Farm Stand Peach Blueberry Slab Pie

Peach Blueberry Slab Pie is what the woman at the counter called it, sliding a warm square onto a paper plate and pointing at the register. I was six hours into a drive down the Michigan Fruit Belt, running south on US-31 with an empty thermos and no real plan for lunch. The farm stand had a hand-lettered sign out front that said BLUEBERRIES ARE IN. I stopped for coffee. I left with pie.

The pie was on a quarter sheet pan behind the glass, cut into squares, still warm enough to fog the case. It should not have been my dinner. It was.

The Farm Stand Outside South Haven

The stand sits a few miles inland from South Haven, Michigan, on a stretch of two-lane that runs past blueberry rows and orchards. I never got the name written down. I remember the roof was green metal and the parking lot had a golden retriever asleep in it.

I almost passed the stand. Actually I did pass it, then made a U-turn a mile down the road because the sign had been too specific to ignore.

The woman running the counter had been baking since about four in the morning. She saw me eyeing the pie and did the thing every good vendor does, which is she started explaining before I asked. Cornstarch, not flour. A double crust, not a lattice, because the juices from ripe peaches will drown a lattice by hour two. Rest it three hours or you may as well drink it with a straw. She wiped her hands on her apron and I wrote all of it down on the back of a gas receipt.

I ate the square in my car with the door open. The crust shattered when I bit it. I asked for another one to go, which is how I ended up eating pie for two more days across three states.

What a Slab Pie Actually Is

A slab pie is a full, two-crusted fruit pie baked in a rimmed sheet pan instead of a round dish. Not a cobbler or a crisp. And not the hand pie you eat wandering around a fair. There is a proper rolled bottom, a proper rolled top, and enough filling to soak the underside of the crust if you get the thickener wrong.

The format is American farmhouse in origin, made to feed a whole crew from a single bake. The style is more clearly documented from the mid-twentieth century onward, with a printed recipe appearing in a 1974 McCall’s booklet, but the sheet-pan bake was already a fixture of church suppers and family reunions across the South and Midwest long before anyone put it in print. Peach and blueberry became the late-summer version because both fruits peak in the same weeks. Convenience made it common. Color made it patriotic. Both are true.

One thing worth noting. A slab pie is not just a scaled-up round pie in a rectangular pan. It needs about double the filling of a nine-inch pie but yields around three times the servings, so the ratios of a standard pie will not carry over without giving you soup or dust.

Peach Blueberry Slab Pie, Adapted for My Own Kitchen

Back home in LA, I could not recreate the drive. That first bite tasted the way it did partly because I was starving and six hours from anywhere. I know this. The pie at home is a quieter thing. Still very good. Not miraculous the way roadside pie is miraculous.

I get the peaches from the Santa Monica Wednesday market when Frog Hollow or one of the Fresno-area growers has yellow flesh out. The blueberries usually come from the same market, or Trader Joe’s if the stand is dry that week. I do not use frozen fruit unless I am truly out of season. If you do, thaw them, drain them hard, and add another tablespoon of cornstarch. The first time I skipped the drain, the bottom crust turned into a sponge.

I bake this in a rimmed quarter sheet pan, the same one I do focaccia on. Nothing fancy. The pastry blender I use has a bent tine from my mum’s kitchen and it still cuts butter better than any newer one I have tried.

What I Used

• All-purpose flour, plus more for the counter
• Cold unsalted butter, cubed and back in the fridge
• Ice water, actually with ice in it
• Fresh yellow peaches, ripe enough to smell from the doorway
• Fresh blueberries, picked over
• Granulated sugar and a little light brown sugar
• Cornstarch, more than you think
• Fresh lemon juice
• Ground cinnamon and a small pinch of nutmeg
• Kosher salt
• One egg and a splash of heavy cream for the wash
• Coarse sparkling sugar for the top

Baking Day, Start to Finish

I usually make this on a Saturday morning when the kitchen light is still soft. Coffee going. Sometimes an old Gillian Welch record on low. The dough gets made first and shoved into the fridge, and I use those forty minutes to boil water for the peaches and set the ice bath next to the stove. Blanch, ice, slip the skins. It goes quicker than you think.

The filling is a mess, honestly. Peach juice runs everywhere. I toss it in a bowl and let it sit while I roll the crusts on a floured section of my wooden table, the one that gets the morning light. The bottom crust goes in first and drapes over the pan sides. The top goes on after the fruit and the little butter cubes get scattered on. Fold, crimp with a fork, egg wash, coarse sugar, vents.

It goes in at 425 for two minutes to set the crust, then down to 375 for the long stretch. My oven runs hot. I always check it at 45 minutes. When the juices bubble thick and slow through the vents, not thin and fast, it is done.

Then the hard part. You let it sit. Three hours. Do not cut into it early or the whole thing will slide into itself and the squares will not hold. I know because I have done it. Twice.

I have made this in July for a rooftop dinner and once in November with frozen fruit when I missed summer. Both times it disappeared, though not as fast as the roadside square did. That first bite is still the one I keep chasing.

