With closing of St. Paul Bakers Square, top Twin Cities pastry chefs share memories

Everything about Bakers Square conjures a memory, from the drop ceilings and the stocked pie cases to the curved window wall and the affable "What'll ya have, hon?" servers. It's a family restaurant where you scribbled on the kids' menu and dined with your grandparents, and where it was always OK — no, expected — that you'd order dessert.

Which is why, when the second-to-last Twin Cities metro location of Bakers Square closed last month, it left a lot of locals teary for bygone brunches. Especially some of the Twin Cities' top pastry chefs, who say Bakers Square inspired them to perfect their own pie skills.

"Each bite was pure bliss," said Twin Cities author and blogger Sarah Kieffer about the deeply chocolaty French Silk Pie, which might be the restaurant's most famous dessert.

Now, with St. Paul's Highland Park restaurant dark, that leaves only the Coon Rapids and Mankato outposts for Minnesotans to get their French Silk Pie fix. Well, that and about a dozen locations of Famous Dave's, whose parent company BBQ Holdings purchased the chain in 2021 and quickly integrated those beloved pies onto its dessert menu.

"Pie is never going out of style," Jeff Crivello, BBQ Holdings' chief executive, told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. (The company declined to comment for this story.)

Bakers Square had been through a few owners before, most notably Minneapolis-based Pillsbury, which launched the chain in the 1970s as Poppin' Fresh. With a sale in 1983, the name was changed to Bakers Square.

In the past couple of years, the availability of Bakers Square pies has gone way up, to about four dozen locations in 16 states. Most of those pies are sold within a Famous Dave's restaurant.

But there are only nine stand-alone Bakers Squares left in the U.S., including the two in Minnesota, where you can still scribble on the kids' menu and banter with the servers — and, of course, get dessert.

We spoke to local bakers about the memories the chain holds for them as it stares down extinction in Minnesota.

Creator of The Vanilla Bean Blog, author of "100 Cookies" and the forthcoming "100 Morning Treats"

Bakers Square played an outsized role in Sarah Kieffer's childhood, as the now-closed Bloomington location was the place to be for almost every birthday, holiday and after "any major school event that needed to be celebrated."

She remembers exactly how each visit played out. "Most of my memories there include a large group of loved ones: the adults in their own corner talking school politics and neighborhood gossip, while the kids were all tucked in a booth, frequently shushed for the laughter and loudness the sugar rush from the pie had induced."

Kieffer loved all of their pies in phases, rotating from banana cream to Reese's. "But the pie of all pies was, of course, the famous French Silk. There was that light, flaky crust, and then the thick, rich layer of chocolate. I always savored the chocolate curls on top first, each one delicately removed from the whipped cream top, and then devoured the rest of the pie in record time. Each bite was pure bliss."

Whenever she whips up a chocolate pie, that's the one she's thinking about. "I've made many chocolate pies in my life, and each one I have made never fails to induce the nostalgia of those French Silks from my childhood," she said.

Creator of Zoe Bakes blog; author of several books, including "Zoë Bakes Cakes," and star of "Zoë Bakes" on Magnolia Network

Zoë François was new to the Twin Cities in 1996, moving here straight from the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She'd been hired by Andrew Zimmern to work in the pastry department at Back Stage at Bravo. As a transplant, she knew she had to make a strong impression on Minnesota diners.

She flipped open a newspaper — City Pages, which had just published its readers' choice list. Bakers Square had won for Best Desserts.

"The next day I slid into a booth and got an education on what Minneapolis wanted for dessert," she said.

She ordered the French Silk Pie, of course.

"I couldn't argue with the comfort and deliciousness," she said, "and instantly understood why it was both iconic and top of the list."

But she wasn't content to let it stay there. The pie lit a fire under her to "try my hardest to come up with something as beloved. Now there are so many excellent bakeries in town, but I am sorry to see an institution like that go. Bakers Square provided so many people with fond memories and made the rest of us bakers try harder. I'm still trying!"

Baker/owner of Pie & Mighty

Anytime someone asked this self-taught pie maker what her favorite pie is, she didn't need to think twice. "My first thought has always been the Poppin' Fresh Banana Cream of my youth," said Minneapolis baker Rachel Swan.

"My sister always went for the French Silk, like nearly everyone else I knew, but the banana cream was in my opinion the unsung hero of that whole pie menu."

She later channeled memories of that pie when she perfected her own recipe, which took more than two years of testing. "Most people don't know how tricky it is to make a banana cream really well."

Swan was entering junior high school when Poppin' Fresh became Bakers Square. "My dad struck a deal with my sister and I, if we got good grades, he'd take us for pie. That reward system created some of the best, most joyful memories I have of being with him," she said. "His favorite? Lemon Meringue."

Serves 8.

Note: This recipe, adapted from Sarah Kieffer's "100 Cookies" (Chronicle, 2020), is inspired by the Bakers Square signature pie Kieffer enjoyed so much in her youth. Her unique spin is to put the filling over a slab of dough, top it with cream cheese frosting, and cut it into bars. But Kieffer's chocolate filling works just as well in a traditional pie format, with lightly sweetened whipped cream on top. While French Silk is traditionally made with raw eggs, cooking the mixture does no harm to the silky texture — especially when there's a stick of butter blended in. This recipe must be prepared in advance.

• 1 (9-in.) pie crust, pastry or crumb, purchased or your recipe

For the filling:

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 3/4 c. granulated sugar

• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 3 tbsp. water, at room temperature

• 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 8 pieces

• 1/2 c. heavy cream

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 c. heavy cream, whipped, sweetening optional

• Chocolate shavings, for decorating

Directions

Prepare and bake the pie crust according to package directions. Set aside to cool completely.

To prepare the filling: Pour about 1 inch of water into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt and water with a rubber spatula to combine. Place the bowl over the saucepan, being careful not to let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Constantly stir with the spatula until the sugar is completely melted and reaches a temperature of 160 degrees, about 5 minutes. While stirring, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with the spatula, as this will ensure no sugar crystals are lurking on the sides and will help prevent the eggs from cooking.

Remove the bowl from the heat and place it in the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat mixture on high speed until light and fluffy, 8 to 10 minutes. The bowl should have cooled down to room temperature by this point. Switch to the paddle attachment, add the melted chocolate and vanilla, and beat on low speed until combined. With the mixer running on medium speed, add a few pieces of the butter at a time, beating until completely incorporated (this will take a few minutes). Move the mixture to a large bowl.

If not using immediately, cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place the mixture in the refrigerator and hold for up to 24 hours.

When ready to assemble, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream on low speed until small bubbles form, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and continue beating until the cream is smooth, thick and nearly doubled in volume, about 30 seconds. Using a spatula, gently fold the chilled whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. The chocolate filling will be a little stiff at first, but the cream will incorporate; just keep mixing until it is completely combined.

To assemble: Scoop the chocolate filling onto the prepared pie crust and use an offset spatula to even out the top. Top with the whipped cream and chocolate shavings, if desired. Chill the whole pie for at least 1 hour before slicing. The pie can be held unsliced in the refrigerator for 8 hours, and slices (or bars) will keep for up to 2 days in an airtight container, although the crust will not be as crisp as time passes.