Words and thoughts by Ellen Lovelidge & Emma Kelly. Photos by Kimberly Cadena.
When we first walked in the door at Dangerously Delicious Pies last week the intense aroma of pies swept us off our feet and we knew we'd be in for a real treat but had no idea it'd be THIS good. Emma (another food writer), Kimberly (our amazing photog), and I hit the X2 bus (seriously the easiest and best way to get to H St. NE), and met up with super friendly Dangerously Delicious staff Sandra and Stevie for a little lesson in pies and just how spectacular they can be. We got a sample of their vibrant menu offerings as well as a complete lesson on how they make their all new BYT-inspired Bring Your Thanksgiving pie!
Dangerously Delicious Pies started off in Baltimore and has now branched out to the DC area. They offer both sweet and savory pies and have great specials throughout the week including a lunch deal Monday through Wednesday: a great date deal of four slices and drinks for $20. The pies rotate and they also offer other tasty treats like quiche and their specialty Baltimore Bomb which we unfortunately didn't sample although I'm sure it's amazing.
We opted for a slice each of the S.M.O.G. (Steak Mushroom Onion Gruyere), and an apparent fan favorite, the blackberry, both warmed in a small oven on their own. The slices were delicious and incredibly fresh tasting, assuring they were made right there very recently. The friendly young staff manning the front counter even treated us to a ukulele duet making us realize it would be an excellent stop at the end of a long night out on H St., especially since they are open till 3:30 AM.
After filling our bellies it was time to hit the kitchen with Stevie as our guide to the pie-making process. He first got his start working with Rodney, the founder and owner of DDP in Baltimore, about a year ago but now lives with his wife in an apartment above the DC restaurant working long hours daily with a few other kitchen staff to bring the freshest products to our area, making everything on-site. Today he is testing his new creation - a pie containing all the elements of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There is no open-flame in the one-room kitchen and all ingredients are prepared by baking in their two ovens after being seasoned with herbs and other ingredients. When we walk in the kitchen cranberries, green beans, some potatoes, and a mixture of homemade stuffing and chicken stock have already been prepared while Stevie works to prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Squash, ground turkey, more potatoes, and turkey breasts were then seasoned and arranged on large pans for baking.
After baking the final products were ready to become the pie filling.
Everything was then mixed together with an herbed cream sauce.
The fresh (all vegan!) pie dough was filled with the mixture making about four pies per bowl-full of mixture.
Pies were then sealed shut and marked with their unique tag, these with the initials "BYT", before hitting the oven.
Only 45 minutes later the wonderful creations were baked to perfection and ready to either hit the box for us to take home and test drive or the pie safe with the other pies for cooling and then serving.
The three of us spent the next few days constantly texting, emailing, and twittering about the mind-blowing results of the Bring Your Thanksgiving pie. I passed out slices to friends who stopped by the house and everyone really enjoyed themselves. None of us had experienced anything like it. The best part of the BYT pie is that if you are a vegan or vegetarian who's hosting Thanksgiving and have meat-eaters coming for dinner, just pick up a pie and they'll be more than fulfilled. You have until this Sunday, November 21 to order your Thanksgiving pies. I seriously recommend you stop in Dangerously Delicious Pies and if you don't try the BYT pie, at least give another slice a shot, they really are irresistible.
Dangerously Delicious Pies plan on expanding their operation in the future as the demand continues to grow. They also have a pie truck running around town that can be tracked via their Twitter.
Want to win a Bring Your Thanksgiving pie? (YES you DO!) Let us know in the comments what type of pie you would most like to have smashed on your face and we'll announce the winner next Monday, November 22!
Previously in food porn:
- 5/15: NEXT WEEK: BYT + Art and Soul (FREE) Crab Boil Patio Happy Hour
- 5/9: James Beard Awards 2012-A Field Guide
- 5/7: Trucko de Mayo @ RFK Stadium
- 5/1: PHOTOS: Class Is In Session
- 4/23: This Saturday come to: CLASS IS IN SESSION - Amazing Food, Amazing Drinks, A Good Cause
- 4/19: European Eats: Provence & Parma
- 2/9: Valentine's Day is Made For Chocolates-A Handy DC/MD/VA Guide To Make The Most of It!
