In the movie “Waitress,” an oppressed, small-town character played by Kerri Russell infuses the pies she bakes for the local diner with metaphorical ingredients. Naming her confections for the deep sources of frustration in her life, such as “I Hate My Husband Pie” made with bittersweet chocolate you neglect to sweeten, Russell wields ingredients like machetes in her own form of culinary therapy.

For the rest of us, making the perfect pie may be a little less formidable, but it is no less a form of expression. In fact according to local practitioners, pie baking is a way to say “Thank you,” “I miss you,” “I’m sorry” or “I love you” through the perfect marriage of flaky crust and fragrant fruit. Achieving the desired result, however, is a journey as varied as the experts who take it.

Baking for 20 years and competing for slightly more than half of that, multi-ribbon county fair and state championship winner Kevin Knapp of Standish bakes pumpkin, key lime, various cream and, especially, apple and blueberry pies, the last two mandated in competitions he has won.

Asserting that the most important part of the perfect pie process is the preparation, Knapp said he tells people who ask about a “secret” ingredient that there isn’t one.

“For the filling, just don’t overdo it on spices because they overwhelm the fruit,” he said. “Simple is best. And for the crust, use all-purpose flour, vegetable shortening, salt and water.” The technique is all in how you cut the shortening into the flour, and also binding it with the water; Knapp called these things critical.

“You want the peaks of shortening to be like a small pea. And water is mixed in a tablespoon at a time,” he said, noting a fork — never a food processor — should be used. “That’s a sure sign of an amateur when they use a food processor.”

Knapp, who has strong feelings about his craft, said that because most of the pie’s artistry is in the crust, leaving some on your plate is “like a slap in the face” to the baker. He also revealed his purist tendencies and pet peeve about accompaniments like ice cream. “Ice cream is to cover up bad pie. Good pie stands alone,” he affirmed.

An oath of orange juice

For owner Nancy Stern of Cape Neddick’s Pie in the Sky Bakery, whose evolving pie menu includes varieties such as wild Maine blueberry, lemon chess, cherry almond crumb and peach raspberry (some seasonal), making pies is deep in her bones.

Lewiston-born and raised, one of 12 siblings from a French-Canadian family, Stern left the city for the more coastal Maine venue as a young adult in the early 1970s where she worked in restaurants and often made desserts. “My mother did make pies, but she wasn’t really a good cook,” Stern conceded. “She gave us free reign in the kitchen because she didn’t want to do it, and I loved it since I was 8, 9 and 10.”

Plying her baking craft for a time in New York City after she met and married her Manhattan restaurateur/chef-husband (he was on vacation in Maine), partner disputes eventually left the couple without a restaurant. “Destitute and unemployed,” according to Stern, and with a baby on the way, the skilled and determined duo started a flourishing dessert business from their small West 77th Street apartment. Steeped in memories of Maine, however, the family later returned to open its bakery, described by some as a regional confectionery landmark.

Replacing requisite ice water with orange juice in the crust is their secret ingredient, Stern explained. A cookbook gift from an old friend in ’70s — “Grandma Rose’s Book of Sinfully Delicious Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Cheesecakes, Cake Rolls and Pastries” by the famed Rose Naftalin — precipitated the orange juice rule, which Stern said makes pie crust absolutely foolproof. She added they occasionally include a hint of apple cider vinegar, which ensures that ingredients mix together well and also produces a never-fail crust.

Speaking to the age-old lard vs. butter conundrum, Stern said Pie in the Sky doesn’t use lard, though customers like to remind them it makes for a very flaky crust. “But there’s no flavor to lard,” Stern said. “With butter, you get flakiness and wonderful flavor.”

Of ice cubes and extract

For Lewiston High School’s The Green Ladle pastry chef instructor Katie Liguori, the desire to work with pastry became apparent as an 8-year-old in her grandfather’s Long Island kitchen. “We’re Italian, so we eat a lot,” she explained, noting her grandfather would be up baking donuts, rolls, breads, pies, pastries and Christmas cookies at 3 a.m., and she’d be right alongside him.

“Pies are hard,” Liguori said, “because a lot of people have a hard time with the crust, and finding the right recipe is extremely important.”

Early on she painstakingly experimented with a dozen recipes before settling on one. She maintains that a dough’s tactile element is the key to the perfect pie crust. “You have to learn what the dough is supposed to feel like, whether it’s too dry, too soft, needs more water,” she said. “You’re not supposed to knead the dough, which is what I tell my students, as it makes it extremely tough.”

