Two champion peach pie bakers have won high honors from the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council.
Each received a grand prize of $300 cash from the council, according to a news release.
The release said three finalists in south Jersey and four in north Jersey submitted pies, competing for two grand prizes.
Judges for the contest were chefs at Joseph’s in Renault Winery, in Glassboro, and Boulevard Five72, in Kenilworth.
Chef Katrina Guerrier of Joseph’s said Margate Farmers Market winner Sage and Hallee Adelman’s peach pie was the best, according to the release, praising its splash of bourbon and pinch of cayenne.
The Adelmans are donating their winning $300 to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
Chef Geoff Mockbeer of Boulevard Five72 awarded Sosy Shishmanian, finalist from the Ramsey Farmers Market, his first place vote. Mockbeer praised the pie’s “small- lattice top crust and just-right texture of peaches.”
“The peach pie contests are good vehicles for raising awareness of and demand for peaches grown in our state,” Santo John Maccherone, chair of the NJ Peach Promotion Council, said in the release. “When you taste a Jersey peach pie, you are struck by its strong peach flavor and sweetness, that you only get when peaches are grown in local orchards.”
