This past weekend was the American Pie Council - Pie-Town competition.   Amateurs pie bakers are often stereotyped as elderly white women from the Midwest, but if this weekend taught me anything, it's that that stereotype is completely deserved.

It also taught me a lot of other things from the wonderful new friends I made at the APC like Ruth and Linda and Cathy.

Lesson 1: To get the most juice out of your lemon, you need to break down the cells.  This can be done 1 of 2 ways.  Option 1 is roll it against the table.  Option 2 is to microwave it.

Lesson 2: When using cream cheese, always get it to room temperature first.  That's the only way it will work well.

Lesson 3: Heavy whipping cream (at 38% milk fat) is the best to use when whipping.  It's heavy and whips up great.  The ratio is 2 tbsp of sugar for 2 c of heavy whipping cream.

Lesson 4: Putting a little lemon zest on top of a cream pie is great.

Lesson 5: Grate nutmeg into the whipping cream to give you a great, flavored whipped cream.

Lesson 6: For glazes, you can use milk, egg whites, or whole eggs.  For milk, use 2%, whole milk will burn.  Egg white will give a glaze, while whole eggs will cause the pie to brown.

Lesson 7: For streusel, use a 1:1:1 ratio of 1 c flour, 1 c brown sugar, 1 stick of butter.

Lesson 8: Use a mandolin to slice apples.

Lesson 9: Pecan pie can be made without corn syrup.  Instead, use a combination of butter and brown sugar.

Lesson 10: Chill flour and butter mix in the fridge for 30 mins before adding cold water.  Once water's added, roll it out right away.

Lesson 11: For braided crust, braid into 1 slice long pieces.  If need be, cover each intersection with a decoration.

Lesson 12: Cook bacon on parchment paper in the oven at 350 degrees.  Bacon won't shrink.

Lesson 13: Cream cheese, mixed with heavy cream and powdered sugar, will puff up like you won't believe.

Lesson 14: To make a brandy pecan pie, instead of 1 c corn syrup, use 3/4 c corn syrup and 1/4 c of brandy.

Lesson 15: Thickeners.  Debate was fierce here with people falling into one of three camps: clearjell, flour or cornstarch.  People seemed to favor flour at least for traditional pies (apple).  Cornstarch apparently has a flavor although nobody I talked with said they could taste it.  It does also create a brown color.  Tapioca was universally rejected in its granule form because of its difficulty.  One woman brought up tapioca starch, but she still seemed to favor other thickeners.

Lesson 16: Use cream of tartar in whipped cream as a stabilizer.  

Lesson 17:  Use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract.  It has no alcohol in it and has a stronger, better flavor.  Replace with a 1:1 ratio.

Lesson 18: For pumpkin pie, use Libby's.  For cream cheese, use Philadelphia.  

One of my earliest memories takes place when I was about 5 years old.  I had a babysitter named Linda.  She was a big, thick woman with a heavy accent, who I wouldn't be able to recognize today if I tried.  But she taught me pie.  

She'd lift me up and sit me on the counter, where I'd teeter, terrified at falling off and exhilarated to be so high up.  And I'd watched Linda bake.  The counter top would be white with flour as she rolled out her dough, the kitchen would be warm from the heating oven, and the fruit would sparkle with sugar.

Watching Linda's pies bake, seeing the transformation of flour, sugar, butter and fruit into a golden-brown, bubbling pastry was magical.  And eating it was even more so.  The taste of a warm, buttery crust blanketing a crisp, tart apple was more than my 5 year old brain could conceive of.  I don't know that anything's perfect in this world, but when you bake, you can get awfully close.  

Today, whenever I eat a slice of warm apple pie, I will always instantly be 5 years old again, sitting on the counter and watching Linda roll out dough, as the heat of the oven fills that small kitchen, and I'm once again amazed by the magic of baking.

I don't expect to find the recipe for the perfect pie recipe, but I think I can get close.