A BAKER is the upper crust when it comes to being the best pie maker in East Lancashire... according to our readers.

The Lancashire Telegraph celebrated National Pie Week by asking our readers for the best pie-makers in the area and after whittling it down to a shortlist, Cissy Greens of Haslingden came out with a third of the vote.

Bosses at the Deardengate bakery were celebrating after hearing the news.

Manager Lynn Barlow, who has worked there for 17 years, was proud of how the public had voted.

The 65-year-old said: “It is fantastic news as it makes all of our hard work to make so many pies worthwhile.

“It shows that people appreciate all that you do.

“Cissy Greens has been going for 200 years and we keep the old fashioned traditional recipe. We do everything ourselves including mincing our own meat.

“It is great that so many people voted for us.”

Lynn says it was great to have some recognition locally.

She said: “We have people coming from all over to try our pies. We had someone the other day from Cumbria who came to get 24 meat pies and they said they loved them. I think the reason for our success is everything is made by us.”

The bakery sells all the traditional favourites including meat pies, chunky steak, butter, mince and onion and potato.

However, it has expanded its range with meat and red chilli, meat and green chilli and also the breakfast pie which featured in the Telegraph a fortnight ago.

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Lynn added: “We shop local as much as we can. We used to go to the vegetable shop across the road before it closed and we would say to people if you don’t use it, you lose it. The chilli ones have enough to taste but not to blow your socks off. Barry is our pie inventor and he comes up with things.”

The runners-up on the shortlist included Leavers from Ewood (21 per cent), Haffners in Burnley (20), Haworths in Darwen (14) and Green’s Bakery in Blackburn (11).