There are moments in a girl’s life that she knows she will remember forever. Moments that make a lasting impact. I had one of those moments a few days ago. I was standing in my parent’s kitchen one evening and I glanced down at the counter. There was a gorcery ad laying there and I picked it up. Hold on to your hats, because this is where things get exciting. The ad listed 6 ounce containers of fresh blackberries for just one dollar. One dollar! I normally spend three or four times that for blackberries!

Needless to say, I ran right home and spent hours pouring over blackberry recipes. I finally settled on Blackberry Pie Bars from Joy the Baker and then I went to the store, found that they were all out of the $1.00 blackberries, wept, and then went to another store and purchased $2.00 blackberries.

And you know what? I don’t even care that I paid twice as much. Those $2.00 blackberries made something delicious.

Enough with the chit chat. Let’s make blackberry pie bars.

To start, zest one lemon into a bowl with 3/4 cups of sugar. Using the back of a spoon rub the zest into the sugar for a few minutes. Oh, man. I don’t even want to tell you how delicious this is. Just do it. And then lick it. And then cry tears of joy.

To the bowl of your mixer, add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cups of cold butter (cut into cubes), a dash of salt, and the sugar/lemon zest mixture. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until you get a nice chunky dough. Go ahead. Eat a few chunks, I won’t tell.

In a greased 9 x 13 pan, press half of the dough along the bottom. Pop the dough into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Let the dough cool for 10 minutes while you make the blackberry filling.

Whisk 2 eggs in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and 1/2 cup of flour. Mix well and then fold in 3 cups of blackberries. (Thaw and drain your blackberries first if you are using frozen!)

Pour your blackberry mixture over the dough and spread it out evenly.

Grab your reserved dough and sprinkle the rest of it over the top of the berry mixture.

Yum.

Pop it into the oven for about 50-60 minutes or until the top is just getting golden brown.

At this point, I contemplated getting out my video camera so you could see the berry mixture bubbling up between the cracks of the dough. The sound of the bubbling berries was beautiful. Then I realized that maybe I was taking my love of bubbling baked goods too far and I settled for a regular old picture.

Look at those delicious berries.

Have I said “yum” yet?

Yum.

Blackberry Pie Bars
Adapted from Joy the Baker

For the dough:

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt

1. Rub zest of lemon into sugar using the back of the spoon creating a lemon scented sugar.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, dump in flour, sugar/lemon zest mixture, butter and salt. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until the dough comes together in small chunks.

3. Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 pan. Set aside the remaining dough.

4. Bake the dough for 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Let cool for 10 minutes.

For the filling:

2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 cups blackberries (if using frozen, thaw and drain first)

1. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, sour cream and flour to the eggs. Mix well and then fold blackberries.

2. Pour blackberries over baked crust and spread evenly.

3. Sprinkle the reserved dough on top of the blackberry mixture and bake for 50-60 minutes.

4. Let cool one hour before serving.

The other day I was browsing Foodgawker trying to decide what to make for Father’s Day dinner and I came across a gorgeous picture for a Strawberry Crostada and knew that I had found my desert. I don’t make a lot of fruit deserts or pies, so I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this, but I needn’t have worried. This turned out delicious and nobody even knew that I used a store bought pie crust. Until now. Darn it.

Let’s make this, shall we?

First things first, hull and slice 1 1/2 pounds of ripe, juicy strawberries. Sprinkle them with two tablespoons of sugar (or a bit more if your berries are very tart) and try your best not to eat them all. I had to slap myself on the hand a few times. I love strawberries sprinkled with sugar.

Grab 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and mix it up with 2 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla.

Now, either make a pie crust or buy it in a box at the grocery store. Pillsbury makes a mean pie crust, if you’re feeling intimidated or lazy.

Lay your pie crust flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using an off-set spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture all over the pie crust leaving a one inch border around the edges.

Pile your strawberries on top.

You’ll have quite a pile of berries, but they’ll bake down. Don’t be afraid.

