Whoever wrote the song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing,” probably forgot an important lyric.
What about teaching the world to bake pies?
Crazy cool, decorated pies. The kind that make jaws drop when they’re placed on the table.
Those are the kind of pies that Carli Karren, a Sidney, Montana woman bakes. And those pies recently rose to top ranks in a world bake-off internet competition — even though Karren comes from a much less populated area than most of her competitors.
Karren noticed the advertisement for the contest on Facebook. She read the rules. Realized her chances of winning an online popularity contest like this were pretty slim.
“But I wanted to go for it anyway,” she said. “I’m always telling my kids if we only participate and do the things that we know we’re going to be the best at or win, then we wouldn’t really be participating in very much.”
So she put both hands into some pie dough, made another pie, and decided that she just had to go for it any way. It was time to teach the world to bake pies. Her way.
Karren made it through not just one round of this online popularity contest, but two. She nearly made it through the third round, too. That would have put her in the quarter finals, where professional judges would have helped decide the next winner.
Her loss was a narrow margin. But it doesn’t hurt, Karren says. Not even a little bit.
“Even though I didn’t win, I realized I had an incredible support system, full of people who care about what is important to me,” Karren said. “And having that knowledge is better than any monetary prize. I just feel so blessed still!”
Karren started baking pies 11 years ago, after she and her family moved to a home in Miles City that happened to have a nice, fat rhubarb bush in the backyard.
It was beautiful, but Karren had not one clue what to do with it. She called her mom.
“Pie,” her mother told her. “Make a pie with it.”
Karren didn’t have a recipe for that.
“Just google a recipe,” her mother suggested.
So, with Aunt Google's basic rhubarb pie recipe, Karren kept on making rhubarb pies with that Miles City rhubarb plant.
Then, when she moved to Sidney, her backyard suddenly had two rhubarb plants. That meant — you guessed it — twice as many pies as before!
One day, on impulse, Karren started playing with the dough as she was making a pie. She cut ribbons with serrated edges using cookie cutters, then twirled it around on the top, like a great big flower. It was so pretty!
“My husband was like you should make another one,” Karli recalled. “So I did. And I started sharing them on Facebook.”
She started using all sorts of cookie cutters to decorate the pies. Then, two years ago, she thought, “Why can’t I color these? It would be so pretty.”
So, that’s just what she did. Looking back at that pie now, she doesn’t think it was all that great. Especially compared to what she can do now. Yet, people on Facebook loved it at the time.
“They’d never seen anything like it,” Karren recalled.
One day, as she was looking up a paper weave for a craft with her kids. another light bulb went on. This was the next step for her transformative pies.
She used the technique to start weaving words and other designs into the tops of her pies.
“Hope,” read one pie.
“Give Thanks,” read another.
“(The paper-craft pies) started this year for a teacher in Fairview with breast cancer,” Karren added. “I just really wanted to make some beautiful pies for her. It turned out even better than I expected.”
Karren doesn’t plan to start a business with her amazing pies.
“They just take so much time to make, it’s not worth it to sell them,” she said. “It’d be hard to charge someone that much for a pie. But if I can give a pie away for a good cause and it raises $325 or even $30, that is worth my time, because it is going to help that family.”
With her prize money, Karren had planned to buy a camera system for pie videos and get Lasik eye surgery. She might still get those things, despite not winning the competition.
In the meanwhile, though, she has started a Youtube channel to share her methods for captivating pies. That way, others can use them as she does, to transform not just pies, but how the world around the recipient feels. Giving a pie like this is like giving someone love in every slice. It doesn’t really matter whether the flavor is apple, cherry, or rhubarb then because love tastes amazing in every flavor you can savor.
“People think these pies are hard to make, but, if you have a pizza cutter and a ruler, you can do it,” Karren said. “All it really takes is time and courage.”
That’s the spirit for teaching a whole world to sing in perfect harmony. In a very delicious way.
Meanwhile, Karren is sharing both her recipe for perfect pie crust and that original Rhubarb pie recipe with Sidney Herald readers. So enjoy, share, and use your pies to help change the world for everyone you love.
Perfect Pie Crust
- 2 cups of flour
-4 shakes of salt
-1/2 cup butter flavored crisco
-1/4 cup water
(-up to 1/4 cup more water)
Mix flour and salt. Add in crisco. Cut in crisco until it becomes somewhat of a crumb mixture. (I use my kitchen aid and this takes 15 seconds) If you’re adding color to your crust, add it in the water first and mix. Add 1/4 cup water (or colored water) to the flour. Mix. Add up to 1/4 cup more using 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together. If you use the entire 1/2 cup it won’t be as flaky but easier to design with if you’re designing a fancy topper.
Split in half and roll out between 2 sheets of parchment paper. No need for cooling or resting the dough, you can use it right away!
To use multiple colors, make half the recipe at a time and add in your different color to each half recipe.
Baste top crust with milk and sprinkle on sugar.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
1 lb fresh strawberries
2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
5 Tablespoons of flour
Mix, pour in prepared pie shell, top with crust topper, baste with milk, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 375 F for 25 minutes. Check to be sure crust isn’t browning too quickly. Check every 10 minutes up to 65 minutes total bake time. Add foil of needed. Pie is done when the filling is bubbling.
Or with frozen ingredients:
3 cups frozen strawberries
4 cups frozen rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons flour
Microwave your rhubarb and strawberries until thawed completely and hot. Strain and press them (Or your pie will be runny) Microwave again for 1 minute and strain and press again. Add sugar and flour. Set aside while the sugars juice the strawberries. Your filling should be a crazy pink color. If it’s red, add 1 TBS of flour. Pour into prepared pie shell and bake as mentioned above.
December 05, 2020 at 10:00PM
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Sidney Montana woman shares the power of pie - Sidney Herald Leader
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