Peach Blueberry Slab Pie

This Midwestern-style double-crust slab pie stretches a summer peach and blueberry filling across a quarter sheet pan, feeding a whole porch full of people. The all-butter crust shatters into golden shards, the fruit bubbles thick and jammy through the vents, and a shower of coarse sugar on top gives every square a sweet, crackly finish. It slices cleanly once rested.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 4 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Servings: 15 Squares

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Calories: 385

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 3.75 cups all-purpose flour for the crust, plus more for rolling
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar for the crust
• 1.5 tsp kosher salt for the crust
• 1.5 cups cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes, for the crust; 3 sticks
• 0.75 cup ice water plus more as needed
• 3.5 lb fresh ripe yellow peaches about 8 to 10 peaches, blanched and peeled
• 2 cups fresh blueberries picked over and rinsed
• 0.75 cup granulated sugar for the filling
• 0.25 cup light brown sugar packed
• 0.33 cup cornstarch for thickening
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.25 tsp ground nutmeg freshly grated if possible
• 0.25 tsp kosher salt for the filling
• 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes, for dotting the filling
• 1 large egg for egg wash
• 1 tbsp heavy cream for egg wash
• 2 tbsp coarse sparkling sugar for the top

Equipment

• 1 9x13 inch rimmed quarter sheet pan or similar shallow baking pan
• 1 Large mixing bowl
• 1 Medium mixing bowl for the filling
• 1 Rolling Pin
• 1 pastry blender or two forks
• 1 sharp paring knife
• 1 Large pot for blanching peaches
• 1 large bowl of ice water
• 1 Pastry brush
• 1 wire cooling rack

Method

 

1. Make the crust. In a large bowl, whisk together 3.75 cups flour, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, and 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt. Scatter the 1.5 cups cold cubed butter over the flour and toss to coat each cube.
2. Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse gravel with plenty of butter pieces the size of small peas.
3. Drizzle in the 0.75 cup ice water a few tablespoons at a time, tossing gently with a fork. Stop adding water the moment the dough clumps when squeezed. Add up to 2 more tablespoons ice water only if needed.
4. Dump the shaggy dough onto a lightly floured counter. Divide into two portions, one slightly larger than the other. Pat each into a flat rectangle about 1 inch thick, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
5. Blanch and peel the peaches. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and set a large bowl of ice water beside it. Score a small X in the bottom of each peach with a paring knife. Lower peaches into the boiling water for 30 to 45 seconds, then lift them into the ice bath.
6. Slip the skins off with your fingers or the knife. Halve each peach, remove the pit, and cut into 0.5 inch wedges. You need about 6 cups of sliced peaches.
7. In a medium bowl, gently toss the peach wedges with 2 cups blueberries, 0.75 cup granulated sugar, 0.25 cup light brown sugar, 0.33 cup cornstarch, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 0.25 teaspoon nutmeg, and 0.25 teaspoon kosher salt. Let sit while you roll the dough.
8. Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425 F.
9. On a well-floured counter, roll the larger dough rectangle into a 12x16 inch rectangle about 0.125 inch thick. Roll it loosely around the rolling pin and unfurl it into a 9x13 inch rimmed sheet pan, gently pressing it into the corners and letting the excess drape over the edges.
10. Roll the second dough rectangle into an 11x14 inch rectangle of the same thickness and slide it onto a parchment-lined tray. Refrigerate both crusts for 10 minutes.
11. Give the filling a final stir with a rubber spatula to redistribute any settled juices, then spread it evenly across the bottom crust in a shallow, even layer. Scatter the 2 tablespoons cubed cold butter over the top of the fruit.
12. Lay the top crust over the filling. Trim the overhang of both crusts to about 0.5 inch, then fold the edges under themselves and crimp firmly with a fork or your fingers to seal along the rim of the pan.
13. Whisk the egg with 1 tablespoon heavy cream and brush the entire top crust with the wash. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons coarse sparkling sugar.
14. Cut 10 to 12 short vent slits across the top with a sharp knife so steam can escape.
15. Slide the pan into the oven and bake at 425 F for 2 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 F and continue baking for 50 to 60 minutes, until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling bubbles thickly through the vents. If the edges brown too quickly, tent them loosely with foil.
16. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the pie rest, undisturbed, for 2 to 3 hours so the cornstarch fully sets.
17. Cut into 15 squares with a sharp knife and lift out with an offset spatula. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a spoon of lightly sweetened whipped cream, or a thin drizzle of caramel sauce.

Rest the pie a full 2 to 3 hours before slicing so the cornstarch sets and the squares hold their edges.

Frozen peaches and blueberries work in a pinch; thaw and drain them well, then increase cornstarch by 1 tablespoon.

Keep every scrap of dough and butter cold. If the kitchen is warm, chill the rolled crust for 15 minutes before filling.

Store covered at room temperature for up to 1 day, then refrigerate for up to 4 days.