Take A Page From The 2025 Pie Fest Winner And Implement These Flavors Into Your Next Bake

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If you're looking for ways to upgrade your pie-making game or just want to zhuzh up your favorite maple bourbon pie recipe, look no further than the winning pie at the first Stissing House x Substack Pie Fest. Nikki Freihofer beat out 32 competitors, all amateurs from across the United States, with her salted maple bourbon pie. This egg custard-based dessert includes lots of dark maple syrup, bourbon, and a generous helping of salt to help balance out the sweetness. 

The Pie Fest was held in November 2025 at Stissing House, a restaurant in the Hudson Valley town of Pine Plains owned by Chef Clare de Boer. The queen of the lifestyle world herself, Martha Stewart, was on the judging panel that helped crown this pie the overall winner as well as the best tasting. "It was a delightful, comforting and delicious pie with the perfect balance of salty and sweet," Stewart proclaimed on The Martha Blog. "The crust was great and so was the maple flavor." 

Freihofer, a New York City-based food and beverage brand strategist, has described her pie as a grown-up boozy brunch version of a pancake breakfast. One of her secrets to achieving award-winning results with her flavors is by using a high-quality dark maple syrup, preferably aged in bourbon barrels (such as Tree Juice Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup). The dark syrup has a much bolder maple flavor than the lighter amber version.

Like the flavorful dark maple syrup in her pie recipe, Nikki Freihofer also opts for top quality and robust flavors from other ingredients. This includes the bourbon she uses in her egg custard filling. She uses Bulleit, one of the must-know whiskey brands for beginners. Bulleit Bourbon's tasting profile includes maple, oak, and nutmeg with a bold spiciness from its high rye content. She also uses Irish butter in both the filling and the crust. Irish butter is famed for being rich and creamy with a tangy taste. Even the salt Freihofer chooses plays a part in the pies' flavor. She uses Maldon salt to garnish the filling. This British pyramid-shaped salt has a flaky appearance and a delicate flavor.

Freihofer tops her salted maple bourbon pie with a mascarpone whip and again goes for strong flavors. She uses a vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla extract. The former has a stronger vanilla taste than the latter with flecks of actual vanilla bean. You can check out Freihofer's full recipe for free on the online publishing platform Substack. Freihofer's winning pie will be featured on the Stissing House menu, and she also won a residency at Substack. And of course, she also gained Martha Stewart's seal of approval, no mean feat.