Blueberry Slab Pie

I certainly hope you're hungry when you make the Blueberry Slab Pie, because this thing will last you for weeks. It's massive! I made this pie shortly after making the Sour Cherry Pie, which was very helpful in understanding all the steps for this recipe. Do not be intimidated by this recipe being labeled as ‘challenging’; it’s mainly because it’s so big, you’re basically doing double the work.

The ingredients are extremely easy to find for this recipe, just make sure you have a ton of blueberries. I bought frozen because #inflation, and this worked great. Otherwise, you’ll likely have the other ingredients if you’ve made any other recipes in this book. Unlike other pie recipes in Dessert Person, this recipe includes directions in how to make the dough in the recipe itself. I highly recommend following Claire’s steps so you do not break your food processor; she has specifically directed to make two halves of the dough separately to save you a major mess or even serious equipment damage, which I think we can all agree is much appreciated.

The dough is pretty much the same Flaky All-Butter Pie Dough foundation recipe used in other desserts, however the measurements are scaled for making a sheet pan pie. Plus, a food processor is used to combine it all, making life easier since the quantity is so high. Once everything was combined, I completed the similar process of adding water to the mixture to create the flakiness, wrapped up the dough in a square of plastic wrap and chilled it, repeating the exact same process for an equal amount of dough a second time. I ended up not making the entire pie that night, which is completely fine (again, since this is essentially the Flaky All-Butter Pie Dough recipe, you can make it ahead of time).

About 24 hours later, I took out one piece of dough and placed it on my floured counter. I used a rolling pin to beat it a few times so it was more workable, then rolled it out so it was long enough to essentially cover my sheet pan (mine is about 16”x22”). I then cut strips that were about 1.5 inches thick and 16 inches long, placed them on a plate and put them back in the fridge. I took out the second slab of dough to soften a little bit.

Around this time, I was also preheating the oven to a high temperature. If you know your oven will cause the smoke alarms to go off at a certain temp, open the windows and get the fans going now! As the night owl I am, I was making this at night and did not want the alarms to go off when my husband was sleeping; Claire warns this recipe can make a mess in the oven with the filling bubbling over, so prepare ahead of time by getting an extra sheet pan to place under once you have the pie in the oven.

It took a massive sized bowl to combine the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon, vanilla, warm spices and salt. This mixture did not create as much juice as the Sour Cherry Pie recipe filling did, but I was still careful about placing more blueberries than juice in the pie once it was time.

With flour on the counter, I rolled out the second slab of dough big enough to cover the sheet pan. Claire suggested a folding technique for getting this massive piece of rolled dough transferred to the baking sheet; I loosely folded it in three parts and placed it on top, fitting it to all the edges and corners well. I brushed the inside edges with egg wash and added the blueberry mixture. I made sure the blueberries were even to easily place the strips over it.

You can get creative with the next steps if you desire. I took out the strips of dough and tried to mimic the look of small, slanted zig-zags across the blueberries, making sure there weren’t too many spots with wide openings of the filling. This process definitely takes longer than you might expect, and can even get kind of tiring if you’re like me staying up late to do it. However, it definitely turned out looking really cool. I made my edges look a little more complete after all this was done, then brushed a ton of egg wash over the whole thing and sprinkled demerara sugar over it. I did not chill the pie for another ten minutes as Claire suggested because I was tired and my oven was raring to go; I also may have somewhat forgotten how long pies have to bake, so I wanted to start baking it as soon as possible.

In total, it took about an hour and 45 minutes to bake; and the smoke alarms never went off! I took the pie out (carefully, because this thing is massive and heavy!) and let it cool on a baking rack overnight. This is not what Claire directed, but again…night owl problems. It was absolutely fine the next morning.

If you can get through all the steps of this slab pie, there is no way you’ll be disappointed. It’s a delicious blueberry pie with great flakiness. My husband and I agreed it needs either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to top it off with some sweetness, but it’s a solid option for a big gathering. You can make it any time of year, and you know people won’t be intimidated to try it since it’s a well-known flavor. I think this recipe offers enough flexibility as well where you can essentially cut the ingredients and half and make a smaller version if that’s preferred.

Claire has not yet made this pie on her YouTube Channel, but if she does I’ll share it here!