New York Times best-selling author Krista Davis delights readers with the latest installment in her enormously popular and charming Domestic Diva series. In The Diva Sweetens the Pie, an annual pie festival crumbles into chaos after a celebrity judge is murdered, leaving it up to entertaining maven and sometime-sleuth Sophie Winston to dole out justice. Enjoy this page-turner with a warm teacup of Currant Event Black Tea from Tea Source and a slice of Piled High Strawberry Pie.
- 9 sheets honey graham crackers
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 pounds strawberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Sweetened Whipped Cream (recipe follows)
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse graham crackers until they are fine crumbs. With processor running, pour in butter. Press crumb mixture into an 8-inch pie pan. Bake until lightly browned, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
- Wash strawberries and pat dry. Hull strawberries and cut lengthwise into quarters.
- In a heavy-bottomed pot, combine 2 cups strawberries and sugar. Mash with a potato masher, leaving some clumps of strawberry. Add cornstarch and stir until dissolved. Stir in 1¼ cup water and lemon juice, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer until mixture thickens and turns red, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Pour enough uncooked strawberries into prepared pie pan to cover the bottom in a single layer. (They should not be perfectly arranged.) Ladle one-third of hot strawberry mixture over them. Add another layer of uncooked strawberries, mounding them toward the center. Ladle another one-third of hot strawberry mixture over them. Add remaining uncooked strawberries, heaping them toward the middle. Slowly and carefully ladle remaining one-third of hot strawberry mixture over top. (Try to cover all the bare strawberries.) Refrigerate until set.
- Serve with Sweetened Whipped Cream. (If you’re feeling festive, pipe whipped cream around the edge.)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a large bowl, beat cream with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract, beating until stiff peaks form. Use immediately.
Get your copy of THE DIVA SWEETENS THE PIE by Krista Davis HERE!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Best-selling author Krista Davis grew up devouring Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Agatha Christie and still loves a good mystery. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her cats and dogs and lived for a time in Old Town, Alexandria. Like her domestic diva, Sophie Winston, Krista enjoys cooking (okay, eating!) and entertaining, but she’d just as soon leave the cleaning to someone else. For more on Krista Davis’ Domestic Diva series, visit KristaDavis.com. For more Cozy Mysteries, visit KensingtonCozies.com.
