If any of you are in the DC area, you should stop by Whisked!’s one year anniversary party on Tuesday, May 8, from 6-9pm at The Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan (2427 18th Street NW). I’ll be giving out free pie slices while supplies last – so the early birds will be rewarded with pie.

I could write a very, very long post about everything I learned in the first year of business. I learned about things like the proper way to put up a tent, what people will pay for a cookie, and the best way to weigh down pie crusts when you’re par-baking them. I learned about how to enter a deposit in Quickbooks, what people will pay for wholesale cookies, and why local apples rock. And I learned about a whole bunch of other things – many things, I’m sure, I won’t even be fully aware of until years later. I could write more, but I need to prep for our baking session tomorrow. We’re going to have a big day, since 14th and U starts up again on Saturday and I need to get everything ready.

In any event, come to the party and help us celebrate our first year in business! RSVP on Facebook.

Shaker lemon pie was my favorite pie we did for the CSA.

The first Pie CSA I opened to the general public, which ran from January to April, just had its last pick up yesterday. People signed up to receive two six inch pies every other week – one sweet and one savory. A big part of the program is that the pies were all off-menu flavors – things that we had never sold before, and weren’t selling on the rest of the site.

I decided to have off-menu flavors as a personal challenge to myself – it forced me to come up with new pie flavors every other week. But I didn’t quite realize what a project it was going to be – constantly thinking of and testing new pie flavors took a ton of time and creative energy. Always doing new recipes meant that I never quite knew how the recipe would go when I scaled it up – the yields could be off, or quiches might need a couple more eggs to set properly. Making components I had never made before could be dicey – the first time I made dulce de leche, I didn’t cook it long enough and it wouldn’t set up. On the other hand, it forced me outside my creative comfort zone, and now I have 18 more pie flavors in our recipe book. I can also make a killer dulce de leche. All in all, this was a good choice for this winter.

Would I do off menu flavors again? Maybe – but only when my company is a lot bigger. About halfway through the winter I realized I was spending all this time developing these new recipes, but couldn’t sell them to the general public. If I’m going to put so much energy into a project, I’d like it to potentially increase my sales. Other pie shops that do off-menu flavors for subscribers – like the Three Babes Bakeshop – have a bigger staff. With three owners, one of you can come up with new flavors, and two of you can focus on the regular menu. But there’s only one of me.

And now, because I want to feel like I accomplished something, here’s all the pie flavors we did for the CSA over the winter. For the record, my favorite flavors were the ones for January 20.

January 6
Sweet: Yogato Sweet Po-tah-to (sweet potato with a cream cheese swirl)
Savory: Cheddar and Broccoli Quiche

January 20
Savory: Leek, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Tart
Sweet: Shaker Lemon Pie

February 3
Savory: Fig, Stilton, and Caramelized Onion Tart
Sweet: Maple, Apple and Quince Pie

February 17
Savory: Spinach, Feta and Olive Quiche
Sweet: Cranberry and Vanilla Custard Pie

March 2
Savory: Scalloped Sweet Potato and Blue Cheese Tart
Sweet: Apple Blackberry Pie

March 16
Savory Pie: Shepherd’s Pie
Sweet Pie: Banoffee Pie

March 30
Savory Pie: Kale Quiche
Sweet Pie: Pineapple Almond Right-Side-Up Pie

April 13
Savory Pie: Apple, Onion and Gruyere Tart
Sweet Pie: Grasshopper Pie

April 27
Sweet: Pear Dulce De Leche
Savory: Scalloped Red Potato and Onion Tart

I really liked this piece from The Post about why Qualia Coffee, a local coffee roaster, isn’t allowed to sell at some farmers’ markets in the DC area. The reason? Because, although Qualia roasts the coffee locally, the beans themselves aren’t locally sourced (literally, they can’t be grown in this climate).

I think this is a huge issue in the small business community – what does or does not constitutes a “local” product. Now, I understand why FreshFarm Markets has strict rules about local producers – ever been to a farmers’ market selling bananas? But, to me, Qualia is different because you can’t source coffee beans locally. I don’t want to go to a farmers’ market and buy California tomatoes that are being passed off as local tomatoes. But Qualia has no choice but to source beans from tropical climates (as do all coffee roasters).  The roasting process transforms a raw material into a unique product, which, in my mind, qualifies them as a local food producer. I’d feel the same way about a local chocolate maker who buys cacao beans from tropical climates (again, because they only grow in tropical climates), and then roasts and process them into a one-of-a-kind chocolate product.

What do you think? What makes something “local?” What kinds of producers do your farmers’ markets allow?

The sweet pie this week: Pink Lady Apple Whiskey. Apples are from Kuhns Orchard and they are amazing.

