The Pie Fest was quite the fun event, with front page coverage from the Charlottesville Daily Progress the following day and TV coverage from CBS-19, The Newsplex.

Friends and photographers captured some great shots from the day, made ever more beautiful by the setting — a de-sanctified sanctuary and the home of The Haven, our community’s homeless day shelter.

Also, Kathy Kildea made this fabulous time-elapsed video of the judging (after making two gorgeous coconut cream pies).

Special thanks to head judge and fellow pie-enthusiast (and former arch-nemesis) Brian Geiger aka The Food Geek for helping put this event together. Also, we couldn’t have done it without our scores of volunteers, pie bakers and attendees.

We raised some money for PACEM, a worthy cause in our community, we made some new friends and had the chance to gather a lot of really wonderful people and of course, we had some really good pie.

Butterscotch Pecan Pie

One 9″ flaky pie crust. This is where people fall down on the job. I like this recipe and in fact have used it for the last dozen pies or so and it’s been foolproof. If you have to buy a crust, FINE (*eyeroll*) just don’t tell me about it.

You need to partially prebake the crust. I’m telling you this now because it adds, easily, an hour to the process.

Filling:

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (none of the light stuff, now)

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup butterscotch chips

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract

2 cups chopped pecans

I’m going to assume that your crust has been prebaked, cooled and is sitting waiting for your filling. Set your oven to 350. Warm the corn syrup, the brown sugar and the butter over low heat in a saucepan on the stovetop. Stir until the butter has melted. Remove the mixture from the heat. Add the butterscotch chips and set aside for five minutes, shaking occasionally to distribute the chips and coat them with the liquid. Add salt and whisk to smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and the yolk until frothy. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk. Add the hot liquid and whisk until smooth. Add the pecans and stir gently to distribute. Pour filling into the cooled pie crust. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350, turning the pie 180 degrees halfway through baking.

Cool finished pie on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I have spent the early morning hours of this holiday weekend baking dozens of pies. People who follow me on Twitter are, by now, puzzled. I’ve been tweeting about baking pies eight at a time. They must think I’ve lost my mind.

What I neglected to mention is that these pies are individually sized — pies for personal enjoyment. These pies are not meant for sharing!

The jars are half-pint Mason jars, just the right size for a pie that can be created, baked, cooled, sealed and stored in the freezer — or shipped, if need be.

A batch of my super flaky crust recipe makes about 16 jars of pie. Lining the jars with crust is the most time-consuming part of this project.

I made a test batch of Butterscotch Pecan pies a couple of weeks ago. I was overzealous and filled the jars too high. They spilled over and couldn’t be sealed in their jars. My neighbors loved them.

This weekend I have been busy making blueberry pies, Butterscotch Pecan (capitalized because it is my signature pie) and dozens of gorgeous little peach pies.

And now, I want YOU to have one. Leave a comment below and tell me whether you like peach, pecan or blueberry. I will choose a winner at 4pm Eastern on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 using a random number generator. Depending on where you live, I will decide how the pie is delivered to you and when. (Yes, I can ship a pie in a jar.)

Good luck, pie people!

****Pie Giveaway ended at 4pm Eastern****

*****We have a winner*****

Congratulations Jeff Gaffney! There’s a Jar of Butterscotch Pecan Pie heading your way!

One 9″ flaky pie crust. This is where people fall down on the job. I like this recipe and in fact have used it for the last dozen pies or so and it’s been foolproof. If you have to buy a crust, FINE (*eyeroll*) just don’t tell me about it.

You need to partially prebake the crust. I’m telling you this now because it adds, easily, an hour to the process.

Filling:

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (none of the light stuff, now)

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup butterscotch chips

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract

2 cups chopped pecans

I’m going to assume that your crust has been prebaked, cooled and is sitting waiting for your filling. Set your oven to 350. Warm the corn syrup, the brown sugar and the butter over low heat in a saucepan on the stovetop. Stir until the butter has melted. Remove the mixture from the heat. Add the butterscotch chips and set aside for five minutes, shaking occasionally to distribute the chips and coat them with the liquid. Add salt and whisk to smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and the yolk until frothy. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk. Add the hot liquid and whisk until smooth. Add the pecans and stir gently to distribute. Pour filling into the cooled pie crust. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350, turning the pie 180 degrees halfway through baking.

Cool finished pie on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.