The Award-Winning Connecticut Pie Shop That Dominates On A National Scale

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Pie often makes a welcome appearance on the dessert table during the holidays, but the sweet treat is popular with Americans all year round, with 78% of consumers saying they enjoy it, according to Datassential (via the American Pie Council). When people in southwest Connecticut have a hankering for pie, they're lucky enough to be near a shop that's earned national recognition several times over. Michele's Pies in Norwalk has won an impressive 51 first-place awards at the American Pie Council's National Championships, 10 of them in 2024 alone.

The shop's pies are handmade using fresh seasonal ingredients and dough that's prepared daily. They sell four different types: fruit, nut, cream, and savory, which include options like Chicken Pot Pie, Australian Beef Pie, and Philly Cheesesteak Pie. Other baked goods like cookies, pastries, and tea breads are also available. While you can make a chicken pot pie pretty easily at home, the brand's version is one of the 10 that won in 2024. Some of the others included Butterscotch Pecan, Mango with Macadamia Coconut Crumb, Crunchy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Walnut Cream, and Twisted Citrus Raspberry.

Michele's Pies has been featured on "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show, and its creations have been part of Emmy Awards gift bags. Founder Michele Stuart even made her Maple Pumpkin with Pecan Streusel Pie on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay," but lost to the celebrity chef. People in the U.S. and Canada can order from the shop via Goldbelly, and once the pies arrive, you can store leftover pie to keep it from getting soggy by wrapping it tightly in foil and keeping it in the fridge.

Michele Stuart opened her eponymous shop in Connecticut in 2007, a year after she began selling pies out of her Vermont kitchen at farmers' markets and to local businesses. She expanded and moved after her Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie — which she now considers the shop's signature dessert — won first place in the 2007 National Pie Championships. Stuart was inspired to begin her business by memories of baking with her grandmother as a child, and told the older woman before she passed away in 2006 that she was going to make her pies famous.

Stuart has written two cookbooks — "Perfect Pies" and "Perfect Pies & More" — and she shared some of her tips at the 2025 International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE). She revealed that she uses vegetable shortening for the crust to create the flakiest results, and suggested using a marble rolling pin that you can put in the refrigerator to get cold before rolling out the dough. After rolling the dough, it may be thin, so follow Ina Garten's trick to fit the dough in the pan without stretching by folding it into quarters, which is easier to move.

When making pies with fruit, Stuart advised always tasting the fruit first to see how sweet it is, and then adjusting how much sugar you use accordingly. She encouraged creatively adding different ingredients to your pies, such as fresh or dried cranberries with apple, including in the streusel for crumb-topped ones (she makes a delightful blueberry-crumb for her peach pie), incorporating extras that would go well with the filling.