A cool thing about Columbia’s poppin’ local food presence is that there are plenty of options for everyone’s daily sweet-treat needs. This is really great for anyone who wasn’t blessed with a decent set of baking skills, especially considering the ultimate test of kitchen stamina is right around the corner: Thanksgiving. This year, MOVE has found a few local bakeries and pie shops that we can all be thankful for.
**Peggy Jean’s Pies**
Located on Buttonwood Drive in South Columbia, this pie shop really brings something new to the table. Its creations include 38 total pies, offering about 15-20 different types on any given day. This year, their Thanksgiving Day menu features American apple, caramel apple, pumpkin, the ever-popular chocolate bourbon pecan and several more. Peggy Jean’s is strictly from-scratch cooking, and focuses on an authentic, family-made menu.
“Some of the recipes are over 100 years old,” co-owner Jeanne Plumley says. “They were my grandmother’s, and I’m 52. We just cook the way you would’ve back then. Like in our chocolate pie, we use Hershey’s Cocoa, because in the late 1800s, that was the only thing available at that time. So it’s our recipes (that set us apart). We make the dough everyday, and nothing is shipped in already made. We make it from here.”
Plumley says that her favorite part about owning the bakery is getting to work alongside her husband and daughter. Though the holiday season is full of stress and hard work, it’s not without benefits.
“Last year, we got 1,700 pies out of here (Thanksgiving Day),” Plumley says. “The thing about this year is that we have a lot of people wanting to volunteer help, like boxing pies, or putting pie boxes in the bags, doing dishes, those kinds of things. So it’s really great for the amount of people that want to volunteer. It’ll be the best pie you’ll ever have for Thanksgiving.”
**The Uppercrust Bakery and Cafe**
Why go for just the pie when you can order your entire Thanksgiving dinner? The Uppercrust has you covered; this year, their Thanksgiving to-go menu for Wednesday, Nov. 25 includes roasted turkey, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry orange relish, and fresh multigrain dinner rolls.
They also, of course, offer a wide selection of holiday pies, which you can order in 10” or 6” sizes. Some of their popular flavors include pumpkin, apple and chocolate caramel supreme. They also have other homemade “fall goodies,” such as their apple dumplings, caramel apples and pumpkin bars.
**U Knead Sweets**
U Knead Sweets is going into its fourth year on Cherry Street in downtown Columbia as a fairly new addition to the local baking scene. Its menu includes a wide variety of worldly desserts and pastries, ranging from macaroons and cannolis to classic sugar cookies and holiday pies.
“We are mainly Asian and European-inspired, but I do do traditional pies and your traditional desserts too,” owner Helena Shih says.
Shih has worked in Chinese restaurants with her husband for nearly three decades and is used to much of the stress that accompanies the holiday baking season.
“My husband and I always used to own restaurants, so we’re used to stressful situations,” Shih says. “So it’s not really a big deal to us.”
This year, the bakery’s pies available for the holiday season include pecan, apple, Dutch apple, caramel apple and the crowd-favored pumpkin. The bakery also offers dinner rolls for Thanksgiving and gingerbread cookies and holiday cakes around Christmas.