Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold Cookbook: A Love Story Told Through 150 Recipes (Fool's Gold #12.1)

For crust:

1. In food processor, pulse flour, sugar and salt until combined. Add butter; pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Slowly add cold water, a little at a time, just until dough comes together into a craggy mass. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface; roughly knead dough until it holds together. Divide the dough in half. Form each half into a thick disk; wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

2. Remove dough from refrigerator about 20 minutes before rolling out. Generously flour surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the first disk to a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a glass pie tin. Press dough to fit the tin; flute the edges. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

For filling:

1. In a large bowl, combine berries, both sugars, lemon juice and salt. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in tapioca until mostly dissolved.

2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove crust from refrigerator. Line pie crust with parchment and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake 20 minutes; remove from oven and lift off parchment. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes until just starting to brown. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool slightly. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

3. While the crust bakes, roll out the remaining dough on a floured surface to a 10-inch circle. Using several round cookie or biscuit cutters in different sizes, cut out as many circles as possible. Lay the circles of dough on a wire rack; refrigerate while the crust bakes and cools.

4. Pour filling into crust. Top the filling with the circles of dough, overlapping them to fill the top of the pie. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake 1 hour, until crust is browned and fruit bubbles. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let the pie cool at least 2 hours.

TIP: Adding a bit of tapioca to fruit pies helps prevent the filling from becoming too runny.

CHAPTER 6

Ana Raquel’s warm, relaxed feeling faded as heat burned on her cheeks. Was he kidding? There was no way she wanted to talk about that night. She’d been so determined to tell him exactly what she thought of him, only to end up giving him her virginity in a hotel room. Worse, she’d realized that she might have feelings for the one guy who’d made her totally crazy. And not in a good way. That wasn’t the sort of thing she was likely to reminisce fondly about.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“You seem upset.”

“I’m not.” At least she wouldn’t be when they stopped talking about that night. Because she couldn’t explain what had happened. One second she’d been yelling and then they’d been kissing and then…

The thing was, she wasn’t that kind of girl. She’d never been serious about a boy in high school. There had been too many other things to do. Besides, being annoyed with Greg had taken all her emotional energy.

Since then, no one had really captured her attention. After having lost her virginity so foolishly, she was determined to be more careful the next time.

No doubt he was happy to jump from bed to bed. It wasn’t as if she’d been his first. If she had been, he wouldn’t have been able to figure out how inexperienced she was. Yet another humiliating moment he had to answer for.

“Ana Raquel? We have to talk about it. I tried to talk to you afterwards, but you’d left town. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

He was going to keep talking, she thought frantically. Talking and talking and she couldn’t stand that. There was no way she was going to talk about that night. Not now, not ever. Her choices seemed to be either figuring out how to shut him up or bolting. And since they still had a cookbook to organize, she decided to shut him up.

She made sure she wasn’t in danger of knocking over her wine, then reached for the front of Greg’s shirt. She grabbed the soft fabric with both hands, pulled him to her and pressed her mouth to his.

They’d kissed before, she thought hazily, feeling the warmth of his mouth on hers and the way his arms came around her. But that had been different. More frantic.

This kiss was soft. He had an air of patience about him. As if they had all the time in the world. His strong arms drew her close. They were sitting in chairs, so there was no way for that to happen. Still, the pressure was insistent, so she unexpectedly found herself standing.

He rose as well, which meant he was now a lot taller than she was. She had to tilt her head back and then raise herself up on her tiptoes. But it was worth it. Because kissing Greg was like tasting the first maple syrup of the season. Sweet and filled with promise.

It was a good kiss, she thought, her eyes fluttering closed. The kind of kiss that changed a woman’s perspective about nearly everything. It was a kiss that could make her want to dream about possibilities. About—