Liguori said when home bakers call the school, as they often do to inquire about crust, she tells them that ice cold water (she uses ice cubes, jettisoning them before adding to the recipe) is the most important component. Hot, warm or even lukewarm water from the tap will melt the shortening or butter, she explained, noting that for her, shortening eclipses butter because the latter breaks down too easily.

Recalling a favorite family apple pie secret, Liguori said her mother always uses almond extract in the filling along with lemon juice (to prevent brown fruit) and a few pats of butter. “The butter with the almond flavor is excellent.”

Buddying up to butter

Born at home to “back-to-the-land parents” on a corner of Dixmont’s fabled Peacemeal Farm, Ladleah Dunn has been surrounded by the culture of food her whole life.

“I grew up in a family of chefs, and my mom always had gourmet food stores and bakeries,” the current sous-chef and farm manager of Lincolnville’s Salt Water Farm said.

With her very first memory of baking involving pie dough for quiche, Dunn recalls being hoisted atop a milk crate, a little apron and a giant stainless steel mixing bowl. “Food was my babysitter,” she said, noting even when she went to work on boats she ended up in the galley.

Revealing she is “crust-obsessed,” Dunn said her baking mantra is start with good ingredients, like fresh, local butter. Firm about butter, she admits to using elements such as olive oil when relegated to some remote location for her work, something she said provides a “totally different experience of the crust . . . a minerality and richness.”

But for traditional baking, fresh butter reigns, and Dunn encourages people to “get comfortable with it, like a friend, so every time you go to make a crust you’re going to use the same butter for replicatable results.”

Dunn eschews lard, saying it is a casualty of heavy processing today, and maintains that the fresher and more local the ingredients, the better the results are going to be.

For pie dough, Dunn says having the butter “really, really cold” and incorporating it as quickly as possible into the flour are essential. “That coldness is what allows you to have that beautiful, flaky, falling-apart-without-actually-falling apart crust. . . . just that golden crusty experience you’re looking for,” she said, noting that once the technique is mastered, additives about which people ask her — like vinegar or vodka — are unnecessary.

When it comes to fillings, Dunn said her trick is to actually cook down (or concentrate) some of the fruit and then toss it in with the fresh fruit. This self-regulates the moisture, producing a nice syrup.

“If you really get jazzed up to make a pie, start with something you really love, like a filling you can’t wait to put in your mouth, and let that be your motivation,” Dunn said. “Or make a pie for somebody you really love.” Above all, don’t get discouraged, she said of the trial-and-error process. “Be your own gentle critic and just keep making pies.”

Liguori Family Apple Pie

Pie dough (makes a top and bottom crust)

2/3 cup shortening

2 cups all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

6-8 tablespoons ice cold water (will probably use all the water)

Milk for brushing dough

Fresh Apple Pie Filling

8-9 cups fresh apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (recommend McIntosh and Cortland together)

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Lemon juice to sprinkle on apple slices

Few pats of butter

In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut shortening into the flour mixture using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water until a soft dough is formed; usually all the water will be used. Make sure dough is not dry to the touch. DO NOT KNEAD.

Cut dough in half and roll out both halves until about 1/4 inch thick and able to cover the bottom and top of a pie. Line pie dish with bottom crust.

Combine all ingredients for apple pie filling, minus the butter. Fill bottom crust with apple mixture. Add the pats of butter and place remainder of dough on top. Seal edges together so filling doesn’t leak out. Cut four slits on top, brush with milk and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and brown on top.

Pie in the Sky Bakery’s recipe for perfect pie crust

2.5 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces unsalted butter (room temperature)

Combine above and mix thoroughly, at least 5 minutes.

4 tablespoons cold orange juice

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Add to the dough and mix until it forms a ball (or pulls cleanly from the side of the bowl in a mixer). DO NOT OVER MIX.

Weigh to desired size (or shape for a 10-inch deep pie plate):

10 ounces for bottom crust; 8 ounces for top crust

Roll out dough between two sheets of waxed paper and form bottom crust into pie plate. Save top to close pie after adding desired filling and bake according to your recipe.

Quick crust a must?

If time is an issue, Lewiston’s Grant’s Bakery on Sabattus Street, which produces about 300 fruit, cream, pork and salmon pies a week, also sells its preservative-free raw pie dough by the pound as well as baked pie shells to facilitate the pie-making process at home. Top and bottom crusts are different, according to owner Don Grant, with the bottom designed to support the filling and top crust containing more shortening to make it tender and flakey.