The Zingerman's "empire" of restaurants, including the OG (Zingerman's Deli), Zingerman's Roadhouse, Zingerman's Bakehouse, Cornman Farms (its event space), and also its candy manufactory, is well known to those who live in the Ann Arbor, MI and Metro Detroit area.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery Senior Editor Liz Parker Kuhn was recently able to catch up with Managing Partner Amy Emberling to chat about Zingerman's pie lineup, and what it plans on offering for the holiday.

Liz Parker Kuhn: What pies does Zingerman’s offer, and specifically what Thanksgiving pies?

Amy Emberling: We rotate our pie selection to match the seasons. In the winter, we feature pecan pie, chocolate chess, lemon chess, rustic apple, and key lime. Nuts, chocolate, and citrus all make sense for the winter months. During the spring we often offer coconut cream pie for Easter and then kick off the fruit pie season with local rhubarb in May and move into MI cherry, Maine wild blueberry pie, peach pie, and then apple again once the fall harvest comes in. For Thanksgiving, we always have Party Time Pumpkin, Perky Pecan, Cranberry Walnut, Rustic Apple, Chocolate Chess, and a Cranberry Curd Meringue Tart.

LPK: How does the business choose what’s on its pie lineup for Thanksgiving?

AE: We're known for making traditional breads and pastries that usually have some historical relevance so for Thanksgiving we mainly stick to the classics and seasonal flavors: pumpkin, apple, and pecan. Chocolate Chess and jumbleberry are our only non-conventional offerings. With the rise of Friendsgivings which often have more flexibility with menu choices, we think chocolate chess and jumbleberry are great fits.

LPK: When creating a new pie flavor or idea, what’s the first step for Zingerman’s?

AE: We tend to try to find pies from the past that aren't well known anymore, taste great, and have an interesting story. So it all starts with some research. Then we start to do test bakes. We may play with the flavors, consider a special crust, in general make it our own. We like to feature Michigan ingredients.

LPK: What are some of your newest pies? 

AE: Technically, our newest is the cranberry meringue tart—not quite a pie but served in a similar way, which we created last year. It's a very timely question though. We haven't made a new pie for years. With the pandemic many food businesses, including us, focused on narrowing selection. We're just coming out of that mindset and it's on our list to develop new pies in the new year.

LPK: How does Zingerman’s come up with the fun names for its pies (such as Party Time Pumpkin, Perky Pecan, Juicy Jumbleberry, etc.)?

AE: That's a group effort. We love brainstorms at Zingerman's and we'll do a few with a variety of groups of people and then we'll choose our favorite. We want the names to be fun, lively, sometimes funny, and to evoke particular thoughts and feelings. Alliteration also makes them fun to say and easy to remember.

LPK: What are some of Zingerman’s most popular pies? 

AE: The wonderful thing about making pies for each season is that people look forward to them and they tend to sell well since their presence will be time-limited. Our all time best selling pie is pecan. It 's the only pie we make all year round and even Southerners are known to say that it's great. Being in Michigan, cherry pie is a favorite. For Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie is always the biggest seller, followed very closely by pecan and apple.

Related: Norman Love Confections launches Thanksgiving pies