A taste of the Sweet Dough Pie Festival at the Experience Louisiana Festival

The Sweet Dough Pie Festival will give Experience Louisiana Festival participants a sneak preview of the Grand Coteau event Saturday and Sunday.
The Sweet Dough Pie Festival among the Walk Through Louisiana participants.
The pie festival is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 pm. Oct. 24 on the grounds of St. Charles Borromeo Church located at: 174 Church St. in Grand Coteau.
Janice Fox, a Grand Coteau alderwoman and Sweet Dough Pie Festival organizer, said the festival begin in 2012 as way to bring pe ople into Grand Coteau.
Last year’s festival had about 4,000 visitors and more are expected this year, she said.
“Sweet dough pie is a very cultural thing for this area,” she said.
Grand Coteau festival organizers found out there isn’t a festival celebrating sweet dough pie and that’s why they picked it as a theme, she said.
The festival serves to keep a tradition alive.
“It is different in that the crust is very different,” she said of sweet dough pie. “It is thicker. It is sweeter. People learn how to make it from their grandmothers. Recipes are very hard to find and most families have their personal recipes. They don’t share. “
The Sweet Dough Pie Festival includes a contest for the best pies, but while the pies may be shared, the recipes are not.
“They are handed down from generation to generation,” she said. “In fact, I had a lady yesterday call me about being in the contest and she said, ‘Tell me I don’t have to share my recipe.’”
The festival includes food from local restaurants, arts and crafts from over 70 vendors, music and of course a sweet dough pie contest, which the public judges.
Sweet dough pies are available for purchase at the festival.
Throughout the day, narrated trolley tours will be offered of St. Charles Church and the cemetery, St. Ignatius School, the St. Peter Claver complex, and the Schools of the Sacred Heart. Also, this year there will be a special cemetery tour with dramatic portrayals of Grand Coteau characters from the past.
Alcohol and pets are not allowed at the festival.
For information on the contest, becoming a vendor or just attending, contact Fox at 337-945-4314. Learn more at www.sweetdoughgc.com.