em + the kitchen - blackberry pie bars.

For any of you who have ever been to church, you know the sort of "preacher's formula". Funny anecdote that you hopefully don't have to stretch too far to reach the eventual message of the sermon. Bloggers seem to have this same formula. I, on the other hand, would love to just walk in here and say "look. I made food. I tasted pleasant. Here's some pictures", or "I went and did something cool in Dallas. You should do it too." I just typically don't have a story to go with the Pinterest recipe I decided to try, but it was yummy enough to share. Isn't that enough?

So. I made some food. It was tasty.
These blackberries cost me an arm and a leg at the farmer's market because they saw my deer-in-headlights look before I could sneak away to the cheaper baskets of berries.

 They baked well, though!


Blackberry Pie Bars (recipe from Key Ingredients, changed slightly)
I halved the entire thing because I only had so many blackberries and I don't need more baked goods in my home than I already have. I used an 8x8 dish, same baking times, and everything worked fine.

Ingredients:
crust/topping:
3 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, chilled

fruit filling:
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup plain yogurt (called for sour cream, I only had yogurt)
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 16oz packages of frozen blackberries (obviously I used fresh)

	Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Process until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly, 30-60 seconds. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes. To make the filling, whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then add the sugar, yogurt, flour, salt, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Gently fold in the berries and spoon the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 45 to 55 minutes. I made food. It was good. There are some (mouth-watering) pictures. -e.