why i do believe its berry season!

I promised a pie recipe and this will not disappoint!

I had a conversation about pie not to long ago during a great bonding session with a new friend. Somehow the subject got to baking and eating (it may be all I talk about) and if we were pie or cake people and what it means to be one or the other. A pie is every so slightly savory and juicy and flakey on the outside but a cake is fluffy and has icing full of sugary and buttery goodness.  Both have their strengths but start asking people and see if they are pie or cake people everyone picks a side and you may be surprised who picks which.  If your anything like me you start to judge them for their choice. I mean who would pick cake over pie??  It turned out we are both crazy for pies so a friendship was born.

My love of pies goes back to my childhood like many of my food obsessions.  I can remember being maybe five and watching my Mimi roll out the pie dough, she always got it so very thin even to this day her 80 year old hands can roll a thinner crust then me.  I would always be right beside her waiting not so patiently to lick the spoon from the lemon pie filling.  Once the filling was in the crust  and the meringue top was on she would take the little scraps of dough and lay them on a cookie sheet with a sprinkle of sugar, they were for me a treat to savor since she knew I could never wait till after dinner to have the pie.

I bake pies all year round but spring and summer are my favorites with ripe berries at the farmers markets and peaches not far behind I knew a fruit pie would be the prefect first baked good of the farmers market season.   My family is huge as you will learn so when I saw a slab pie in the June issue of Everday Food I decided it would be perfect and blueberry happens to be my uncles favorite pie and it was his birthday so it was mean to be.

Problem was I don’t actually get everyday food and the the recipe was not on the website so I sorta made it up.  

Blueberry Slab Pie 

serves 12-15 (you know depending on size of the slice)

crust

5 cups all-purpose flour plus some for rolling

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons sugar 

2 cups cold butter cut up in little pieces

1 to 1 1/2 cup water 

Blueberry Filling

2 pounds fresh blueberries

2 tablespoons cornstarch (okay i am not gonna lie I did not measure this I just sprinkled some on the berries)

1/4 cup sugar (you can add more if you like go off the flavor of the berries the ones i had were already very sweet

1 tablespoon lemon zest and juice of half a lemon

I use a kitchen air mixer but a food processor works really well for crust too.

Mix the flour salt and sugar until all combined, then add butter slowly and mix or pulse until  until the mixture looks like coarse meal, the butter should still be in small bits like peas. While still mixing add 1 cup water until dough it still crumbly but starts to hold together when you squeeze it.  You may need more so start to add it very slowly on tablespoon at a time I didn’t need any more water but I think my dough was getting to warm.  Do not over mix or you will ruin the dough and that in no fun trust me.  Divide dough into 2 disk and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate about one hour or overnight

Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

Make the filling by mixing in a large bowl blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon and set aside. Flour a large work surface and roll out a rectangle of dough about 12 by 16 inches and place in a 1- by 14 inch jelly roll pan or similar size pan with one inch sides.  Pour in the blueberries and then lightly brush the edges of the crust with water.  roll out the second disk of dough every so slightly smaller. I recommend actually rolling this out on a large piece of parchment it makes it so much easier to lay over the top of the pie since its so large.  Lay the dough over the pie filling firming press and crimp the edges folding under any overhang.  Cut a few slits for venting and pop in the oven for about an hour.

make sure to let this bad boy rest for at least an hour before transporting it. I didn’t and had a little blueberry juice spill in the car and all over the top of the pie.