I believe it was
Jess who first "introduced" me to Shauna. She showed me a
Long I Pie photo-- of a golden crust baked in a cast iron skillet, and said I should probably check it out. Since then I've been a devout oggler of the whole Long I aesthetic, following closely as they've launched their new website and business in Denver, Colorado (if only it weren't so far away!) As Shauna and I started to correspond, we found we had a lot in common-- pie, sure, but also a love for folk music and butter and Americana. Then we realized that we're both from Indiana and it all made sense.
I was pretty jazzed that Shauna was game to share a few words about her pie baking,
The Long I Pie Shop, as well as the recipe I was MOST excited about-- "Too Piglet To Quit Pie" or her Apple, Brie & Prosciutto. At least it will assuage my hunger before I can get myself out to Colorado to taste it and meet Shauna in person. After you're done reading her words, head on over to
Long I Blog to find more about the shop and read my thoughts on these same questions.
Tell us about
yourself! Where are you from, what are your hobbies, whaddaya like to do on the
weekends, what books do you like to read, etc.?
I’m from Fishers,
Indiana originally --- born and raised.
Now, I have been living in Boulder, CO for the last 7 ½ years. I really enjoy traveling and try to get
out of the United States at least once a year to see friends that live around
the world. On the weekends, you’ll probably find me hanging out with friends at
one of Colorado’s amazing breweries or distilleries, listening to live music,
sitting around a table with my dearest friends eating a home cooked meal and
catching up on life, finding a photo booth to take ridiculous photos in, or
baking pie. As for books, I love
people’s stories, so I like to read memoirs or autobiographies.
What led you up to the
point of opening a pie shop and why did you decide to do it?
Honestly, I feel like it was a mix of a
few things. One was the desire to
honor a legacy of hospitality and generosity that my grandmother has left after
she passed a year and half ago and one my mother is still building. Baking is something that my family does well. Pie is the baked
good that I think of when I think of the feeling of being at “home”. It’s not like a cookie that you can eat
in passing. It’s a conversation
dessert. You sit down at a table
with your family or friends and laugh or cry, but definitely enjoy each other’s
company. The thing that led me to
opening a pie shop was to combine my love and skill of pie making with my
passion for helping people. I’ve
done social work type jobs since I graduated college. In this past job, I worked primarily with youth and refugee
families. In working with those
two populations, they have one thing in common --- a low chance at obtaining
stable employment. Youth and
refugees have different kinds of barriers, but they both lead to
not get a first chance at employment.
My plan is to start a youth employment services program to go with our
first mobile pie shop. We’ll teach
a curriculum that discusses everything from hygiene to resume building to
interview skills along side pie making and customer service skills
training. My hope is that as we
grow that we can expand to an employment program that focuses on refugee women
as well.
What's the
intersection between pie and social justice/community and specifically your
social justice mission?
Pie is a creative tool
for me to pursue justice in my community. Our social justice mission is two fold --- employing youth at risk of
homelessness, exploitation, or incarceration and giving $1 per slice to an
organizations working to prevent or restore children who’ve been trafficked in
to the sex trade both locally in Colorado and around the world. Pie feels like home and safety. I want to provide a workplace that
provides a place that is safe and feels like home for our youth. Also, I want to put money into
organizations that provide for other youth in the city and around the
world.
Why Pie?
Pie is home. Pie
is family. Pie is comfort. Pie is laughter around a table. Pie transports people to good memories. Pie is an art form that you can consume
and enjoy. It’s creative and I
happen to be good at making it.
The “why” is how it makes me and others feel when we are eating it with
our family and friends.
Tell me your pie
aesthetic in one pithy sentence.
Think “what would my
great-grandma do?” --- simple recipes, fresh ingredients, and butter.
I have to ask--what's
your favorite pie?
My favorite pie is the
pie my grandma used to make all the time when I was growing up --- Spiced Apple
Cranberry Pie. It’s the best
combination of tart and sweet. It
brings back beautiful memories around my grandma’s kitchen table for dinners of
homemade chicken dumplings and playing a rousing round of rummy after dinner.
Where'd the Long I name come from?
The Long I came
from one Tuesday night sitting around the kitchen table with a couple of
friends. We’re all a little nerdy,
but one of my best friends from college, Mandy, is the English Lit/grammar
kind of nerdy. We were dreaming
together about what an Americana, homey airstream food trailer could
look like. I was set on pie, but
Mandy thought sliders and fries.
Then, the name "The Long I" was birthed because they all have the long “I”
sound in them. I chose to stick
with pie.
What's your crust
philosophy?
I want my crust
to always be simple, buttery, flaky goodness. You achieve that by making the crust as cold as you can and
bake it as hot as you can. Cold
butter. Ice water. 400 degrees.
Any special
pie-making tips for home bakers?
Be creative with
your pie. Think of some of your
favorite flavors in other foods and try them out in a pie. Experiment. Experiment.
Experiment.
What do you like
to listen to while baking?
I LOVE music which
makes it hard to choose just one genre.
There are days when I listen to banjo and fiddle-filled folk music like
Gregory Alan Isakov. Other days, I
listen to Beyoncé and dance around my kitchen.
What pies will
you be making for your own Thanksgiving feast?
My Grandma’s pie
--- Spiced Apple Cranberry, Bourbon Chocolate Pecan (“The Drunken Nut”), and an
experimental Chocolate Pumpkin Pie.
Tell us about the
recipe you're sharing. How did it come about and what should we pair it with
(other food or drink)?
I’m sharing the recipe
for my "Too Piglet to Quit Pie."
Last Spring, I went to Paris with a few of my close friends. Oh, it was a treat! One night we went to Rue Clar, picked
up some brie, prosciutto, baguettes, wine, and macaroons, walked to the Eiffel
Tower, sat on a bench all buddled up and ate until our hearts
were content. It was a dreamy
French picnic. I wanted to put
that experience into a pie, so the Too Piglet to Quit pie was birthed. I’d pair it with a generous glass of a
red wine blend from Bordeaux.
Too Piglet To Quit
Ingredients
Pie crust dough (your favorite recipe)
7 small/medium Granny Smith Apples (cut in 1/4 inch slices)
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 lb. prosciutto
1/4 lb. Brie
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a dutch oven or a cast iron skillet, combine apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and cornstarch, then stir until everything is evenly coated. If you're using a cast iron skillet, cover with foil. Bake apples on 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from pan, pour into a medium size bowl and stir in juice from lemon and vanilla extract. Let cool for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out your favorite pie crust recipe. Line a 9-inch cast iron skillet with dough. Evenly layer the thinly sliced prosciutto on the bottom of the pie. Dump in the cooked apple mixture. Evenly layer sliced Brie on top of the apples. Lattice the top of the pie and bake in oven for 35 minutes at 400 degrees. Let pie sit for 30 minutes before serving for pie to set. Enjoy with laughter with friends or family!
Big thanks to Shauna Lott of Denver, Colorado's
Long I Pie Shop for the lovely words and recipe.
