This year’s American Pie Council’s (APC) Crisco® National Pie Championships featured several new categories. The competition was held last month in conjunction with the Great American Pie Festival.
Making a one-time-only appearance was the Royal Wedding category, which challenged professional bakers to create a pie fit to serve Prince William and Kate Middleton at their wedding.

The winner of the category was Bryan Ehrenholm, The Lunch Pail, Modesto, Calif., with his Engagement Ring Pie creation. “This pie is rich with history of English walnuts and dates, graced by a meringue crust and topped with the deep color of blue-berries and encircled with the lightness of whipped cream and diamond dust,” Ehrenholm said of his creation. He also won the Professional Best in Show category with the pie.

In celebration of Crisco’s 100th anniversary this year, the competition also featured a Crisco Innovation category. The winner in the professional division was Linda Hundt, DeWitt, Mich., for her Laura’s Sticky Toffee Pudding Apple Pie. The pie featured a Crisco-based crust layered with sticky toffee pudding filling and praline pecans, topped with a mixture of cooked apples, cinnamon, butter and sugar.

This year’s competition featured 896 entries in commercial, professional, amateur and junior chef categories. More than half of the entries were in the commercial division. The pies were judged by 174 volunteer chefs, bakers and pie aficionados.

Commercial bakers competed in 23 flavor categories as well as 12 no-sugar-added flavor varieties. Independent bakers with less than $1 million in annual pie sales participated in a division within the commercial bakers’ competition.

For a complete list of APC competition winners, visit www.piecouncil.org.