In 2011, food trendmasters proclaimed that pies were “the new cupcakes.” Here, at nearly the end of 2012, the passion for the homey comfort food has yet to wane. Because even if our own mother or grandmother never tucked a fresh-baked apple pie lovingly on the windowsill to cool, the very aroma brings a flood of childhood memories for all of us.
This holiday season, we’re thinking pies. Quince pies, pumpkin pies, fruity mincemeat pies, rhubarb, persimmon, pecan, and chocolate. Maybe we’ll tuck into savory pies, too, delectable pastry pockets of meat, veggies, cheeses and stews. Whatever is seasonal and delicious and can be encased in crust, we’re ready for it.
At Petaluma Pie Company, owners Angelo Sacerdote and Lina Hoshino have created a shrine to the fresh-baked goodness in their downtown shop, focusing on local and organic ingredients and ranging from persimmon pudding pie and pear-quince ginger-cardamom pie, to Japanese-style vegetarian curry pie and mixed mushroom with goat gouda pie. They’ll take custom orders, too, such as gluten-free, vegan, or sugar-free pies.
The fried pies at Sonoma’s Fremont Diner is the stuff of midnight cravings, though they work equally well for breakfast. Chef-owner Chad Harris makes regular pies (fresh flavors every day), but he also offers them crisped in bubbling oil, such as a knock-your-socks-off apple bourbon treat topped in ice cream.
Of course, the true pie legend in these parts is Kozlowski Farms in Forestville. Nestled among the apple orchards sits an old-fashioned market stocked to the rafters with pecan streusel crumb-top and double-crust pies. The baking began in1952 when Carmen Kozlowski needed to find a use from an overabundant harvest of berries and apples on the property, and the rest, lucky us, is delicious history.
Carmen’s pies beckon with golden lattice crusts, in seasonal flavors like cherry, raspberry peach and blueberry apple, and you can get them as pie tarts, too (hint, grab an unbaked pie, take it home and finish it to fill your home with scent of raspberries, apples, and blackberries).
It would be hard to come up with a better name than Mom’s Apple Pies, meanwhile, and this roadside bakeshop on Gravenstein Highway has been doing us all proud for more than 25 years. Owner Betty Carr keeps busy in the kitchen crafted cinnamon apple, rhubarb, peach, cherry, and blueberry. If you were to bring one home for a holiday dinner and claim it as your own work, we wouldn’t tell.
Just be sure to save us a slice.
Petaluma Pie Company: 125 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma, 707-347-9743, petalumapie.com.
Fremont Diner: 2660 Fremont Dr., Sonoma; 707-938-7370, thefremontdiner.com.
Kozlowski Farms, 5566 Gravenstein Highway North, Forestville, 707-887-1587, kozlowskifarms.com. Pies are also sold at grocery stores all over Sonoma, and online.
Mom’s Apple Pie, 4550 Gravenstein Highway N., Sebastopol, (707) 823-8330, momsapplepieusa.com.