Blue ribbon apple pie: It’s no piece of cake
Baking a good apple pie isn’t “easy as pie,” said Lorrie Rauch, whose apple, peach, cream pie was named the best in the state at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Saturday.
When her name was announced, Rauch jumped from her seat and quickly made her way to the stage. Standing before dozens gathered for the announcement, she was moved to tears.
Rauch, of Lynn Township, Lehigh County, put a lot of work into her pie.
“All good things take time, and this took time,” she said.
She tested the recipe on family members many
times before finally making the blue ribbon winner Friday.
“I said I need this time to be alone and to make this pie,” she said, then added, “It’s easy to eat, and that’s the only easy part.”
Fay Strickler, of New Holland, was among the five judges who named Rauch the winner.
Although Strickler has never entered a contest herself, she has judged many contests from Allentown to Bloomsburg. She was also a family and consumer science instructor with the Penn State Extension for nearly 34 years.
“With 73 pies, we had an abundance of really good ones,” she said. “We have some really good bakers in Pennsylvania.”
Entrants had to win the pie contest at their local fair in order to be eligible for the state contest, said Kevin Bieber, director of the Pennsylvania State Association of County Fairs. There are 114 fairs in the state. Usually 70 to 80 winners from the various fairs bring their pies to the state contest, he said.
“It goes from grandma to — we had a little 11-yearold girl bring in a pie,” Bieber said.
That girl was Juliana Bonus, of Berlin, Somerset County. The special ingredient in her pie was vanilla bean.
Juliana’s aunt, Betty Lou Miller, of Friedens, taught her to bake and accompanied her Saturday.
“She’s always like to bake and cook when I came over,” Miller said.
When Miller pointed out that Juliana won first place at the Berlin County Fair, Juliana quickly noted she won “in the adult section.”
Juliana said baking is fun, especially since she is just starting out and has a lot of time to learn.
Belinda Myers, of Dallastown, who won the Dillsburg Fair in October, found herself at the state contest once again this year after decades of baking. She won the state contest in 1989.
“I love baking and I love the competition,” she said.
Myers said bakers must be really creative these days. She recalled the third place winner in 1989 had pork in her apple pie.
Connie Shuff, Myers’ friend, who was getting set to judge the chocolate cake contest, judges the York County Fair apple pie con- test and other baking contests each year.
Some people say picking the best pie is tough, but it’s not so hard, she said.
“You can disqualify a lot right at the beginning,” she said, and that’s before you taste.
“When I judge an apple pie, I always turn it over to make sure the crust is done,” she said. “A good crust is the start of a good pie.”