Pie

This is my 4th attempt at making these Mixed Berry Cheesecake Crumble Bars. Well, first they started out as Strawberry Shortcake Cream Cheese Bar (disaster). Then I tried Raspberries. Not much better. Switched to mixed berries and the rest of the recipe (the cream cheese, the eggs, the Greek yogurt) got a complete overhaul. It wasn’t really about the berries, it was always about the ratios of the ingredients and the technique, times and cooling in between. When I finally got it right, these are perfection. And now the berry types won’t matter either. I might try it as a cheese cake pie variation later this week too. Proud of myself for finally figuring it out.

It’s Pie Day here in the US. March 14. 3.14 Of course, the rest of the world dates differently (i.e. dd/mm/yyyy or YYYY/dd/mm) but playing into the game, I decided to make this Pie for Pi day. Delicious and pretty, though be careful with overdoing it on the orange zest.

Pie comes with a hidden message. Doesn’t everyone need an emotional support pie plate?

I’ve got an event or two coming up this week where dessert may be called for so I started off by baking this Sea Salt Caramel Apple Pie. Went a little overboard with the lattice work, but that’s ok I have a tendency to do that with pie. It’s sweet, it’s salty and I can’t wit to try it with some cinnamon or vanilla bean ice cream. Fun fact, I used Ludacrisp apples, which I had never used before, much less even hear of before. The Ludacrisp apple is a new variety and is described as “sweet, juicy, tropical-flavored hybrid (Honeycrisp/Fuji hybrid) known for its crisp texture, bold scarlet color, and unique taste reminiscent of pineapple and Juicy Fruit gum”. Really? It’s apparently a good all-around apple, great for snacking, salads, and baking, and named playfully after the rapper Ludacris, because who wouldn’t want an apple sort named after them. I wonder if there is a Katja apple.