Applegater Winter 2023
Peach pie perfection
A pie flop
Raven Brault shares the secrets to her award-winning pie
BY DIANA COOGLE
21
BY CHRISTINA AMMON
Entering a pie contest
isn’t something Applegate
resident Raven Brault
normally would do. But
at the urging of a friend
(me!), she decided to enter
the Jacksaphine Count(r)y
Fair contest.
In case you missed
it, the count(r)y fair
was a fundraiser for A
Greater Applegate. Local
musicians, food vendors,
and community groups
Raven Brault won the pie contest at
gathered to celebrate
AGA’s Jacksaphine Count(r)y Fair with her peach pie.
all things Applegate—
See recipe below. Photo: Tim Daw.
including pie.
Raven’s peach trees were overloaded Dave Dotterer, author Paul Fattig, and
with ripe fruit, so a peach pie seemed like the Applegater Editor in Chief Barbara
a good bet! The choice also fit her own Holiday—described it as “old-school
preferences for desserts that are humble, peach perfection.” One said he’d never had
beautiful, and showcase the best fresh a pie like it before.
fruit available.
Friends sometimes urge Raven to
Aside from sourcing great peaches, open a bakery in the Applegate, but she
she employed other tricks as well— hesitates. “I like to stay flexible to travel,”
such as keeping the dough cold, she says. “Having a pastry shop really
not handling it too much, and even takes up your life. You have to get up at 2
using vodka in the crust, which keeps or 3 am in order to open by 7 am. Then
the glutens from over forming. These are you’re closed by 2 pm, but have to start
all strategies she picked up in her long planning for the next day, accounting,
experience working at restaurants around managing staff…”
the country.
So, for now, she’ll stick with the joy of
“I love the science of baking,” she says, baking for family and friends. If she needs
opening an illustrated recipe booklet she to feel the rush of baking professionally,
used in a kindergarten class. She has been she contents herself with watching The
experimenting with making cookies, Great British Bake Off.
cakes, and pies her whole life. “I love the
Her main advice to aspiring bakers?
art of it too.”
Have patience, drop the stress, and keep
Raven’s baking efforts paid off—she perspective. “If you screw up, don’t worry
walked away with the blue ribbon at about it. Try again…it’s just pie!”
the fair. The judges—food writer Sarah
Christina Ammon
Lemon, Jackson County Commissioner christina@footlooseintheapplegate.com
Raven’s First-place
Peach Pie Recipe
Makes one 9-inch pie
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Combine in a large bowl:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
4-1/2 cups sliced peaches (you can peel if you want)
Cover and leave alone for 1 hour.
Roll out pie dough of your choice and place bottom in pie plate and top on a
cookie sheet and put in refrigerator to keep cold. If you are doing lattice strips,
cut and place on cookie sheet and put in refrigerator.
After an hour, drain peaches and save the juice. Put peaches in large bowl. You
should have about one cup of juice.
Combine in a small saucepan:
1/4 cup of cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon (no more!)
1/8 tsp salt
Juice from peaches
Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil and simmer for two minutes, constantly stirring
(mixture will be very thick).
Add 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tbs butter.
Fold this mixture into the peaches, pour into bottom crust, put top dough on
and crimp sides (or create a lattice top), then cut 4-6 vent slits into top. Sprinkle
top with granulated or very coarse sugar (Sparkle sugar).
Bake for 40-50 minutes or until internal temperature is about 200 degrees.
Cover edges with foil or pie-baking shield to prevent burning. Best baked in a
glass pie dish for even cooking.
Enjoy!
• • •
Visit the “News & Stories” section of Applegate Valley Connect (applegateconnect.
org) for recipes of the other pies in the contest: Kevin Adamson’s apple-peach-
pecan pie with pear-jam glaze, Michael Golden’s Reese banana cream pie, and
Janeen Sathre’s plum pie.
I perked up at
hold together
news of A Greater
and was doughy
Applegate’s pie contest
besides. I salvaged
for the Jacksaphine
the raspberries and
Count(r)y Fair last
threw the crust into
September. I have
the garbage. There
entered baking
would be no Diana
contests before, and
Coogle razzle-
I’m pretty good at
dazzle raspberry pie
pies, I thought, so off
at the Jacksaphine
I went, determined to
Count(r)y Fair.
win or at least to make
The second pie
I tossed a similar-looking failure
a good showing.
turned out better.
of a pie crest in the trash.
Pies had to
The crust rolled into
be fruit pies, and
the pie pan in one
each contestant had to bake two of the piece, and the pie looked good when it
same kind, one for the judges and one came out of the oven, except that it was
to be auctioned off. Besides taste and too dark, not because it was overdone but
appearance, pies would be judged on use because the cinnamon sprinkled on top
of local products.
blended into the darker flour. It wasn’t
I decided to make a razzle dazzle pretty, and, anyway, I had already blown
raspberry pie, which I had made before, to my chances at the pie contest with the
great success. Ingredients included six cups kitchen failure of the first pie.
of raspberries and a half-cup of amaretto
I had raspberry-amaretto topping on
besides the obligatory sugar, flour, and yogurt for breakfast the next three days. I
butter. Cheryl Bruner, in Williams, sold froze the second pie.
me raspberries from her bushes. I didn’t
Two months later, I thawed the pie
know where I could get local butter, and to share with friends when we went wine
I didn’t know anyone who made amaretto, tasting at Guzzo’s. Too nervous to trust
but I figured I would get a lot of points if my culinary talents anymore, I ate a slice
I used a locally made flour. Unfortunately, before I left. It was delicious. And when
my first choice was no longer making flour, I served it to Barbara and Jeanette, they
so I went to another source, just outside declared it a great pie.
the Applegate. Even though the flour
It wouldn’t have won, though, even if
wasn’t Applegate local, it was a whole lot I had had two pies for the contest. The
more local than wherever Gold Medal or crust was too heavy for the filling, and
Pillsbury flour comes from.
though the raspberries were razzle-dazzle
This source, however, didn’t make a brilliant, the uncut pie was not pretty. I
nice, light white flour, so I bought their was reminded of losing a pie contest years
whole wheat pastry flour instead.
ago because I had made my pecan pie with
The day before the fair, I began making honey instead of sugar to be healthier.
my pies. I made the raspberry-amaretto Now I had lost even the possibility of
filling, then turned to the crusts.
entering a pie contest by using local flour,
To my dismay, the whole wheat pastry to gain favor with the judges, even though
flour wasn’t working, even combined with it was whole wheat pastry flour instead
white flour. I just could not make the first of pie-crust-reliable, though not local,
pie dough roll out in a nice, stretchy circle, supermarket white flour.
and it fell apart when I tried to lift it into
The winning pie of the Jacksaphine
the pie pan. In despair, I pushed it into the Fair, that great peach pie, sold for $200 at
pan, filled it with the raspberry-amaretto the auction. Next year we’ll see how much
mixture, and baked it, anyway.
a razzle-dazzle raspberry pie, with Gold
It was a flamboyant kitchen failure. Medal flour for the crust, will bring in.
The whole-wheat-heavy crust didn’t
Diana Coogle • dicoog@gmail.com
Free journalism writing class
Sponsored by the Applegater Newsmagazine
Do you struggle with the articles you send to the Applegater? Do you often want
to send something to the Applegater but are intimidated about the writing part? Do
you wonder how to make your writing fit a newspaper style? Do you just simply
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Diana Coogle, former journalism instructor at Rogue Community College, JPR
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This free class is open to all interested participants. Contact Diana Coogle at
diana@applegater.org for more information or to sign up for the class.