LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Linda Horton is picky about the ingredients in her prize-winning buttermilk pie. That’s what led her to use a store-bought crust before dropping off her entry to be judged at the Kentucky State Fair.

Now that quest for the best may cost Horton the blue ribbon that her pie won.

Horton, 67, of Louisville, said Friday she just hasn’t been successful making homemade pie crust.

“I tried and tried, but it either comes out too buttery and flaky and falls apart, or else it’s hard,” she said.

She even told The Courier-Journal she used a store-bought crust when the newspaper asked to print the recipe after she took the top prize this year. The newspaper first reported about the questioned pie crust Friday.

People who read the recipe published earlier this week asked Kentucky State Fair Culinary Superintendent Stephen Lee whether it was permissible to use store-bought crust.

“When I learned that there was that possibility, I notified state fair officials,” Lee said Friday.

“At this point, I’m assuming that she made her pie crust from scratch,” he said. Lee said he was going on the belief she provided the newspaper a recipe containing a store-bought crust “to help people make it quickly at home so they didn’t have to go to all the work of a pie crust.”

If it’s determined Horton used a store-bought crust, the win will be voided, he said.

“About half of the judgment of that pie is on the crust,” he said.

Horton said someone from the fair has already contacted her about the recipe.

“They said they’d let me know in two weeks,” she said. “I’m not going to worry about it. They told me it was really, really good.”

And next year, she doesn’t plan to enter the pie contest.

“My grandmother used to make a buttermilk cream cake,” she said. “I think I’m going to try it. I’ve got my cousin looking for the recipe. She got her cookbook. I got her apron and bake pans.”