Cherry Lemonade Beach Pie

A beach pie—like the kind popularized by Bill Smith at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina—should be very simple. To me the name indicates a dessert to make on vacation, in a rented house with limited kitchen tools at your disposal. This version, inspired by the cherry lemonade at Hot Dog on a Stick (the perfect summer mall drink, IMO), is made almost entirely with shelf-stable ingredients that you can throw in the back of your car for the drive to the shore; the only items that require refrigeration from the jump are eggs and butter.

Don’t hesitate to make this recipe your own: You can use whatever crackers or cookies you want for the crust. I like saltines for their stiff structure that makes cutting clean slices a breeze, but the buttery crunch of Ritz with a tart, creamy lemon filling is great too. Just be sure to not skip the added salt; even an already salty cracker needs the bump once you add all that sugar and butter. And if cherries aren’t your thing, use a different jam and fruit. Strawberry jam with sliced strawberries around the edges, blackberry jam with plump blackberries dotting the surface—it’s all good.