Stone fruit! Finally! Do you just count down the days during summer for the stone fruit to finally ripen? I did a quick “U” turn when I passed a hand-painted sign that read “local cherries and apricots”. I have been dreaming of making a cherry apricot slab pie all summer.
Slab pies are great for summer. They are perfect to take on a picnic or a BBQ. Slab pies serve easily, have more crust to filling ratio (yum), a slice can be eaten by hand once cooled or served with a scoop of ice cream while hot.
Or you can just top with ice cream, grab several forks, and have everyone just dig in! I think you’ll love cherry apricot slab pie.
It’s always a good idea to have a stock of pie crust dough in the freezer. Use my Pie Crust 101 tutorial for a great flakey crust with great tips to make a melt-in-your-mouth pie crust.
TIP #1: If you use a lot of cherries, purchase a cherry pitter. It just makes life a bit more pleasant.
Wash and remove stones from fruit. I like to cut the cherries into quarters then chop the apricots to about the same size. Toss the fruit with sugar, cornstarch, and almond extract. Set aside.
TIP #2: Keep the pie crust dough chilled and cold at all times! If the dough begins to warm up and is difficult to handle, return to refrigerator until cold.
TIP #3: If you want to make a fancy pie top, have additional pie crust on hand. Cut strips and shapes. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until completely chilled.
Roll out one of the pie crusts into a rectangle, approximately 14 x 17-inches. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet with the rolled out pie crust. Pour in the fruit mixture and dot with butter. Roll out 2nd pie crust and cut into desired shapes and strips, if doing a lattice topping. Optional: roll into a 10 x 14-inc rectangle and place it on top of the fruit. Trim and crimp edges and cut several slits with a sharp knife or poke with a fork several times to create steam vents.
TIP #4: Always place a pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet 12 x 16-inches. The chances of the pie juices bubbling out of the pie are great. This will collect all escaping fluids onto the parchment paper and not the bottom of the oven. It, also, makes clean up a breeze.
TIP #5: After the top pie crust has been placed on top of the fruit, chill pie for 10-15 minutes. This will help keep the shape of cutouts or braiding.
Place the pie on a larger parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the top of the pie gently with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until golden brown the juices in the pie are bubbling, which will take an additional 15-20 minutes.
TIP #6: For perfect slicing cool pie completely. Refrigerating the pie overnight will make slicing even more perfect.
Cherries and apricots so perfect in a pie. Let me know if you love it. xoxo — Janet
Prefer apple? Here’s another picnic favorite: Slab Apple Pie
Cherry Apricot Slab Pie
Summer stone fruit baked into a flakey pie crust and baked in a shallow baking pan.
Ingredients
Pie Crust
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter cut into pieces and frozen
- 1/3 cup lard or shortening cut into pieces and frozen
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2-2/3 cup Ice water
Apricot Cherry Filling
Ingredients:
- 2 cups fresh apricots pitted and chopped
- 2 cups Cherries pitted and quartered
- 3/4 - 1 cup cane sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp cream beaten
Instructions
PIe Crust:
Cut the butter and lard into pieces and place in the freezer.
In the bowl of a food processor add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Pulse a few times to combine.
Add the pieces of butter and shortening. Pulse several times until the mixture is the size of small peas.
In a measuring cup add the egg yolk and lemon juice. Mix together. Add water until the liquid comes to the 2/3 cup measure. Mix water in with the egg yolk lemon juice mixture. Pour the water over the flour mixture. Pulse food processor just until the dough begins to hold together. Do not over process or you will have a tough pie crust.
Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten each ball into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate until cold. Can be refrigerated for 1 day or frozen for 2 weeks. Makes two (9-inch) pie crusts or 1 double.
Apricot Cherry filling:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine apricots, cherries, cane sugar, and cornstarch. Stir to combine. Set aside.
Roll out 1/2 of the pie dough into a large rectangle to fit a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet. Leave enough dough to have a bit of an overhang.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the dough lined baking sheet.
Dot with butter.
Use the remaining pie dough to cover the pie in a lattice, or other form of decoration.
Brush with beaten egg.
Lightly cover pie loosely with foil. Place in preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and crust is golden.
Remove from oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes before slicing. The pie will slice better if cooled completely. But who can wait for that? Hot pie always tastes better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Recipe Notes
Tips and advice:
TIP #1: If you use a lot of cherries, purchase a cherry pitter. It just makes life a bit more pleasant.
TIP #2: Keep the pie crust dough chilled and cold at all times! If the dough begins to warm up and is difficult to handle, return to refrigerator until cold.
TIP #3: If you want to make a fancy pie top, have additional pie crust on hand. Cut strips and shapes. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate until completely chilled.
TIP #4: Always place a pie on a parchment lined baking sheet 12 x 16-inches. The chances of the pie juices bubbling out of the pie is great. This will collect all escaping fluids onto the parchment paper and not the bottom of the oven. It, also, makes clean up a breeze.
TIP #5: After top pie crust has been placed on top of the fruit, chill pie for 10-15 minutes. This will help keep the shape of cutouts or braiding.
TIP #6: Find a design of lattice work or pie crust cutouts that you love. Keep a picture of that design close by as you create your top crust. Calculate how many strips or cutouts you need and prep them before starting to design.
TIP #7: Keep the pie crust chilled at all times. It just makes life a little easier.
TIP #8: For perfect slicing cool pie completely. Refrigerate the pie overnight for even more perfect slicing.
xoxo -- Janet
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