Battle of the Dishes: Fourth of July Berry Pie Edition

Two Little Red Hens' strawberry-rhubarb pie.

This weekend is prime berry pie time -- cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and gooseberries are at the farmers' market, and we all have license to eat liberally at Fourth of July barbecues. Be a hero: Bring a pie to a cookout. But if you don't feel like turning on the oven, where should you procure this pie? We stopped in at two of our favorite bakeries -- Trois Pommes and Two Little Red Hens -- to check out their berry pies and see which one would prevail in a taste test.

Trois Pommes' cherry pies.

We had been planning to taste two sour cherry pies side by side, but Two Little Red Hens had sold out of most of their pies by 10 a.m. If you want your choice of fillings, go early! Instead, we picked up a beautiful, lattice-crust strawberry-rhubarb pie ($29). At Trois Pommes -- the winner of our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie Battle of the Dishes -- we went for a few mini sour cherry pies ($7 each). (You can also order full-sized sour cherry pies.)

Then we hustled back to the office, where we suddenly became very popular.

The strawberry-rhubarb filling is soft and thickly stewy. It tastes vibrantly of strawberries: floral and sweet but not sugary. The rhubarb gets lost a bit, though, and we wished the fruit mixture was more tart. The very flaky, tender, almost savory crust suggested it had been made with shortening, and the bottom crust soaked up the fruit juices, getting deliciously goopy but not soggy. We also liked the sprinkling of sugar that goes crunchy and slightly caramelized on top. It's a classic American-style pie, something a Midwestern grandma would make.

"I would eat this pie for breakfast," said an enthusiastic taster.