A popular bakery located on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula has been crowned the winner of Australia’s best pie with an entry that might surprise fans of the Aussie classic.
Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes, which has stores in Ocean Grove, Queenscliff and Geelong, was crowned the winner at the Baking Association of Australia’s (BAA) Best Pie and Pastie Competition in Melbourne last week.
Its prawn laksa pie took out top spot, with the win the bakery’s third in four years.
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Despite previously winning the award in 2021 and 2022 Rolling Pin co-owner Nathan Williams told 7NEWS.com.au the outcome was a shock.
He said he was certain a chicken-based pie would come out on top this year.
“For whatever reason I was feeling chicken this year so … I sent seven chicken pies (to the competition),” Williams said.
“I actually thought, if I was gonna do anything, it was gonna be one of them.”
After not dedicating the amount of time he usually would to perfecting his pies before competition, Williams said he was close to not entering the winning pastry but was convinced otherwise by his wife.
“Normally, I would like to spend, you know, a couple of weeks leading into pie competition, just playing around and getting everything set up so that I know when I make that one mix that’s going to go into a pie, it’s going to be perfect, but I didn’t have that time this time,” he said.
“I was looking back on some feedback from the last couple of competitions and … we had been marked down for stability which essentially means it’s too runny.
“I had one go at (the mix) and I tried to thicken it more and it was so thick … I even told my wife I wasn’t going to send it, I put the pot back in the cool room and left it there and the next morning we had enough room in one of the trays and my wife said, ‘You can’t lose. What are you gonna lose by sending it?’.
“The rest is history.”
Williams admitted the Asian seafood flavoured pie was polarising but said those who did try it had always provided great feedback.
With a Cambodian inspired fish amok pie taking out the title last year, Williams said Asian twists on traditional pastries were currently very popular.
“I feel like Asian inspired flavours are definitely something that’s, I guess, trending.”
“You see them around more than you would a few years ago.”
Since the big win, Rolling Pin has been busy with a flurry of customers, which Williams anticipates will continue as the Victorian school holidays approach.
“It’s overwhelming a bit, but it’s just amazing for our business,” he said.
BAA executive officer Tony Smith said Rolling Pin’s pie “stood out” against its competitors.
“We have to remember that it’s not always a beef mince pie as bakers and pastry cooks are pushing the boundaries now to get the best flavours and fillings,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
The competition took place over three days, with 362 bakeries entering more than 2400 pies and pasties to be “probed, prodded and tasted” by a panel of judges, Smith said.
Each bakery submitted three pies with one judged hot, one judged cold and the third a spare for the final day of judging if it received a gold medal in its category.
“The judges are looking at the pies cold … to see if (the) pastry is baked all the way through,” Smith said.
“The second pie is heated for aroma and tasting along with stability, no one likes a runny pie.”
Shop 29 bakery in Wendouree in Ballarat, Victoria won Australia’s best pastie.
Smith said the winning pastry was a traditional Cornish pastie that had a “wonderful” flavour and was “perfectly put together”.
Rolling Pin took home an award for its wholemeal vegetarian pastie after winning the vegetarian pastie category.