Work your way around the crust and fold the edges over about every inch or so. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. The crust should be a gorgeous light golden color, the strawberries should cook down, and the juices should be oozing.

Excuse me, I think I need to go eat another piece of this right now.

Strawberry Crostada
Adapted from Salt and Chocolate

1 1/2 pounds strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling (or more, to taste)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 pie crust, store bough or homemade

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Hull and slice strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar and set aside.

2. Mix together cream cheese, flour, sugar and vanilla.

3. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper and place the pie crust on the parchment paper. Using an off-set spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture on the pie crust leaving a one inch border around the edge. Pile the strawberries on top of the cream cheese mixture. Work your way around the pie crust folding the edges up every one inch or so.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

I’m going to ask you a couple of questions and I want you to answer me honestly. The only rule is that your answer must be “raspberry.” And don’t forget to answer honestly! I can take it! Ready?

What is your favorite fruit?

What is the one most perfect food in the world?

What kind of pie could you absolutely not live without?

What color lipstick are you wearing?

Well, isn’t that STRANGE? I answered raspberry to all the above questions, too! We must be soul mates or something! (I’m not actually wearing any lipstick. But, if I was, the name would definitely be “Raspberry.” I swear!)

What’s that? You love raspberries, but you don’t know how to make raspberry pie? You poor, poor thing! Let me show you the way.

You’re going to start out with a quart of fresh raspberries OR if you are like me and your grocery store is being a complete jerk you’ll just have to use frozen. Frozen raspberries aren’t quite as good as fresh, but they’ll do. I promise. If you do use frozen, you’ll need between two and three 12oz. bags.

Let the frozen berries thaw for a bit and then dump on about 1 to 1 1/4 cups of sugar, depending on the tartness of your berries. Add in 8 teaspoons of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca, and between 4 and 6 tablespoons of water, depending on how wet your berries are.

Now go ahead and stir it all up.

Okay, now grab a spoon and dig in! Eat them all! Every last one! Then cry for a bit, go fix your mascara, and head to the store to buy more berries. We’re making a pie, dang it!

If you are one of those LAZY people you can go right ahead and use a store bought pie crust. Go ahead. I won’t judge you. If you are SERIOUS about your pie, then use your favorite double crust recipe. I’ll just wait right here until you get done whipping that up.

Oh, and remember how I said I wouldn’t judge you for using a store bought crust? Yes, well. Please don’t judge me either. Pillsbury makes a better pie crust than me and that’s just the way it is. Let it go, okay?

Dump your berry mixture into the pie shell and, oh, did I forget to mention that you should preheat your oven to 425 degrees? Yes, well. We better do that now.

Before you put your top crust on, be sure to add some butter. Everything is better with butter right? I was feeling all diet-y and didn’t use the 4 tablespoons the recipe calls for. I used about 2-3 tablespoons, but whatever. You can’t tell the difference in the pie and I made up for those missing calories by eating butter straight out of the dish later.

Don’t be like me and cut your little slits totally off center. It just ruins the whole pie baking experience. Also? Don’t feel bad if the edges of your crust aren’t very pretty. Mine aren’t either.

Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil (or you can use one of these if you have one. I don’t. I hope to one day have the extra $4.00 required to purchase one.) and pop it into your oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees and then turn your oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes.

Let your pie cool for, well, a real long time. If you cut into it when it’s warm it’ll be all runny and thin and then you won’t be able to take pretty pictures of the finished product. Trust me. I know.

This is about 3 hours after coming out of the oven and spending an hour or so in the fridge. It’s perfect. Cold and thick and yummy and full of that raspberry goodness.

Now go make some raspberry pie! And that’s an order.

Raspberry Pie

• 1 quart fresh raspberries OR 28 ounces frozen raspberries
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 8 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
• 4-6 tablespoons water
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 9 inch double pie crust

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together the raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, tapioca and water. Let sit while you prepare the pie crust.

Pour raspberries into pie crust and add 4 pats of butter, about 1 tablespoon each.

Put on top crust and crimp edges. Cut slits in the crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 mintues.

Cool, cut and enjoy!