or Samantha Smith, owner of Sugar on Front
Street, the time-honored tradition of baking
a fresh summer fruit pie takes her back to her
earliest childhood memories of baking pies
with fresh, seasonal fruit. Nothing says happy
Fourth of July like a traditional sour cherry or
blueberry chess pie.
“I think they both taste like summer,” Smith says.
The blueberry chess is a very traditional pie and one that Smith
says many of her younger pie eaters may not be familiar with.
“I’ve been doing that pie since I was little; that was one of my
grandpa’s favorites,” Smith says. “You can’t find it anymore.”
The chess pie, she says, has a short shelf life. Using organic
blueberries from Bluefield Farms — a certified organic farm in
Hampstead — the chess pie consists of a creamy, blueberry butter-milk
custard that is baked into a butter pastry crust.
“It is so versatile,” Smith says. “Traditionally, it’s actually a rhu-barb
custard pie but you can do any kind of tart berry,” she says.
“It’s so simple that it lets the ingredients really shine. You can taste
the blueberry and it smells like blueberry, but the custard has the
texture of a crème brûlée.”
Because of its tartness, Smith also loves baking her sour cherry
pie with fresh Morello cherries, imported from Michigan — the
best place to get them in the United States, she says.
“I have not been making this pie as long as the chess pie because
I was not able to import fresh cherries when I was little,” Smith
F
Vanilla bean ice cream is the perfect garnish for serving John Palmer’s North Carolina peach pie. Opposite, John Palmer’s Gala apple pie crust
is dusted with a hint of cinnamon.
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