Petee's Pies

Petee's Pies is, you guessed it, a pie company, located in New York city.  They have two locations there.  They also ship nationwide.  

"We're based on a simple concept: make the best pie money can buy using real ingredients. We make our pies using seasonal local produce and natural fair-trade sweeteners. Our crust is made with organic flour and grass-fed butter from New York State.  In other words: we make damn fine pie for damn fine people."

Petee's full pie lineup is pretty lengthy: all your expected fruit pies (apple, sour cherry, blueberry), all of which are available with either full double crust or crumb topping, cream/custard pies (banana cream, chocolate cream, key lime meringue, coconut custard - note: not coconut cream, lemon chess, salty chocolate chess, black bottom almond chess), and then some more unique offerings like their signature guava mascarpone and brown butter honey pecan, along with seasonals like "spring cordial" with elderflower lemon meringue and rose crystals.  All use all butter crust.

Petee's has been on my radar for years, as they get pretty good reviews and are well known in the pie scene in NY, but somehow they hadn't made it to the top of my list.  Luckily, I didn't need to seek them out: they came to me, as many desserts and baked goods do, as surplus from another team's event at my office.

  

I had my eyes on the more unique ones, plus the banana cream of course, but since I only got to try the pies when they were leftover after someone else's event, I didn't get to pick the flavors.  I really did enjoy all the pies I tried, and would gladly get them again.

Banana Cream. $45.

"Old-fashioned vanilla pudding topped with fresh banana slices and dolloped with whipped cream."

Of course I went straight for the banana cream pie, even though it was looking slightly worse for the wear.   

I started with a bite of crust.  Oooh, this was good crust.  Super rich, buttery, flaky.  Very good crust, the butter level in particular was fantastic.  **** crust.

I moved on to the filling, pretty thick, smooth vanilla pudding.  Definitely on the sweeter side.  No strong vanilla flavor (nor banana flavor to it), just sorta basic (but good) pudding.  Standard size banana slices, not too mushy.  Lots of (also sweetened) fresh whipped cream.  Pretty classic banana cream pie contents, well made, but borderline a touch too sweet for me.  No twists or deviations from the classic here.  ***+ filling.

Overall, a very good banana cream pie, and wow, the crust, it made me very excited to move on to the fruit pies.  I think low **** overall, I just wish the sweetness was slightly tamped down.  My favorite of the pies, but only slightly.

NY Sour Cherry.

"We use Montmorency cherries from upstate New York in our Sour Cherry Pie-- and we don't sugarcoat 'em either. We let their vibrant, tart flavor take center stage. This bright red cherry pie with a nice big scoop of ice cream will knock your socks off."

I moved on to fruit pies.  I again started with the crust.  It was a slightly different crust than the banana cream, definitely darker, thicker, likely due to the fact that this one is baked with filling compared to the blind baked cream pie.  It was again quite good - very flaky, strong buttery flavor.  Definitely bakery quality pie crust (compared to say grocery store, or often, restaurant quality).  What you want from a standard pie crust really.  Low ****.

The sour cherry filling was good - slightly tart, slightly sweet, some goo but not much, soft whole cherries that were cooked down.  I could indeed taste the sour element, slightly tart, definitely not too sweet.  Clearly made with real cherries not canned pie filling.  As they say, definitely even better with a scoop of ice cream.  Another low ****, it was certain a good pie, but not memorable beyond being "hey, that was a good classic pie".  

Also, please don't mind the very odd itty bitty mini slice that some previous monster left in this pie ... this is how I found it (seriously, who does that?!).

Wild Maine Blueberry. $40.

"A fresh and delicious pie made with scrumptious organic wild blueberries from Josh Pond, Maine. Only a quarter cup of sugar in a whole pie to let the natural sweetness and flavor of the blueberries shine through."

The blueberry was fairly similar to the sour cherry, although a bit sweeter, and with smaller fruit.  But very similar pedigree of great crust, not much goo, and not overly sweetened. I think the sour cherry was slightly better as I liked the pop of tartness it had, but this was pretty close behind.  Low ****.

Hudson Valley Apple. $40.

"Our apple pies feature individual varieties of apples sourced from local orchards. New York State grows more apple varieties than any other, and our apple pies are a celebration of classic New York and heirloom varietals."

I don't frequently pick apple pie given other pie choices, but I tried this since it was there and took just a sliver, and then immediately went back for more.  The crust was again very very good, as I now knew to expect.  The apples were really nicely cooked, not too soft, not too al dente.  No skins on.  Lightly spiced, but not aggressive in any way.  Again not much goo.  It was quite enjoyable, I think my second favorite, above even the cherry and blueberry pie, which really surprised it.  I think this one would be fantastic with their crumble top too, but alas, we had only the double crust pies.  Another low ****, one of the better apple pies I've had in few years.