This is our first anniversary of our blog, and 3 years for us as a couple. We decided to spend our dating anniversary (March 25th) watching our movie, “Beauty and the Beast” from 2017 (We saw it in the theater 2 years ago and stuck with the tradition like candle wax) and bake a berry-lemon tart on our blogging anniversary.
My mother has a Betty Crocker cookbook which shows the basic Crisco crust, great for pies and tarts. Usually she uses her tried and true half butter half Crisco crust so it flakes but still has that real buttery flavor. Crisco crusts give it that flaked texture with the added bonus of it’s packaged softened in a giant can instead of 4 hard sticks per box. Butter gives it that irresistible flavor that makes you crave it more and doesn’t take up as much space in the refrigerator. Flour, butter, Crisco and a few tablespoons of ice-cold water are all you need.
Here’s a tip for measuring cups of lard-like substances. Fill a liquid measure of water with the amount you need of the Crisco. Add in your Crisco until the water is twice as high as you started.
Example: You need 1 cup of Crisco…put 1 cup water in a liquid measure. Keep adding Crisco to the water until it reaches 2 cups all together.
Oops! We have an extra ball of pie crust dough unused! Oh well, We can roll it out and put it in the fridge for another time.
Just a few minutes in the oven at 475 degrees and we were ready to go.
This turned out to be much simpler than I had imagined it to be. All you do is make the filling in one bowl and the pie crust onto some wax paper. My mom, Cindi gave us a gift card to “Whole Foods” so we picked out a jar of gooey lemon curd to try. It was extra sour and thin in comparison to the depth of our pie. We tried adding berries to sweeten it up, plopped them in one by one without care. Not exactly our best idea. In hindsight, I think we should have made a syrup or maybe a compote. What if we tried making a mixed berry curd and used a smaller pan? Those are good questions, Lauren. Let’s keep them in mind for next time.
We thought things would improve if we chilled it in the fridge over-night, but nothing happened. To make matters difficult, we made too much crust dough and had to keep it in the fridge since we were up until midnight and could barely keep awake.
In the end, we gave it to my mom as a just-because gift. She loves sour stuff. It’s better than wasting edible food, especially if the ingredients were expensive.
We’re very happy to have been able to share our first year of cooking with you. From apples-zeppolis, there’s plenty more to come.
Cooking is one of our favorite ways to bond as a couple. Food brings people together in ways words and music just don’t understand.
Thank you all for supporting us here and on our Facebook page. Keep the stove warm. See you soon! After all, we still have extra pie dough! Check out our next post to see what becomes of that. The best is yet to come!