The big thing that happened this week is that I changed the way we sell our pies. I have been agonizing over this decision for months – getting feedback from friends and customers, talking to Soupermom, playing out all the scenarios in my head. A lot of the people I talked to were like “Dude, Jenna, it will be fine.” I mean, when I think about it, most people probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about pies. But because it’s my business “PIES” loom in my head with the urgency most people feel for their children.

Here is the deal. Up until this week we had a giant online pie menu with maybe 12 options, and people could order whatever they liked. But the quantities of things everyone ordered was so small that I couldn’t source my produce locally, and I would run around making all these different fillings for different pies. Time wise, cost wise, and sourcing-wise it wasn’t working.

When we were selling at the market it worked much better. We could talk to the farmers we sold next to, get our produce order in for the week, and then make big batches of pies that we could sell at the market.

So I changed our online model to fit the market model. Now I’m selling two types of pies a week (one sweet, one savory) online. People can order the pie of the week. They can also sign up for a Pie CSA Subscription, where they get a pie a week for a month, or a pie every other week for two months.

I really learned over the holidays that what works in a retail space (having 5 or 6 different types of pies) doesn’t work for an online company. Now I just hope that everyone will adjust to the change.

Oh how I await the rhubarb.

I was going to write about all the updates I made to the site today. Because I did make a lot of updates to the site and I’d love it if you’d check them out and let me know if you love and/or hate them.

But when I sat down to write, I realized that what I really want to write about is rhubarb. I want rhubarb to be in season. Very badly. Because I really want to make apple rhubarb pies. And strawberry rhubarb pie. And straight-up rhubarb pie. Except it isn’t in season around here (although, if you have a rhubarb sighting at a local farmers’ market, let me know in the comments).

I’m getting a half bushel of pink lady apples from Kuhn’s tomorrow (they’re awesome farmers we sell next to at 14th and U. And no, they don’t have rhubarb right now), and I’m obsessed with this idea of making using pink rhubarb with pink lady apples and make a really pink pink lady apple rhubarb pie.

In the meantime, if you happen to find some rhubarb, here is a recipe for an upside down rhubarb polenta cake from the vault.

Shaker lemon pie - one of my faves from the pie CSA. Also, pie is my life now. I live a life of pie.

There have been many, many people asking me when I’m going to get back to writing. And not just my parents (although, okay, they are one of the top people). I’m not going to promise that I can post all the time, but I’ve missed this space and I have so much going on, and so much to talk about, that it seemed like it was the time to start writing again. To make things easier, I think I’ll just make MD Whisked!’s official blog, since I was never able to actually update the Whisked! blog when I had one.

So, what’s happened since last August? A lot. I’m a solo business owner now, which has been a big shift. I’ve hired a bookkeeper. I’m in a new kitchen. I’m still learning how to grow my business without killing myself. I obsess about the price of butter. I made dulce de leche for the first time. I was the The Washington Post, and Tasting Table. I started DC’s first Pie CSA. After the holidays, I slept for, like, three months.

Right now I’m gearing up for the market season, which starts in May. Part of me is so happy to get back to the market, part of me is a little scared of how exhausting it is. But ultimately, I think it will be good. Good to be back with my customers, getting my products and Whisked! out there. Good to be seeing all the farmers’ again. Moving onward and upward with my business.

Ginger sponge and goat cheese ice cream sandwiches.

I don’t write about the stuff I bake for Spilled Milk all that often, because it’s usually the same things over and over again. I mean, how many times do you really want to hear I made 175 mini cupcakes?

But last week we had a media tasting for a bunch of DC food writers and bloggers (check out the scrumptious pics), and I decided to challenge myself and do something different. Everything on the menu was something I had never made before – which sounded like a great idea when I proposed the menu, but was a little stressful when it came to execution.

One of the items I was determined to make was mini ice cream sandwiches. Ever since my ice cream sandwich fail from last year (they tasted good, they just weren’t pretty) I was determined to do it again right. Not that messy ice cream sandwiches don’t have their own charm – but I want the desserts I make for our clients to be as pretty as they are tasty.

My mistake last year was the sandwich type. I did a chipwich style sandwich – I took a cookie, scooped on some ice cream, and pressed a second cookie on top. This resulted in very messy sandwiches – the ice cream started melted and squishing out the sides and getting all over the cookies. It also didn’t squish evenly – the bottom of the mound of ice cream was much larger than the top, so they were poorly balanced. And the cookie sizes varied slightly, so all the sandwiches were different sizes. Tasty, yes, but servable to the food media, no.

This time I decided to use a different approach. Instead of cookies, I made two half sheets of sponge cake (specifically a roulade sponge, which is normally rolled up with a filling) and sandwiched a layer of ice cream in between. Then I let the whole thing freeze for 24 hours and punched out the sandwiches with a fluted circular cutter. All of the sandwiches looked awesome – the ice cream was in a perfect layer between the cake and all the sandwiches were the exact same size. Instead of looking like a messy craft project, I actually looked like I knew what I was doing.

