Posted by The Reporter Herald, CO on July 07, 2008 at 12:41:46:
A taste of the past
Loveland woman shares winning 1950 cherry pie recipe
By Pamela Dic kman
Loveland Reporter-Herald
In 1950, Loveland native Corwin Peak baked the perfect cherry pie and earned a trip to a national bake-off in Chicago.
Nearly 60 years later, she still has the winning recipe.
“We were judged on our preparation of the pie and our attitude and what came out of the oven too,” said Corwin Schlingman (she married two years after baking her winning pie). “It was exciting.”
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Colorado Cherry Grower’s Association sponsored a cherry pie baking contest each year. The winner received $25 and a trip to Chicago.
Corwin entered the first three years but did not win.
Her fourth try was the charm.
In February 1950, she became the first Loveland girl to win the contest and head to the big city to compete against young bakers from 19 other states.
A 19-year-old Corwin and her mom, who taught her to bake and helped tweak the recipe, rode a train cross country to Chicago.
When she arrived in the windy city and at Hotel Morrison, Corwin was blown away by the skyscrapers and buildings.
“We were up on the 40th floor,” she said. “I’d never seen anything like that in my life. And the trip on the train was real impressive.”
She and the other contestants received special aprons, and each prepared their pie from scratch in front of the judges, then baked it in their own electric oven. That year was the first the contestants each had their own oven in which to bake, according to 1950 news accounts.
Corwin did not win, but she loved the experience.
And she kept making cherry pies, long after she returned to her nurses training in Denver, after she married Bill Schlingman and after they had three children.
“I always used frozen cherries,” Corwin said. “And I used the juice off of them. I used it for the filling.”
She was careful not to fill her pies too full to avoid the filling baking over onto the oven — a lesson learned in the pie-baking contests.
Corwin doesn’t bake cherry pies any more because of her health and because, in her eyes, the canned cherries in the store just don’t taste as good as the ones that used to grow all over Loveland.
“If you have to use canned cherries, just forget it,” said her husband, Bill.
Corwin added, “They just don’t have it.”
The Schlingmans do have a cherry tree in their yard, but not with enough cherries for a pie.
So, it’s been years since Corwin made one of her prize-winning pies, but Bill still remembers how they tasted.
“She made good ones,” he said with a small smile.
Corwin's Winning Cherry Pie Recipe
Crust:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2/3 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup ice water
Cut half the shortening into flour. Add salt. Mix with pastry blender until like fine meal. Then add the other half of the shortening, and cut into mixture until size of peas. Add cold water, mixing only enough to hold together.
Divide dough into two parts. Roll out bottom crust, place in 9-inch pie pan. Then roll out the other half, making small slits with 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon to let steam escape.
Note: Before putting top crust on pie, moisten the edges of the lower crust. Lay the top crust on. Press the two crusts together, using the thumb and index fingers of both hands, making a fluted edge as you go along.
Cherry filling:
3 cups partially thawed Colorado sweetened frozen cherries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons sugar (3/4 of a cup if the cherries are not sweetened)
1 tablespoon butter
Mix sugar, butter and cornstarch together and add 1/4 cup cherry juice. Add to drained cherries.
Place cherries in crust. Moisten edges of crust with cold water. Adjust the top crust which has been well pri**cked and trim upper crust off with scissors, leaving 1/2 inch, and flute the edges to seal in juice. Sprinkle sugar on top crust. Bake in very hot oven, 450 degrees, for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to a moderate oven, 350 degrees, and continue baking for 30 minutes.
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