For our test, we used three kinds of cherries: sour, titan, and sonata cherries. Casey used an almond cream in half of the pies and an almond frangipane in the other half. For two of the pies, he froze the filling and shell together and baked them together while frozen. In two other pies, he baked the shells, made the filling separately, and only baked them together for about ten minutes. For the last two, he baked the filling and shells together unfrozen.

In the end, the decision was unanimous. Our panel loved the almond cream cherry pie in which the dough and the filling were cooked separately. That is what we took to the contest. Casey made two, just in case.

There was only one winning place in the pro category, and it went to Barbara of Pies by Barbara. Congratulations! Next year, though, we plan on trying to dethrone the queen! The real winners were the pie-eating public!!