Could Pie Be The Next Cupcake?

Will pies be the new cupcake? It seems every year there's another dessert gunning to replace the cupcake as the next big thing. Most recently, in my memory, it was the French macaron. While I've made cupcakes, macaron recipes seemed a bit overwhelming. Well, for 2011 small pies topped the Food Channel's Top 10 Foods to Watch while Andrew Freeman of Andrew Freeman and Co. in San Francisco, a marketing consultant group for restaurants and hotels, made it his No. 1 food trend prediction way back in October. Soon pie shops will be opening their doors as cupcake bakeries have done in recent years. What with millions and millions of dollars in sales and TV shows dedicated to them (who hasn't watched "Cupcake Wars"?) can "Pie Fight" be far behind?

"We hope so," said Freedman in an e-mail interview. Pies have a natural appeal to consumers because "Pie isn't pretentious," he wrote. "It's simple and it offers that classic Americana that many associate as comforting."

Freedman is already seeing evidence of their popularity with new specialty shops, such as Chile Pies and Ice Cream in San Francisco making news with its Green Chile Apple Walnut Pie with Cheddar Cheese Crust and pie shakes (yes, pie blended into a shake), he said. And there are others. "Hill Country Chicken in Manhattan holds a pie happy hour. Four and Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn is known for its pies," he said.

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