Ru's Pie Club

A few weeks ago on a trip to Sebastopol for gravenstein apples, my friend Moe and I stopped at Bee Kind – a small honey shop on Gravenstein Hwy that sells over 40 different kinds of local honey. You can check this place out on the web here, but I definitely recommend visiting in person because the shop offers taste tests for all of their honeys. My favorite was the pomegranate honey, but I only tasted 3 or 4 for fear that I’d ruin my appetite for a slice of gravenstein apple pie from Mom’s Apple Pie, a large pie kitchen that’s a little farther north on Gravenstein Hwy.

But the honey inspired me to think BIG. On the Jewish New Year, many communities eat apples, round breads, and honey to celebrate the sweetness and cyclical nature of the new year…which, of course, led me to idea of a Rosh Hashanah pie!

This year, the Pie Club’s New Year pies are filled with organic heirloom apples rolled in organic honey made by Oakland bees!*
Place your order today through the Pie Club order form! The details are below:

$30 per 9″ pie (yields 8 slices)
All pies will be delivered on September 14th and 15th

*You are more than welcome to order this pie whether you celebrate Rosh Hashanah or not!

Hi Pie Fans –

This October, I am teaching a workshop through Skillshare – a community marketplace for classes of all kinds – on making delicious pie and tart crusts!

Delicious Handmade Pie and Tart Crust! Tips, Techniques & Recipes

Monday, October 15th from 6:45pm-8pm in the Mission

There’s limited room, so sign up today with this special link! And tell your friends!

Check out a few examples of different pie or tart crust styles:

Roll out a full top crust

Top your pie with a tart crust using cookie cutters!

Lemon tart with a standard tart crust

Apple pie with a lattice design

Hello Pie Fans –

After an incredible non-stop-baking month, I thought I would take advantage of this relatively slow week to catch up on a few things, including the Pie Club blog!

Thanks to all of you, I have baked and sold about 56 pies since mid-June. And, as you can imagine, I have learned many many lessons in the process. Here are a few of my favorites:

1) Baking endeavors take, on average, 2 hours longer than I anticipate. Every time. No matter how many times I have learned this one, those 2 hours seem to creep up.

2) After making 20 pies in 48 hours (see my post about that here), one or three pies at a time is easy-peasy. No big deal. And while I recognize that that first order was kind of out of control, filling my biggest order first was like jumping into cold water, head first. So bring on the big orders! I am ready.

3) Egg washes make all the difference between dry and delicious crust. As I’ve been working on my pie crust, and I’ve found that without that wash, it dries out in the oven and becomes crumbly, rather than flakey. See the difference below:

Apple Pie with an egg wash! See how pretty it is?!

Nectarine and strawberry pie with no wash. Delicious, but crust is lighter and dryer. Can you see it?!

Buttery flakey crust is really what makes a pie. It also adds a beautiful finish, which leads me to my next lesson…

4) Some pies are photogenic, and some are not. I’m still looking for tips for photographing the chocolate cream pie…

What’s coming up next for Ru’s Pie Club? That’s a very good question! I am starting the process of becoming more professional so that I can sell at public events like farmers markets,

and start utilizing restaurant supply stores and bulk farm orders to cut my costs. I am currently searching for someone to design a logo and a “look” for Ru’s Pie Club. I would love any advice from small business owners in Oakland!

And, of course, please keep ordering those pies!

lots of pie love to you all!