The pie and crust recipe came from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion All-Purpose Baking cookbook, otherwise known as my baking Bible. The single crust recipe called for both butter and crisco-I think from now on I'm going to work on all-butter crusts. The filling was an interesting combination of milk, sugar, and corn starch, which you cooked until a thickening stage, then you add egg yolks and more sugar. Once it comes to a boil, you have what looks like vanilla pudding, then you add unsweetened chocolate, vanilla, and butter. I considered swapping in a different type of chocolate, like bittersweet, but I didn't try that ahead of time on the practice pies, so I didn't want to risk it on the competition pie.
The winner of the taste category as well as best in show was a rhubarb lattice pie with cardamom and orange. The baker found the recipe on epicurious.com and decided to make it even though the online reviews were mixed. Her gamble paid off!