- 12/7: SILF: Sandwich I'd Like to F*ck
- 11/8: Diabetes Fighting WING + CUPCAKE Eating Contest @ DURKL
- 10/11: Taste Test: Station 4
God loves a cheerful giver.
Coconut cream pie of course! YUM! Just don't get all those little crunchy pieces of coconut in my nose...
I'm gonna go with some sort of chocolate pie. With cherries on top. Yeah. But no whipped cream, that's just excessive.
The Mob-town Brown!
I am sure they are good, but $30-$35 per pie good? White people will pay for anything.
Key Lime, please!
Lemon meringue, for tactical reasons. Light & fluffy, might not hurt too much AND could probably still be salvaged and eaten.
mcdonalds apple pie.
i agree w/coconut cream pie! i would not mind the coconut-y goodness smashed in ma face. nom-nom-nom. & my bday is on thxgiving this yr so i would love to score a byt pie!
Am I disqualified from this?
Yeah, am I disqualified? ...Jamaica Me Crazy Black Bottom Pie http://www.grouprecipes.com/15339/jamaica-me-crazy-black-bottom-pie.html
Bradley and I think we should qualify
My favorite pie is pecan but that sounds too painful for a face-pie. [insert nuts in face joke]. So ummmm... Pumpkin.
Blackberry pie, plz. God I just got so hungry after reading this. Painful hungry.
zach galifianakis flavor
money pie
pumpkin pie....then i could skip my pumpkin-scented face cream treatment
Apple - it likely wouldn't be too uncomfortable or stain anything, and it's an American classic.
nPeaca pie please.. I'm ready fofor the sweet pain!!
Does a DVD of Darren Aronofsky's Pi count? Because I kinda felt like that smacked me in the face the first time I saw it. But more of a gentle smack, not like the painful, humiliating dickslap of The Fountain.
In my face? Lemon chess pie. Lemon is astringent and mildly exfoliating and all the fat would be moisturizing, and of course I'd open my mouth and to have as much of it down my gullet as possible. NOM!
I'm pretty sure I saw a "White Trash Crême Brulée" pie in one of the pics. Amazing.
FUCK you guys. If you are going to get pied you having to do it like a god damn champion. This of course means you have to teleport/timetravel back to the early 90's and become a contestant on 'What Would You Do?' to take a ride in the fucking PIE POD.
As far as pie podding went, Mark Summers had OCD and freaked out if the audience chose anything but 4 pies. If for some reason the masses showed the compassion to spare grandma the pleasure of a 4-pie bukake showdown, Mark would do it anyway. Problem is the pie pod was typically only equipped with boring cream pies.
THE ULTIME PIE POD PIE COMBO-MOVE:
1st pie: Need to go for a French Silk Pie. The delicate texture ensures that you won't have to visit Miami for free rhinoplasty, but fuck it you may want that?
2nd Pie: Banana Cream Pie. Once again to soften the blow of future pieing, and the chocolate mousse from the French Silk would be tremendous in combination with this.
3rd Pie: Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie. Another light fare pie to further the combination of flavors infiltrating your pores. Need some form of Cream Cheese because chicks dig Cream Cheese.
4th Pie: Karo Pie. Making the above commentator Kate's wet dreams come true, the delicious cream pies will dampen the blow of the Karo Pie protecting your delicate features and complementing the chocolately fruity amalgam on your face.
Of course if you did have the ability to timetravel, I'm sure you would also have the ability to make your own pie pod. The problem with this scenario is the fact that Mark Summers is a tired old geezer now, worried about germs and making sure the pillows on his couch are symmetrical. Back in the early 90's he was a stone cold fox and would probably invite you to tag team hookers after the show, which would be a veritable bonus round (there is stuff like this in the deleted scenes on the 'What would you do?' DVD or I might have just overdubbed porn once when I was recording the show). You could also do the following, while you are Eiffel Towering whores with Mark:
So Good!!!
A Boston Cream Pie. Because really, who doesn't like a tasty cream pie?
My boyfriend's pie...
Dreaming about Homemade Banana Custard Pie right now...
four berry. why be pied with one berry when you could be pied with four?
I'd want the Baltimore Bomb smush. If you're going to get a pie to the face, gotta go all out.