My House Entered A Pie Contest…

If you haven’t heard of it, the Dacie Moses House is one of the most iconic places on Carleton’s campus. Known as the “Cookie House,” it’s lived in by students and kept open 24/7 for everyone to bake and share their treats with the rest of the Carleton community. 

An incentive to visit Carleton in person: we tour guides will supply you with a chocolate chip cookie made from the signature Dacie Moses recipe. You’ll get a taste of what it’s like to pass by the house and spontaneously grab a cookie from the porch!

Summer Pie Baking Competition

The Dacie Moses house specializes in all things baking, and the students living there hosted their annual summer pie baking contest last weekend. My housemates and I ambitiously decided to enter though none of us had experience baking pies before. Frankly, the faith we had in ourselves was lacking.

Our chances of winning seemed especially slim the morning of the competition—the pies were due for judging at 1:30pm, and my housemates and I acquired our ingredients and began baking with less than 3 hours to spare.

Given the time constraint, several amendments to the recipe had to be made. Our pie dough did not chill for 2 hours in the fridge. Instead, it spent 20 minutes in the freezer. A 10-inch pie tin could not be found, so a 9-inch cake pan had to do the trick. 1.5 hours of baking time at 375 degrees Fahrenheit? More like 1 hour in the oven at 415 degrees. After about 3 hours of toiling in the kitchen, fiddling with the pie crust, and hurriedly shoving the pie in the oven, it was finally time to bring our creation over to Dacie Moses for judgment.

A Feature On Our Delectable Black Raspberry Pie

After reading about the circumstances under which we produced our pie, you might be worried about the product of our efforts. Believe me, throughout the process I was concerned too. Surprisingly, despite our lack of baking expertise and severe self-induced time crunch, the pie ended up being a hit!

With a filling made from freshly foraged black raspberries from the arboretum, as well as a wonderfully flaky pie crust made from scratch, our dessert was a crowd pleaser. Alongside more than a dozen other pies, it was a huge success, eaten up immediately by those who attended.

A poetic excerpt to accompany the pie, in our words:

Deep in the woods, berries grow

On the land where there was formally snow

Into the pie, the berries go

We love the pie so

So give it a taste, bucko

A Win for the House

Believe it or not, my housemates and I won “Best Pie” in the category for beginning bakers. One of the judges, Dean of Students Carolyn Livingston, praised our pie for its exceptionally delicious and creative fruity filling. Winning definitely built community and morale among the house, and we came out of the competition super proud of ourselves. In Kelly’s blog post about the Twins Game our house attended together, she foresaw our pie contest triumph—thank goodness her prediction ended up true!

Zoë is a junior Sociology-Anthropology major who loves traveling and studying abroad, taking photos, and luxuriating in long walks in the glorious Arb. At Carleton, some of Zoë’s favorite pastimes include frequenting the various coffee shops in downtown Northfield, playing cello in the orchestra, participating in club soccer, and spending time with friends. Meet the other Bloggers!