In pie circles, she's tops

Buckley resident is revered for her creations

Sue Kidd | The Tacoma News Tribune • Published August 20, 2008

Comments (0)

On day two of the American Pie Council's national pie contest in Florida, Suzie Sidhu was worried about the Food Network film crew.

Tips for great pie

According to Suzie Sidhu, good pie is this: crispy, flaky crust and oozy good interior. She likes fruits that are bright and delicious looking. Flavors must meld. Ingredients must blend.

A few tips from Sidhu to make perfect pie:

•Crust: Sidhu is a fan of shortening crusts, not butter. Her secret to great crust is not really a secret. She uses Krusteaz Pie Crust Mix. The trick to perfect dough? Ice cold water (ice cold everything, actually). Dough should stick to itself, but nothing else. Use a pastry cloth, and only roll the dough once. Re-rolling means more flour, which means a tough, cracked crust.

•Filling: Fresh ingredients only. The better ingredients, the better the pie. Partially cook or fully cook apples (if they're sturdy, like Granny Smiths) to avoid the "dome" on an apple pie. Mix dry ingredients, and add the fruit last. Incorporate all ingredients completely. Sidhu likes flour as a thickener. Keep flavors simple, but delicious.

•Work fast: Keep the crust cold, and roll out the crusts quickly. Soggy pie bottom comes from fruit sitting too long in the pie crust. So place the bottom pie crust in the dish, add fruit and then add the topper. Get in the oven quickly.

•Pie at the fair: Want to enter your pie in the Puyallup Fair cooking contests? Go to www.thefair.com and click on "Exhibit Entries," then click on "Home Arts." Instructions are there for entering the Puyallup Fair berry pie contest (Sept. 15) and Pillsbury fruit pie contest (Sept. 3). The fair is Sept. 5-21. For other food and cooking contests, check the Home Arts guide.

•To reach Sidhu: Call Cafe Panini at 360-802-5132. The cafe is at 1537 Cole St., Enumclaw. Sidhu will teach pie and other cooking classes at Green River Community College's Enumclaw extension Sept. 10 (cream pies), Oct. 8 (bread) and Nov. 12 (holiday goodies). Go to www.greenriver.edu/enumclaw.

"I made pie crust cookies with strawberry jam. They were there for two days and watching all these pies cooking, and nobody gave them nothing," the Buckley pie maker said. "I made four batches of cookies in a few hours. Once they found out I had goodies, they were all coming over for my stuff. They told me I was the only one in two days who fed them anything."

It's a classic Suzie-ism: Hungry people? Feed them pie. Happy people? Feed them pie. People walking by? Feed them pie.

She's been crafting pie for two decades and then some. She's been featured in Sunset magazine and revered in East Pierce County for her two-decade tenure, on and off, at Buckley's Sweet Shoppe (now closed) and now Cafe Panini in Enumclaw, where she is a part owner.

Sidhu is the empress of pie. The window at the back of the cafe declares her so. "Pie Goddess," it reads. Indeed. She is.

People love pie

Her big pie window, just off the intersection of Cole Street and Griffin Avenue in downtown Enumclaw, is like a lobster tank for pastry people. Stand, slobber, press nose against glass and gaze at delicious pie.

"I keep cleaning and cleaning, but people just keep pressing their noses against the window," said Sidhu as she dropped spoonfuls of sugar, flour and spices into a dozen or so metal bowls that would soon hold the interiors of a dozen or so pies.

On the menu that day: peach raspberry, blackberry, rhubarb, apple, yada yada. So much pie. People kept walking by, looking in. Sort of funny to see someone stop and do a pie double take. It happened over and over again. How does Sidhu get work done streetside?

"I love the people here; they're always checking in on what I'm doing. I'm a tourist attraction," she said with her signature lilting laugh. She looks the part of pie lady: Her clothes covered by a pie-stained white chef's jacket. Her shoes? White Crocs with a pastel floral pattern. It seems a smile or half smile is perpetually pasted on her face. Her laugh comes easy.

Next page >>