“Our pies are more from the heart”

Mexican Chocolate, Apple Crunch, Coconut Macaroon, and Peanut Butter Chess among the flavors

By JAN WILLMS

When her oldest son Nick was growing up, he always asked his mom Krista Craven for chocolate fried pie instead of cake on his birthday.  Craven, a Como area resident, indulged his wish with the pies she learned to make from her grandmother Flossie.

“My grandma was from northeast Arkansas, and I grew up eating her chocolate fried pie,” Craven said.  Craven sometimes changed the recipes over the years, but the pies were a favorite dessert item in her household.

Then in September 2012 her husband, Andrew, emailed her about a Twin Cities Pie Experiment cooking contest, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery in New York and taking place at the Fine Line Café in Minneapolis.

Enlisting her friend, Christina Rogan of Fridley, to help her, Craven entered the contest, and the two won first place. Winning first place gave them a chance to compete in a national contest in New York, called Best Bite. They were competing against restaurants from major cities across the United States, and one from Sweden. Rogan and Craven took third place.

While in New York, they did some touring.

“What inspired us was visiting the old Pfizer drug building, which had been transformed to house several start-up food businesses,” Craven recalled. “We thought that if people can start up businesses in New York City, we can certainly do something in St. Paul.”

And so Cravin’ Pie was launched, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign to assist in getting the business off the ground.

Co-owners Craven and Rogan use family recipes, adding their own twist to create the pies.

“We won the contest with Mexican Chocolate pies that we baked,” Craven explained. She said that during the summer at a couple of  festivals, they serve their chocolate variety pies fried, since that is how her grandmother made them, but  for the rest of the year the pies are baked.

Craven said their pies are not influenced only by her grandmother’s recipes, but other family members.

“Christina’s dad was a baker for his unit in Vietnam, and the filling for our Apple Crunch pie comes from him,” she noted. Coconut Macaroon and Peanut Butter Chess pies are some other creations of Cravin’ Pie. They have also served some savory meat pies at summer events, but all their online products are desserts.

“We also take inspiration from other things,” Craven stated. She recently visited Magnolia’s Bakery in Los Angeles and tasted its pies made with fresh blueberries.

“I would love to add a pie we make using fresh blueberries,” she said.  “And we’re thinking about making a cherry pie for the holidays.”

The ideas for the creation of the pies may come from anywhere, but the actual baking process takes place in a rented commercial kitchen that is licensed by the Department of Agriculture, and is within walking distance of Craven’s house.  “We meet at the kitchen and both bake and assemble,” Craven said.

She said she has been a stay-at-home mom, but as her children got older she needed to decide what she wanted to be when she grew up.  And expanding on her baking seemed a natural fit.

Rogan has a catering background. She worked several years in human resources, but now is back in the food industry.

“Our husbands also help us,"  Craven added. She said she and Christina are both foodies through and through.

“I am really inspired by my southern roots,” Craven explained. “And Christina can taste a recipe and determine what it needs.  We may try a recipe, and she will say it is not a Cravin’ Pie, and we don’t serve it. We want each one to be special.”

Craven said the most challenging part for her, since she does not come from the food industry, is understanding the business aspect and finding affordable kitchen space.

“But we don’t feel like we are completely on our own,” she said. “I belong to a group called Women Who Really Cook, and it’s a great networking group.  My neighbors, also, have been so supportive and were very instrumental in getting our Kickstarter going.”

The most rewarding part of the business, according to Craven, is when somebody orders a pie and walks away with it, then returns to say how good it is, like nothing they have ever tasted.

She said that down the road, Cravin’ Pie would like to have its pies on grocery shelves, and she and Christina are considering a booth at the new Saints Stadium and the Minnesota State Fair.

But for now, they are satisfied with taking their time to expand the business. Thanksgiving is not far off, a busy time of the year for them.

“It’s okay to grow slowly at first to maintain that unique quality,” Craven said. “We want to stay true to what we envision and not become a cookie cutter business.  Our pies are more from the heart.”

To find out more about the products, visit the business website at www.cravinpie.com.