Piecemeal Pies, Vermont

My parents live in New Hampshire, and whenever I go to visit, I like to check out local restaurants, bakeries, ice cream shops, etc.  I always arrive armed with a list of places, and generally, my parents haven't even heard of them.  They stick to their regular rotation: Mickey's for pizza (which, is awful, so if I'm there, they will get Ziggy's), Subway for sandwiches (yes, the chain), and sometimes, Gusanos for Mexican (yes, the restaurant that was on Restaurant Impossible on TV for being a disaster).  

Piecemeal Pies has been on my radar for a few years, and in the Covid fall of 2020, I finally got a chance to try it out.

"Piecemeal Pies is a unique English-inspired meat pie shop, bakery, café, and hard cider bar."

Now that, yes, is a unique combination.  One I could easily get behind.  You know I love baked goods, I learned the glory of the meat pie while spending time in Sydney, and specializing in hard cider?  Sure!  They take pride in sourcing, working with local farmers for grass-fed meat and organic produce.  I was eager to check out Piecemeal Pies.

Piecemeal Pies is open for lunch Wed - Fri, and brunch on weekends, along with pastries from 10-3 each day.  For Thanksgiving, they also offer up an expanded menu of dinner breads and desserts, which is how I first encountered them.  I've since returned to the cafe for lunch.

Signage.

Piecemeal Pies is located in downtown White River Junction, alongside a few other restaurants and shops.  They have a decent amount of sidewalk seating in the summer, but I always got my goodies to go.

Visit #1: Thanksgiving Baked Goods, November 2020

For Thanksgiving 2020, e.g. The First Covid Thanksgiving, we opted to mostly order our Thanksgiving feast, since it was just my parents and I.  We got our savory sides from Kitchen 56 (incredible mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and more!) - review coming soon! - and our carby sides from Piecemeal Pies.

Garlic-Rosemary Brioche Dinner Rolls.

I didn't really want to order the classic dinner rolls, but to my mom, it was important that we have some.  I didn't plan to touch them, but of course, I did have to try.

The rolls were MUCH better than they look.  Lovely, lovely rosemary flavor, fluffy enough brioche.  I didn't taste the garlic though.

For a dinner roll, these were very good.  The rosemary was just really nicely done, not too strong. 

***, and everyone raved about them.

GF Cheddar brown butter cornbread muffins with honey butter.

The item, besides dessert, that I was most excited for was the cornbread muffins, because, well, I love cornbread, brown butter, and honey butter ... and I just hoped the gluten-free part wouldn't degrade them.

Sadly ... eh.  These were the least good item.

The brown butter flavor was actually great, really complex.  And they had a decent grit from cornmeal.  But ... yeah, you can tell these are gluten free.

The side of honey butter was ... fine?  Not whipped and fluffy, not particularly flavorful.  My mom and dad liked though.

*+

Buttermilk Biscuits. $3.95 each.

The biscuits, a regular menu item, were the hands down winner of the bunch.

Legit buttermilk tang.  Dense but layered, soo much butter and you could tell.  They were really *good* biscuits, zomg.  Good warm, good cold.

I do think they'd go *amazing* with gravy, for brunch, in a savory application.  I wondered about using for a dessert biscuit too, with fruit and whip?

****.

One note though: they had ~zero shelf life, did not hold up well fresh.

Al Butter Pie Crust. $12.
(Frozen, Baked by Mom).

My mother really takes pride in her pies, always making a slew of pies for every family holiday meal (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc), but her crusts ... um ... not her strong point, and she knows it.  Usually she goes with "Mrs. Pillsbury" for the crusts, but this time, I convinced her to try the frozen crusts from Piecemeal.  Here you can see one she baked off to turn into a butterscotch pie.

The crust was better than her regular crusts, decently flaky, but didn't actually have much flavor.

Sour Cherry Maple Pie.
Unbaked, Frozen. $32.

We also opted to get a full pie prepared by Piecemeal, but, frozen, since the Thanksgiving lineup had to follow tradition, and thus feature Mom's pumpkin, butterscotch, and pecan, and this was to bake off a few days later, you know, when we ran out of the other pie.

We opted to get it fully unbaked, but baked was an option too.

Sour Cherry Maple Pie.
(1 hour mark).

At the specified 1 hour mark, it needed a bit more time, but was looking fabulous.  I was pretty excited for the double crust, and I may have taken a tiny bite of the bubbling sour cherry filling ...

Sour Cherry Maple Pie: Ready!

After 5 or so more minutes it was PERFECT.

Except, we were supposed to let it sit.  Agony.  Really?  That beautiful freshly baked pie?  Don't touch it?  Of course I did anyway.

But yes, this a pie you really should let sit.  It was very soupy when piping hot.  Yes, I love warm pie and ice cream, but even I admit this should be cooled.

It was very good.  SOOO much crust, for crust loving Julie :).   The top crust was studded with pearl sugar, which was great, but I did find it a bit heavy.  Not quite sure what I didn't love about it.

