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Store supervisor Mila Henning and pie master Raphael Harris at Peaked Pies on Denman.

PEAKED PIES
It’s Hot Chocolate Festival Time!

It’s Hot Chocolate Vancouver time again. Now in its eleventh year, this promotion aims to support local businesses featuring an array of hot chocolate delights. Peaked Pies on Denman is one of two West End businesses participating in this year’s event, which runs through February 14.

Store supervisor Mila Henning tells us that their hot chocolate special will be “Liquid Lamington”, a twist on a true Aussie classic. Mila promises “a rich, dark hot chocolate infused with coconut, peaked with whipped cream, chocolate flakes and desiccated coconut and served with a mini lamington.” They’ll also be offering “Yippee Pie Yay, a dessert Inspired by their famous Apple Crumble pie, a blend of rich oat milk, white chocolate and apple cider. Served with a cutie apple pie.

West Enders are by now familiar with the Whistler-based chain offering a wide selection of sweet and savoury pies, ranging from breakfast treats like the Ned Kelly (The West End Journal’s favourite) and Rise & Shine, to lunch and dinner pies that include traditional recipes such as steak and mushroom and chicken, mushroom, and leek pies and innovative new items like the beef curry, butter chicken, and vegetarian lentil pies. Finish the savoury pies off with a scoop of mashed potato, another of mushy peas and a ladle of gravy, and you’ve got yourself a filling meal.

Deserts include a lemon meringue tart, apple crumble, and a vegan mixed berry pie — and the Lamington (you’ll get a sample with your hot chocolate — named after Australia’s Governor Lord Lamington of the 1800s.) This traditional Australian dessert is a vanilla sponge cake, dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut.

Peaked Pies itself is the creation of Kerri and Alex, an Australian girl and Canadian boy (as they describe themselves) who met in a Whistler pub on a Sunday night. Kerri expressed her longing for a truly Aussie meat pie, so Alex baked her one. It was love at first bite!

Casting about for a business idea that would keep them close to the ski slopes and satisfy Kerri’s longing for a good meat pie, Peaked Pies was born, and now has popular locations on Denman and Burnaby Heights, as well as the original in Whistler.

If you work with a local non-profit organization, be sure to ask about their Pie Drive Voucher Fundraiser program, supporting many good causes.

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Thank you!
Kevin Dale McKeown
Editor & Publisher