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This years winners include Central Florida resident Amy Freeze, who won Amateur Best in Show Winner for her Sandbar Key Lime Pie.

The pie competition is held each year in conjunction with the Great American Pie Festival and the Never Ending Pie Buffet in Kissimmee, an event which draws an annual following of more than 39,000 pie lovers and features more than 90,000 slices of pie.

This years pie championships drew an astounding 747 entries in three divisions: amateur, professional and commercial, and featured five new categories courtesy of new sponsor Comstock Wilderness Fruit Pie Filling. The new sponsor introduced five new flavor categories in which amateur bakers competed: Apple, Blueberry, Cherry, Peach and Strawberry. Although participants in the five categories used Wilderness Comstock brand canned fruit pie fillings, they also made the pies their own by adding at least four other ingredients in their filling.

Comstock joins a distinguished list of competition sponsors, including Crisco and the California Raisin Marketing Board.

The pies were judged by 150 pre-qualified volunteer chefs, bakers and assorted pie aficionados. The addition of five Duncan Hines Comstock Wilderness Fruit Pie Filling categories brings the total number of Amateur categories to 18, including Apple, Cherry, Crisco Classic Chocolate Cream, Citrus, Cream, Fruit & Berry, Crisco Innovation, Nut, Open, Peanut Butter, Cream Cheese, Pumpkin and Raisin (sponsored by the California Raisin Marketing Board). First place winners were chosen in each category with Amateur Best of Show and Comstock Best of Show selected from among the first place winners.

This years professional competition consisted of 128 pies entered in twelve categories: Apple, Crisco Classic Cherry, Crisco Classic Chocolate Cream, Crisco Innovation, Citrus, Cream, Fruit & Berry, Nut, Open, Peanut Butter, Perfect Pie and Raisin. First place winners were chosen in each category with Professional Best of Show selected from among the first place winners.

We want to thank all those who traveled to Orlando to participate in the 19th Annual APC/Crisco National Pie Championships. The creativity and skill demonstrated in all of the categories, but especially our new categories were truly inspiring, not to mention, mouthwatering! said Linda Hoskins, APCs executive director.

Congratulations to all who entered. Its not uncommon for our bakers to pull all-nighters during the competition to ensure that theyre entering the perfect pie and we truly appreciate their dedication to their craft.

The Amateur division garnered 289 entries spread among 17 pie flavors. Amy Freeze, a 15-year high school teacher of Avon Park, Fla. took the Amateur Best in Show with her Sittin on the Sandbar Key Lime Pie which was the first place winner in the Citrus category. Her vanilla wafer-based crust held a cream cheese, lime juice and cream of coconut filling, which was topped with whipped cream rosettes, lime slices and white chocolate sea shells. After having competing for six years, this is Amys first Best in Show win. She won two first places in 2008, a second place in 2009, second and third places in 2011 and a third place in 2012. Freeze took home $5,000 in prize money, as well as a Crisco gift basket.

My first year I entered the pie championships was in 2007 and I was just awful, said Freeze. I had no idea how to bake a crust. It took awhile to get that right. For years, Ive admired so many other peoples talents and abilities. To hear my name announced, I was completely taken aback. But its been fun. Everyday, someone on campus makes a comment about the win or seeing the video.

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Pie winners include two Floridians. Key Lime and apple raisin pies take top honors at National Pie Championships