Bakers say 'I do' to requests for wedding pies

We asked local bakers Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama Pie Company in West Town and Dana Kruger of Skokie's Sweety Pies to create pies fit for a wedding (their recipes follow).

It wasn't a stretch for either of them.

Kruger has made mini-pies for sweet tables at weddings. Haney has made pies for four weddings -- and counting.

"I've had four more inquiries [in a month] for wedding pies," Haney says. "One of them wants us to do stacking pies."

While some of Haney's wedding customers served pie in addition to cake, Amanda Lao and Ken Pelletier wanted pie and only pie at their August nuptials.

"It just seemed like a way to make it more fun and informal," Lao, an interior designer, says. "Wedding cakes are beautiful, but pies taste better."

Haney made the couple a 13-inch passion fruit meringue pie as the centerpiece and four other varieties for the 110 guests -- chocolate, banana cream, mixed berry and apple.

The pies were served buffet-style. One table took matters or, rather, an entire pie, into their own hands.

"The buffet was going a little slow. They just wanted to make sure they would get some," Lao says.

While other baked goods still get plenty of glory (cupcakes, anyone?), pie does seem to be having its moment.

After selling her pies wholesale for three years, Haney finally opened shop at 1618 1/2 W. Chicago in March. Lines out the door form quickly (though Haney is quick to point out that in such a sliver of a shop, lines are a given).

"Pie is something that sometimes may be left by the wayside," Kruger says. "But a lot of people love a good slice of pie."

Janet Rausa Fuller