Blueberry Slab Pie
Posted by in Food
Slab pie? That sounded so weird to me when I ran across this recipe in June Everyday Food. Dude Martha saw me looking at it and wanted it, so I bought the ingredients and got to work. The crust is to be made in the food processer. Oh, snap, mine’s broken and I haven’t ordered the part yet. No problem, I thought, I’ll just use my pastry cutter. Well, it had vanished. I already had all the ingredients in a bowl, so I went in with my hands! It actually worked pretty well (5 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 4 sticks butter 1 to 1 1/2 c water)
This pie is made in a jellyroll pan, hence the concept of it being a slab. The filling is basic – blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, zest, and cornstarch. Now, I approached this with a skeptical eye. I sometimes find Martha’s fruit desserts too tart. There is a history in our family of too tart desserts. My mother does 
not have a sweet tooth and likes her pies on the sour side. We call them pucker pies. I like mine sweet, sweet, sweet. So I DOUBLED the amount of sugar, thinking that ought to do it. I also added a tsp of cinnamon since I think it enhances the flavor (the recipe says: 8 c blueberries, 3 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 c sugar, 1 tbsp zest, 3 tbsp lemon juice).
I pressed the bottom crust into the pan without rolling (I am such a rebel), smeared the filling and then rolled out the top crust. Into the oven it went – and promptly leaked all over the bottom of my oven (I should have put a tray under it).
It came out looking really gorgeous. It sliced nicely. I liked how it was a short pie. In my opinion, you don’t always need gobs of filling – sometimes a lot of crust can be a good thing. As for taste? It was still a little tart for me. Everyone did like it (including the famous Dude Martha who is watching me type this) and happily gobbled it. The crust texture was pretty fantastic, probably because I used my hands.
So I have to say the concept of a slab pie is getting high marks from me, although next time, I would use more sugar!
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I had my eye on makin’ that pie too. Crust with your hands – I’m impressed!!! I love a tart pie as well. Thanks for sharing 🙂
This brought back some memories. My grandma used to make a pie like this. She use a Texas Sheet Cake pan (I have a stoneware bar pan that size). She would make half blueberry and half apple, and bring it up north to the cottage when we went there for Memorial Day! I didn’t like blueberries so she did the apple half for me. She would do special things like that.
Anyway…your slab pie looks great and now you can start new memories with it.
That is a nice memory of your grandma. I like the idea of making it with two fillings. The pan you have sounds perfect too. I can definitely see making more of these. What’s nice is that it feeds a lot more people than a round pie.
It really wasn’t that hard to make it with my hands. The butter was soft so that helped. It came together actually quite quickly. We’ll put you in the pucker pie category!
I love any recipe with the word “slab” in it. Win!
slab pie doesn’t sound so appetizing but that blueberry beauty sure looks good.
Seems like a lot of crust and a little bit of fruit. I saw it in the mag. and it didn’t call out to me. And I am a blueberry pie freak!! Oh, well.
This looks like a great summer dessert for a crowd. My husband loves blueberry anything, cobbler, pie, etc. Could I use frozen blueberries?
I think so – people use those in pies don’t they? I’ve always used fresh so I don’t really know.
It was the right amount for me. I find blueberry pies awfully tart sometimes with so much fruit. Oh well.
This really appeals to me for some reason. I really like bars and squares and this is sort of like that, isn’t it? That’s probably why. I would love to try this!
Yum! Way to be resourceful despite not having the food processor of pastry cutter.
Yes, that’s what it is pretty much. I love those too!
Even more sugar? The original recipe must have turned out one of those desserts that tastes oddly healthy. And what’s the fun in that? I like your version better. I didn’t know that about the cinnamon spice. Must try that.
Sounds yummy. And good for you for making lemonade out of lemons with your broken food processor and missing pastry cutter…or, is that blueberry pie out of blueberries?
I could go for a piece of this! It looks great. I happen to like the name of it, too!
I keep thinking I’ve seen something like this somewhere else – The Pioneer Woman Cooks maybe?
I always find Martha’s things too sweet! This looks really good though. Did you sprinkle on some more sugar when you served it?
When blueberries come down in price I will have to make this.
I always make pastry with my hands, its very therapeutic I find.
I’ve never heard of slab pie but now I want to try it! I just bought rubarb (spelling?), which is in season in Oregon. Maybe I’ll make it into a slab pie?!
I didn’t add any sugar when serving – everyone else liked it as is. I ate some the next day and thought it somehow tasted sweeter to me then, but I still would use more sugar. Maybe my blueberries were just really sour? I don’t know.
Wow, this looks awesome! I needed a new recipe for the 4th of July bash coming up!
Great idea. A little whipped cream and a few raspberries and you are good to go!
I love the idea of slab pie because I’m very bad at pie crusts–so one that doesn’t have to be rolled out nicely sounds just up my alley. I’m not sure I could get myself to do the 4 sticks of butter, however, unless I was cooking for a crowd. This looks like an idea you could play with, though–like a slab crust on the bottom and then some kind of crumb topping. Good to know about as blueberry season comes around again. (And I often bake with frozen berries–I always pick some to freeze late in the summer for winter treats–and they work nicely in baked goods. No need to thaw them.)
This did make a giant dessert – a full baking tray. You could easily feed 20-25 people with this. Good to know the frozen berries work. This would be good with a crumb topping too I think.
I actually made a pumpkin pie sort of like this — only one crust but in a big pan — for serving quite a few people during the holidays a few years back. came out well — I’ll have to do it again now that you remind me.
That sounds good. I love pumpkin.
I just made the blueberry slab pie. It came out beautiful, like the picture. But I must say that I agree with adding more sugar than the 1/2cup it called for. Next time I will add more sugar.
Yes, it definitely needed more. Otherwise it is a pucker pie. Glad it turned out for you!