Baker & Spice doesn’t always have pie available, but when I saw that they had blackberry hand pies available on their Facebook page, I made the short journey there from my work to sample the goodness.
I bought two, one for me and one for my wife. I ended up eating both because my wife slacked on eating it fast enough. I also promised myself that I would only eat half of mine at work and save the other half for later. I failed at doing so.
I’d say these are in a different category than what I usually write about, but they do qualify as pie in my mind. However, this was much more of a “pastry” that you’d pick up with some coffee to go, rather than something you’d eat with ice cream after dinner (although… it’d be good with ice cream).
Nevertheless, the presentation on this pie was excellent, just look at the photos.
The crust was awesome. It was insanely flakey on the outer layers, but as you got closer to the filling, it was more of a chewy crust. Best of both worlds. I recommend that you eat this with a fork, though. The flakes from the crust will end up in your lap.
The filling was delicious and fresh and everything that a pie filling should be. Great flavor and not too sweet, they really let the berries do the talking. It was also a good consistency, not too runny, and not too much filling. It had an excellent filling to crust ratio. My only problem is that I was dumb enough to actually eat this by hand and it ended up being quite messy… but, I am a messy eater also, so maybe it was just me (I’d still recommend eating it on a plate, though).
Overall Rating: 5 out 5 slices. I really loved this pie and that is evident in the fact that I simply couldn’t resist eating ALL of the pies that I bought. I was offended that my wife didn’t seem that interested in eating it, so I ATE her piece of it. If you put 5 slices of this in front of me, I would eat 5 slices. So, I’ve got to go with 5 slices.
Other Notes: Baker & Spice owner Julie Richardson knows her desserts and has written a book with award-winning chef Cory Schreiber called “Rustic Fruit Desserts”, which covers crumbles, cobblers, crisps, Betty’s, buckles and pies (naturally). I haven’t had a look, but I’m sure there’s a ton of good stuff in there. It looks like Richardson also owns (or is strongly affiliated with!) a baking supply shop called Sweet Wares, which is located in the same complex as Baker & Spice. Sweet Wares has baking supplies, ingredients and cooking classes (including pie classes!).
Like I said, pie isn’t an everyday item at Baker & Spice, but they do take orders for whole pies, so if you want to give it a try, go for it (the holidays are just around the corner!).
Baker & Spice
6330 Sw Capitol Hwy,
Portland, OR 97239
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Overall, I give this pie a solid 4 out of 5 slice rating with my only knock being don’t skimp on the filling.
Overall Rating: I have to go 5 out of 5 here (I’m starting to think I’m not a very discerning savory pie-taster, but whatever, I’ve really enjoyed each one so far). Great pie with a unique, but very palatable filling. I’m not a big cabbage person usually (although I’ll eat a Reuben any day), but everything worked together really well.