Eventually I’d like to perfect the chipwich style ice cream sandwich, but if you’re looking for an easier and prettier method then the stamping method is the way to go. Sponge cake is perfect because it’s flexible and the high egg white content makes it sturdier than butter cake. I used this ginger sponge cake recipe and made my own goat cheese ice cream to sandwich between, but it would be lovely (and beautiful!) with a variety of cakes and ice creams.

Star-spangled cherry pies.

About a month ago, I read about a new trend sweeping the nation – Pie CSAs. Yes, just like a CSA from a farm, people sign up for a “share” from a bakery where they’ll get a different pie every week. I thought this sounded pretty awesome.

So, this is one of the good parts about having your own business. The parts that makes the bad parts – the sleep deprivation, the lack of free time, the stress – worth it. Because rather than sitting back and thinking “oh, that’s a great idea – someone should do that” I thought “great – we can DO that.”

Yes, we’re DOING that. Specifically, we’re setting up a three-month pilot project to see if a pie CSA would work in DC. CSA members will pick up a pie every other week from our 14th and U stand, and we’ll alternate between sweet and savory pie (so you won’t get overwhelmed with dessert). All the flavors will be off-menu, and we’ll be pushing the edge with our flavors (think peach bourbon, buffalo chicken, and chocolate chipotle). The pilot starts on July 30th – and we still have a few spots open! Check out the Whisked! website here to sign up.

If you’ve never had one of our pies, trust me – they’re good. I know they’re good because we work very hard to make them good. We spent several months perfecting our pie crust technique. We source our produce from farmers who sell at the 14th and U market – especially Kuhn Orchards and Garner’s Produce - and their produce is so much better than what you get from the grocery store. We agonize over the appropriate “juiciness” level of our fillings. We test and test and re-test our savory tarts until we get them just right.

So if you want some easy (and delicious) dinner and dessert options, sign up for the pilot. Help us bring more pie to DC!

Italian zucchini quiche - roasted zucchini, tomatoes, basil, and mozzarela. Kind of like a pizza, but a quiche.

Key lime pie. Cool and refreshing and just the right amount of sweet and tart.

BBQ Chicken Tart. I find this filling irresistable - as in, I seriously can't stop eating it.

Our first day at the 14th and U Farmers' Market.

We did it. We had our first Whisked! market. I will never again look at a farmer’s market stand in the same way. Whenever I see a stand I will think “Hmmm, how did they get their stuff there? What kind of van do they have? What kind of tent weights do they use?”

The day was kind of a whirlwind. It started at 6:30, when we started loading everything up in Stephanie’s fiance’s truck. We got to the market around 7:30 and quickly realized there were all kinds of things we needed that we had never thought of  - like plastic wrap, and trash bags, and a trash can.

Once we had the tent set up and got our tables out, we started putting out all the cookies, hand pies, pound cakes, bar cookies, cupcakes, and savory tarts we were selling that day. And that’s when it kind of hit me that this was actually happening – after months of planning, wrestling with DCRA, recipe testing, pricing – we were actually running our stand.

I couldn’t have been happier with the way the day went. We went through all of our samples, sold out of the hand pies, and almost sold all of the bar cookies and cookies. We almost sold all of our savory tarts, and had a number of people say that they’d be back next week for one. We constantly had people coming by our stand – I think I stopped talking for all of two minutes during the entire four hour market. There were a ton of food bloggers and foodies who came out to support us – U Street Girl, Urban Bohemian, Frijolita and the folks from Borderstan, Metrocurean, Capital Cooking, DC Brit, Sangi Sarma, Thrifty DC Cook, VAScofflaw and many people I am forgetting because the day is kind of a blur.

Most importantly, we learned so much. We learned little things, like that we need to buy a hand cart to help us unload the truck. We learned that we have to sample everything. We learned that people love brownies with walnuts. We learned how we want to pack our coolers. We learned that no one buys cupcakes at farmers’ markets. After one week and one market we learned so much that our next market is going to be that much better.

Many, many thanks to Brian from Urban Bohemian, who took photos for us and helped us document our first day.

Sign!

Notice the stylish food handling gloves.

Our case, full of cookies and bar cookies. That case was one of the best purchases we made for the stand.

Stephanie and I, talking up our goods. You can't even tell we had only gotten four hours of sleep the night before.

Hand pies! Those little cupcake sign holders didn't survive the day. They all toppled over in the wind, even when we taped them down.

Stephanie's 7Up Pound Cake - her grandmother's recipe that she tweaked.

Stephanie, lookin' good.