Something about pie dough scares me. I’m forever not rolling it to the right thickness or into shapes that resemble a rhombus rather than a circle. It’s ironic, because when it comes to eating pie, I love a double crust. But if pie making is a drug, this strawberry and lemon curd pie is a Nilla wafer and saltine cracker gateway drug. Yes, I said SALTINES. You’re in, right? So let’s go.
Featured as part of Evan Kleiman’s #PieaDay run up to Good Food’s annual pie contest in September, this Easy Strawberry and Lemon Curd pie comes from How to Build a Better Pie: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Flaky Crusts, Toppers, and the Things in Between.
On the surface, this just looks like a regular lemon pie topped with strawberries, but it’s the small things that modernize this retro classic. First, the crust. Like I mentioned, mixing Nilla wafers and saltines. You get a consistency between sandy graham cracker crust and the density of regular pie dough, it must be the butter. The strawberries are macerated in sugar in the raw and flavored with mint and a vanilla bean. Small things, but they make all the difference.
A few tips:
1. Once you’ve made the crust and the curd, give them ample time to chill and firm up. You’ll get cleaner cuts.
2. Macerate the strawberries about an hour before you’re ready to serve. It was a rare 90 degree day in Seattle when I made this, so the berries were ready to go long before the pie itself had a chance to chill.
RECIPE: Easy Strawberry and Lemon Curd Pie