DUNCAN — Pie baking takes skills, but more importantly, a good pie comes from the heart. And for Julie McKinney, that love of pie has been growing since she was 10 years old, when she made her first, a Key Lime pie.

“I still have the recipe, from back in the 1950s,” she said. McKinney said her mother got her started, but it was her brother who assisted in the first time try. McKinney treasures those memories, the pie recipe, and of course, the pie.

“There’s something about pies. You just want to have a piece of pie when you see a pie,” she said.

McKinney won the Master Pie title at the 2010 Stephens County Free Fair. Everyone of the pies she entered, she baked that morning in time for them to be on the judging table at the 9 a.m. deadline.

The four pies were a chocolate cream pie, coconut cream pie, apple pie and peach pie.

“Presentation is a big part of it,” she said. It also included making sure the meringue was toasted to perfection.

“You hear the saying, ‘easy as pie,’ but a pie is hard to do.”

She finds crust pies the easiest and for years she avoided cream pies when entering contests. At home, she would use whip cream for the topping.

“Because of the meringue, you don’t want it to sweat, or bead and you can’t have it split, when it is cooking. You also want it to cook through,” she said. Another issue with meringue-topped pies these days is the salmonella scare and the potential

Her husband, Wayne, who also is the Stephens County Sheriff, prefers cream pies, she said. His favorites are coconut cream and banana cream pie.

While many people will enter their pies at the local level and work their way to the state level, it was the opposite for McKinney.

“Wayne’s mother said, ‘you just gotta do it.’”

In the 1980s, she entered for the first time, a pie in the Arizona State Fair.

“There were thousands of pies,” she said.

Her pie earned a second place ribbon.

It was years before she entered again, in fact, after she moved to Stephens County.

She finds pie making to be one of her favorite things to do.

“I like to taste things as I cook and pies are sweet,” she said. “I’ve worked real hard to get a good dough, one that is flaky,” she said. McKinney also strives for a perfect pie interior.

“To have a finished pie, after putting it together, just makes you feel good,” she said.

Testing and trying out various things adds to the fun.

“Like with chocolate, I use a special chocolate, or for a peach pie, I use fresh peaches.”

McKinney also has a long-distance pie partner, her sister-in-law, who lives in the Dallas, Texas, region. She recently opened her own fried pie shop, McKinney said. The two collaborate on numerous methods and ideas and McKinney has been enjoying making fried pies.

“It’s a fun challenge ... to create a pie,” she said. Especially when cooking the cream pies, which takeS multi-tasking to a new level, she said.

“You’re constantly stirring and having to make sure everything is timed right.”

McKinney is also inspired by two foodies, one extremely well-known with celebrity status — Paula Deen; the other with a local celebrity status of sorts — Marcus McEntire.

“He’s a hoot! I attend all his cooking classes,” she said, hinting that he should offer more of them.

As for Deen, McKinney said she loves her recipes, though she admits to not watching her much.

McKinney shared a last minute pie crust tip, advising against the “vodka-based” pie crust recipe she once found.

“It changed the consistency.” She said, though, the secret to a great crust is “the less handling, the better.”

“You don’t want the gluten in your flour to be tough  and the shortening has to be just enough,” she said. “Too much water makes it tough.”

While she’s smiling about her recent pie win from the county fair, she’s looking forward to the next local food challenge.

“The GOP chili cook-off is Sept. 11,” she said. McKinney hopes it will draw plenty of area residents. She said even though it’s a fundraiser, the fun is in the atmosphere of the cook-off, even if you don’t expect to win.

After that event, the next event involving food, which she has no plans of cooking, but enjoying is the free Western Spirit Celebration, with chuckwagons, at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center. It is set for Sept. 18 and 19.



— Toni Hopper is a reporter for The Duncan Banner. She can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 132 or by e-mail at: toni.hopper@duncanbanner.com.