Blueberry Slab Pie Tart

This pie is the slab pie of my dreams. It is a perfect cookout, bbq, pool party, summer extravagance. It feels whimsical and yet also somehow sophisticated in its simple taste and understated appearance. It is a perfect showcase for summer berries, sweet, intensely blueberry and wrapped in flaky buttery pastry. It also comes together quickly as the blueberries don’t require peeling, coring, slicing or well anything other than a quick toss with a few ingredients.

That means the bulk of the work is the crust, which I know terrifies some. It shouldn’t. If you have a food processor, making pie crust can be quite easy. If you don’t have a processor, c’est la vie–you will have to do the same things with a pastry cutter and it will be more time and work, but also still very, very doable. Here are a few of my pie crust tips for this slab crust:

  1. You don’t want the butter completely mixed in. When you are rolling the dough out, you want to see chunks of butter which will translate into flaky pie crust. That means running the processor as little as you can and making sure you don’t process the butter until it is too tiny to see.
  2. You don’t want to work the dough too much–we don’t want gluten activated here, so there is no kneading. You are being gentle with the crust both in the processor, and once you put it on the board for shaping.
  3. Add the water slowly/in batches. You don’t want to add too much. I know that is annoyingly vague, but you want the dough wet enough to hold together, but not overly wet. If ever in doubt, pinch the dough crumbs together, if they hold together, they are wet enough.
  4. Chill the dough and let it relax after you have thrown it together. The cooler it is during the rollout process, the less hassle you will have.
  5. Lightly sprinkle flour as you roll out your dough and lift your dough from time to time off the board, turning it quarter turns to make sure you are rolling it evenly and it is not sticking. This is ample dough for the size of the pan, so it should be relatively sturdy and not paper thin.
  6. This is a large pie crust and more than my food processor can handle at once. I make it in two batches and then “steal” a little of the second crust (before I shape them) to make my first crust slightly large to be the bottom.
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Blueberry Slab Pie Tart

The perfect summer occasion slab pie. Make it. You won't be sorry! This makes one large 1/2 sheet pan, or 18×13 inch pie. Plenty for a crowd!

Ingredients

Crust (aka Pate Brisee)

  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 2-3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 pound (4 sticks cold butter) cut into small cubes
  • 12 to 16 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling

  • 10 cups or so of fresh blueberries I use two of the extra large 32 oz clam shell packages of blueberries for the pie.
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar you can adjust this up or down a bit depending on the sweetness of your berries and jam
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • 1 ½ 15 ounce jars really good blueberry jam reduced sugar if possible

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon of water
  • coarse sugar for sprinkling

Icing

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Make the Crust:

  1. Process flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add 1/2 the butter cubes. Process until the butter looks about the size of peas, about 5-10 seconds, then add the second 1/2 of the butter cubes and process until there are pea-sized pieces of butter (the 2nd cubes you added) in the dough. Adding the butter in two batches allows the first half to more fully incorporate, while leaving some bigger pieces for flakiness in the final pie. With the machine running, add cold water in a steady stream just until dough just comes together. Do not process more than 20 seconds. If you feel like it needs a bit more time to come together, try pulsing the maching a few times on and off. It's okay if the dough looks crumbly still–try pinching some of the dough between your fingers and if it stays together, it is ready.

  2. Dump the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and gently compress it into two portions and shape, handling as little as possible into two rectangular pieces, with one slightly larger than the other. Flatten your rectangles and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to two days. The dough will also freeze well for a few months (defrost in the fridge before using).

Prepare the Bottom Crust:

  1. When ready to make the pie, roll the larger dough rectangle into a roughly 19.5 inch x 14. 5 inch rectangle–large enough to go up the inch side of the pan with a little extra hanging over/sticking up. Gently move the rolled out dough into a half sheet pan, 18 x 13 inches. You will have some overhang that you can use to crimp with the top crust. Put the pan with the bottom crust in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Prepare the Filling:

  1. Pour your blueberries in a large bowl and remove any stems from the berries that were missed in packing. Sprinkle in sugar, corn starch, and lemon zest over the berries and toss lightly with your hands or a large spoon. Add the jam and stir very gently to not break the berries, but to make sure they are evenly coated with the jam/sugar/corn starch mix. Pour into the prepared bottom crust.

Prepare the Top Crust:

  1. Roll out the remaining smaller crust into an 18.5×13.5 inch rectangle and place it gently over the top of the blueberries. Crimp the edge of the pie by tucking the top piece of dough around the bottom crust and crimping either with a fork or your fingers as you go around the four sides of the pie. Cut vent holes into the top of the pie to allow steam to escape while baking. Whisk the egg yolk with a splash of water and brush over the top of the pie and then sprinkle lightly with the sugar (you can skip the sugar here if you are icing the pie, or go for both).

Bake the Pie:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. If your pie crust was ample, and your crust is well sealed with vent holes, the pie will likely not leak beyond the pan, but, a large piece of foil on the baking rack under the pie is cheap insurance.

    Put the pie in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. Check the color of the crust. If needed (mine did), up the heat to 400 F and bake for 15-20 minutes more until the pie is beautifully deep golden brown and the pie is bubbling not just at the sides but in the center as well. You want the filling to have come to a boil, or 212 F so the cornstarch will thicken it properly. Once baked, remove from the oven and let if cool completely.

Optional Icing:

  1. After the pie is completely cool, mix the powdered sugar, the milk, and the vanilla together until completely smooth. You want it fairly thick so it falls in fat ribbons off of a spoon. Drizzle the icing in any preferred pattern over the pie and let sit until the icing is set on the pie–about an hour.

  2. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

I really love Trader Joe’s organic reduced sugar blueberry jam for this pie. In fact, it was that jam that made me go searching for the perfect pie to make. It is fantastic on toast, so don’t worry that I only use 1.5 jars. You won’t be sorry having a little extra around.  If you can’t find reduced sugar blueberry jam, you will probably want to reduce the amount of sugar in the pie down a bit.