DO you love making pies? Are you hooked on Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off, despite the now-added commercial breaks?

Then how about using your creativity and cooking skills to take part in a local baking challenge and earn money at the same time. Country Harvest in Ingleton has launched its Ingleborough Pie Challenge, where bakers are being urged to create a pie inspired by the Yorkshire peak. It can be shaped like the flat-topped mountain or perhaps taste of Yorkshire, it’s completely up to you. Any flavour, sweet or savoury, whether that’s a traditional meat and potato pie with your own secret ingredient or a sweet pie which is a family favourite. Any type of pastry from shortcrust and flaky to filo and hot water crust is acceptable.

Country Harvest owner Mike Clark said: “We’re holding our first ever Festival of Pies on Sept 29 and 30 and as part of that we are creating loads of new varieties of pie for our customers to try. That made us think about what varieties the general public would come up with if we organised a competition and with £200 in cash prizes to win we hope to get some great entrants in our Ingleborough Pie Challenge which has been sponsored by two of our most popular suppliers, Hawkshead Relish and Wessex Mill Flours.”

The pies will be judged by a panel of experts, including a member of the Country Harvest team. For weeks the team in the Country Harvest kitchen has been busy cooking up new recipes which will be put on free tastings during the pie festival. So far, ones the team have particularly liked include sausage and bean pie and Mediterranean and curried vegetable pie with feta cheese.

Kitchen supervisor Alison Telford said: “We’ve been really working with different flavours and combinations...some have been more successful than others! But it’s been great fun and we can’t wait to see which ones our customers enjoy and perhaps one or two might be as popular as our bestselling chicken, ham and leek!”

One particularly successful one has been an avocado pie which can be served as a pudding, similar to a Lemon Meringue. One advantage of the avocado pie is that it is so simple and requires no cooking, apart from the pie crust. Its green colour also provides an interesting talking point.

Avocado Pie recipe

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado

Lemon juice (to taste)

Lemon zest (to taste)

1 small tin of condensed milk

Whipped cream (or perhaps meringue) as a topping (optional)

Sweetened pie crust

Method

Blend avocado, lemon juice, condensed milk until smooth

Pour mixture into sweetened pie crust

Top with whipped cream or meringue

Place in refrigerator for 3-4 hours to allow to set

Slice and serve. It’s as easy as that!