The edge crust I adored though - buttery, flaky, rich.  The twisted part was truly awesome.  I just wanted puffs made with that twisted part!  (Seriously, I'd by those!).

The filling was good too - it *is* sour cherry, so it is quite tart, but I liked it.  The maple added a touch of sweetness, but wasn't dominant.

I tried it with whipped cream, Cool Whip, and vanilla ice cream.  Definitely thought vanilla ice cream was the winner, particularly in the hot out of the even soupiness.  Warm sour cherry pie soup + vanilla ice cream was great.  Cool whip was *not* a good match.  Whipped cream was fine.

Side crust: *****, top and bottom crust: ***, filling: ***+.

Visit #2: Lunch, September 2021

For lunch during the week, Piecemeal has a few savory options, such as a daily quiche or salad, but of course, the main attraction is the pies, with a few sides.  Weekend brunch has an expanded menu, with some great sounding options like biscuits & gravy, duck fat homefries, and waffles (both sweet and savory).

Savory Pies

Piecemeal makes a number of savory pies, most are personal sized classic full crust English pies (pot pies to Americans), available in varieties like curried lamb, pork & parsnip, chicken & leek, rabbit & bacon, beef/mushroom/blue cheese, and vegetarian spinach/kale/feta, and they also have a few pasties (hand pies to Americans) ranging from smoked salmon to curried veggies.

Savory Hand Pie (Beef Empanada)
with Parsnip Potato Mash & Buttered Peas with Mint." $7+$2+$2

I went for a pasty, wanting a slightly smaller item, and craving flaky puff pastry.  I added both sides to my order, $2 each.

I picked up the meal and was surprised by the heft - the pasty was far more substantial than I was anticipating, and I certainly felt like I got my $2 worth of each of the sides.

Parsnip Potato Mash. $2.

"Made with local butter & milk with the added sweetness of parsnips. Even better with our house made Rabbit Cider Gravy."

I certainly love a good mashed potato (I'm looking at you Kitchen 56!), and I do actually like parsnips (more than carrots, really), so the mash sounded great to me.  Traditionalists may be disappointed that no "regular" mashed potatoes are available.

The mash was good, although a bit lumpy, I think from the parsnip?  No chunks, but not particularly smooth.  It did have a nice subtle sweetness to it though, and I appreciated that it came topped with a few chopped chives and sprinkle of black pepper.

A good pairing for a pie or pasty, and I'm glad I tried it.  As a former rabbit pet owner however, I did not opt to get the gravy.

***.

Scoop of Buttered Peas with Mint. $2.

"Organic Peas with local butter, mint & leeks. Classic."

When I saw the peas, I was confused.  I didn't order gravy ... why were the peas smothered in gravy?  And then I realized that was not gravy.  That was butter. So. Much. Butter.

The peas were fine, peas are peas, but I appreciated the addition of leeks (super soft and cooked down), and the hint of mint.  Still too buttery for what I was going for - thought I was getting a light side along with my heavier items! - but fine peas.

***.

Beef Empanada. $7.

"Flakey hand pie filled with grass-fed Vermont beef, ancho chili, green olives & dried currants."

For my first savory pie, I went a bit random, and opted for the beef empanada.  I'm not really one for empanadas, but, I was craving beef.

The empanada was far bigger than I was expecting, a hefty item, stuffed full.  The pastry was soggy on the bottom from being perched on top of the peas and mash, but was flaky on top, perfect lightly golden brown.  I really liked the pastry, lots of flavor from the full butter, no question.

The filling, ground beef, had a spicing to it that I didn't quite care for ... again, empanadas ... not my thing, alas.  But that pastry was so fabulous!  I added a bunch of ketchup (I know, I know), and piled on mash and peas into my spoonfuls, and enjoyed it sorta like a deconstructed cottage pie ... with puff pastry.

****+ for the pastry, ** for the filling.

Curried Veggie Pasty. $7.
(With peas and mash, $4).

"A flaky hand pie filled with local winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, fresh ginger, garlic, cilantro and curry spices."

The next time, I opted for the veggie version, the curried veggie pasty.  It sounded like a veggie pot pie, but made in flaky puff pastry in hand pie form, and with curry.  I wasn't quite in love with the idea of the curry, but everything else appealed.  I hoped it might be like a Thai samosa, a similar type of pastry with potato/etc filling and curry spices. 

This pastry looked much the same, and was again quite flaky (and soggy on the bottom due to placement on top of buttered peas/mash), but it wasn't quite as flavorful as the previous.  Just a bit bland.

The curry, clearly evident all over the top, just wasn't a flavor I enjoyed, as I feared.  The filling was a nice mix of veggies, but, again, curry spicing. I couldn't get past the curry.

My mother tried one of these and quite liked it.  She thought the curry was mild.  She commented several times how much she enjoyed it, so, clearly a nice item, just not for me.

***.