inspired by what looks good and what's in season. She's gone way beyond the classic "American as apple pie" definition, making shepherd's pie, ice cream pies, cream pies, fried pies, gallettes, crostadas, small French tarts, and bastillas. But as for her favorite pie, she says:
If there were just one pie in my universe it would be the double crust apple pie—no contest. It has everything. The yielding sweetness of fruit cooked in sugar with a hint of cinnamon. If I were an apple, it’s how I’d like to go.
However, the road to total summer pie domination hasn't always been easy. After the July 4th weekend, Kleiman felt that she had overdosed on pie. So she came up with the totally original "Black Cat Pie."
Kleiman dreamed up the pie-a-day idea to add a little dose of serendipity to her summer because, she says, "When you are an adult, every day in summer is the same as every other day but hotter."
The biggest surprise about this whole project? Kleiman doesn't own a traditional oven. At her restaurant, Kleiman has professional gear, but at home she cooks out of this small countertop oven. When her double ovens fell out of the wall in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, she never got around to replacing them. She makes do with the countertop oven and hopes that one day a TV makeover show will help out the chef with no kitchen.
You can see all the pies Kleiman has completed here.
From all of us here at Serious Eats Headquarters, we say: Good luck and happy baking!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
13 Comments:
Pie is so much more awesome than cupcakes.
wunami at 3:59PM on 07/24/09
This article was cute. I couldn't agree more about pie being better than cake any day. My cousins wedding was void of a giant cake too. They had little lemon tarts as one of the desserts! There is something so magical and old fashion about a pie.
xwafflesx at 4:01PM on 07/24/09
Kleiman is my hero. - http://veryculinary.com/_blog/2009/03/10/lets-dish-pie-trumps-everything/
veryculinary at 4:06PM on 07/24/09
A friend of mine had pies at her wedding instead of a cake--which was especially appropriate because the groom had, in fact, initially wooed her by bringing her pies.
mhirsch at 4:45PM on 07/24/09
YES! If only everyone realized how much better pie is than your average cake. Also, wooing me with a pie= best idea ever. Can that happen please? Thanks for another great article, Tress!
lmasulis at 5:06PM on 07/24/09
@mhirscch - thats so romantic.
@veryculinary - Awesome idol. Would you ever take on a similar task?
hungrychristel at 5:13PM on 07/24/09
Thanks Serious Eats People! For the sake of honesty I want to confess that the first pic above was sent into the Good Food blog by listener Alicia, that's her gorgeous Raspberry Pie. Mine don't look so perfect.
Evankleiman at 6:17PM on 07/24/09
A good friend of mine had a "pie shower" for her baby shower a few months ago. We had about 6-8 different pies, a veggie & cheese tray to round it out, coffee and punch. Wasn't what I would have chosen - I'm on the cake side of this war - but it turned out really well, and who were we to tell an eight-month pregnant woman that she couldn't have pie at her baby shower if that's what she wanted?
kimberlymac at 6:29PM on 07/24/09
I've been known to enjoy a good cupcake now and again, but I've never bought or made a whole cake for myself. I've baked them for family members for various occasions, but I make pies for myself pretty frequently.
jboylan at 8:28PM on 07/24/09
Goodness--who is eating all those pies?? I would bake a lot more than I do, but in my small lacking-a-sweet-tooth household, the goods would just sit there!
Takat at 9:31PM on 07/24/09
i want to do an all pie wedding too!
black cat pie = hilarious
i'm really digging the cresent shapes on the blueberry-never thought about doing that-always rocked the lattice or an actual pie bird.
gastronomeg at 11:02AM on 07/25/09
I had a grey cat wedding cake, but (and this still kills me to this day) I forgot to take a picture of Dexter napping on the cake. I served the wedding cake anyway, but I never told the bride and groom as they were dog people.
CatBoy at 11:10AM on 07/25/09
I just went through the full list of pies she has made so far- amazing selection. And a big WOW that she made a glazed strawberry pie that actually sounds good.
CatBoy at 11:25AM on 07/25/09