It’s “as easy as pie.” Hah!

Whoever said making a pie was easy never watched me labor over a pie crust. I have been known to break out in a cold sweat just thinking about tough pie dough that sticks to the counter-top and must be scraped up and hobbled together into a scary looking mess.

My early attempts at making a pie crust were punctuated by tears, swearing and the determined proclamation, “This is not *&%#ing easy!”

I will admit, up until now, I’ve cheated myself and my pie fillings by buying store-bought crusts. But no more. I have faced my pie crust demons and, through the intervention of Debbie Thurlow of Debbie’s Pies and her pie baking class, I can honestly claim, it is “as easy as pie.”

Summer is a time for fresh fruits and berries, and what better time to dive into full pie baking mode. When I learned about a class being offered by Thurlow at her Pineland Farms location, I jumped at the chance to conquer the one culinary feat that has brought me to my knees for so many years.

Thurlow began Debbie’s Pies three years ago, but she has been baking since she was 18. She learned her pie crust recipe from Dot Jewel at the Sarah Frye Home in Auburn. That same year, Thurlow started a tradition of making at least a dozen pies the day before Thanksgiving for her large family. That tradition has become an enduring event where extended family gather “to bake pies with Aunt Debbie,” according to her niece Ann Stone, who was in attendance at the pie class with her daughter, Debbie’s grand-niece Alana Buck.

For a time, Thurlow sold her pies at a farm stand in New Gloucester. Then practical life intervened and, one thing then another and, poof, she had worked 20 years in an office before deciding to switch careers. She returned to baking and operated her business in her home for a year, and then moved her shop to The Market at Pineland Farms.

In addition to pies, Thurlow offers dessert bars, brownies, cookies and specialty orders. “I’ll have people come to me and say, ‘My grandmother made the best blueberry pie with a lattice top crust. Can you do that for me?’ What they’re asking me is to hit a memory. It’s hard to meet that memory, but, still, they’re pleased.”

She offers workshops on occasion, undoubtedly out of pity for all us pie crust-fearing folk.

Limited to about 10 students, the class is offered in The Market’s kitchen. Everyone has their own work space around a gigantic butcher block table, and it makes for a relaxing atmosphere to take on The Pie.

For me, putting all the dry ingredients together is smooooth sailing. Mixing up the wet ingredients is easy peasy.

Traditionally, the next step — blending the crust step — is when my palms start to sweat, and I think, “Nooooooooo!! Sweaty palms will only make the dough tougher!” But, miraculously, when I mixed the wet and dry ingredients with Thurlow’s instructions, it was all good.

When we got to the actual rolling-out-the-pie-dough, she reassured us all. “Now, this is the part when people start to get a little stressed.” Who knew she knew that, the pie expert!

“But remember, it’s homemade. The crust is going to do what I want it to do, not what it wants to do,” she reassured us all.

And that’s all it took. Truly, easy as pie.

A beautiful homemade pie waiting to go into the oven during Debbie Thurlow’s pie making class at Pineland.

For more information about Debbie Thurlow’s pie-making classes at The Market at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, go to pinelandfarms.org or call (207) 688-4539.

Debbie’s pie crust tips

• Relax and have fun.

• Don’t overwork your crust. Mix the crust and stop handling it!

• Everything is fixable. If you have to patch it, you patch it. No one knows.

• It’s homemade. If it was perfectly uniform, then it’s not homemade.

• You’ve got to have your own personal touch. And that makes it homemade, doesn’t it?

Debbie’s Peach Pie

Crust: Makes 2 shells or 1 pie

Mix:

2 cups flour

1 ½ tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

Cut in:

1 cup shortening

Mix:

¼ cup cold water

1 ½ tsp. vinegar

1 egg

Mix wet ingredients into flour mixture. Divide into two equal pieces. Roll out pie crust to fit a 10-inch pie pan.

Filling:

5 cups peaches, peeled and sliced

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. ginger

¼ cup Tapioca

Mix together filling ingredients. Place filling into bottom pie crust and add top crust. With a paring knife, cut vents in top crust.

Bake at 425º for 15 minutes to brown. Turn oven down to 375º and bake for 45 minutes.

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