Blueberry, Mango and Lemon Slab Pie

I decided to make a slab pie for a party I am going to tomorrow. I started with King Arthur Baking Company’s Blueberry Hand Pies and made a lot of modifications.

I had blueberries in the freezer as well as mango chunks. I decided they would taste good together. I did some research to see if people use mango to make pies. Since mango can be used as a pie filling, I made a sample of the pie filling to see how it would taste. I liked it and Bruce liked it, so I proceeded to use a blueberry and mango combination for the pie filling.

I have found that garam masala tastes great with sweet items, so I will use it to get a different twist on dessert.

Serves 28

Ingredients

Flaky Pie Crust

• 4 cups King Arthur all purpose flour (480g)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 32 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold (454g), cut into small cubes or pats. (Use bench knife)
• 1 cup sour cream, cold (226g)
• Ice water (small amount)
• Extra flour to rollout pie crusts

Pie Filling

• 4 cups frozen blueberries
• 4 cups frozen mango chunks
• 1 cup sugar
• 10 tablespoons cornstarch, if using fresh berries and mango 8 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (3 lemons)
• 1 teaspoon Garam Masala

Extra

• Ice cold water
• 2 tablespoons coarse granulated sugar (sparkling sugar also works)

Tools:

Medium bowl, rolling pin, fork or pastry cutter, whisk, parchment paper, plastic wrap, place to roll out pie crust, 2 half sheet pans with 1 inch edges (15x10x1 inch), medium size pot, small bowl, storage container for filling, spoon for stirring, 1 inch cookie cutter in flower shape, 3 inch cookie cutter for squares, bench knife, ruler, juicer or fork, pastry brush

Instructions

Day 1 – Pie Crust and Filling

Pie Crust

1. In the medium size bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder together.
2. Scatter the cold butter over the flour. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, quickly cut the butter into the flour to make a course crumbly mixture. Leave most of the butter in English pea sized pieces.
3. Add the sour cream and stir until the mixture comes together in chunks. If the dough is having a hard time coming together, add ice water a teaspoon or tablespoon at a time, until the dough starts clumping together.
4. Lightly flour the counter and rolling pin.
5. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface and knead it a few times to bring the dough together. The dough should be lumpy and clumpy still.
6. Dived the dough into half. Put half the dough in the fridge to keep the butter from getting hot.
7. Pat half dough into a rough rectangle, then roll the dough into an 8 inch x 10 inch rectangle. Dust the top of the dough with flour.
8. Starting with the 8 inch end, fold the dough into 3 sections, like a business letter. After each fold dust what was the bottom with flour.
9. Flour your counter, flip the dough over so the folds face down and turn the dough so the long side is parallel to you. Flour the top of the dough.
10. Roll the dough into a 8 inch x 10 inch rectangle. Starting with the 8 inch end, fold in 3 sections like a business letter again.
11. Wrap in plastic wrap and put into refrigerator.
12. Repeat from step 7 with the second half of the dough. You may let the dough sit for 5 to 10 minutes after removing from refrigerator to make for easier handling.

Filling

1. Whisk sugar, garam masala, salt and corn starch together.
2. Place berries and mango in the medium size pot and pour the sugar mixture over the berries and mango.
3. Add the lemon juice to the pot and stir to combine.
4. Place the pot onto a burner set to medium high heat and cook, stirring until the small amount of liquid on the bottom of the pot comes to a simmer.
5. Turn down the heat to medium or medium low, cook while stirring frequently, until the mixture starts to thicken and the mango chunks soften. This takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
6. Remove the berries and mango pie filling from the heat.
7. Pour into a container and let come to room temperature, then place in fridge.

Day 2 – Pie Assembly and Baking

Assembly

1. Lightly flour your counter top and rolling pin.
2. Place a piece of parchment paper onto one of the half sheets.
3. Remove one folded pie crust rectangle from the fridge.
4. Roll out the dough to an 18 inch x 13 inch rectangle, making sure to add flour to the underside if the dough starts to stick.
5. Cut out squares in the dough and then cut the squares in half to make 2 triangles. Place the triangles in the pattern you want to use on the parchment sheet covered half sheet pan. There will be room left over on the long side of the half sheet pan. I cut some triangles in half to make a different design on the edges.
6. Place the half sheet pan into the freezer while you cut out the flowers.
7. Once the flowers are cut out, remove half sheet pan from freezer and place the flowers on it in the design you want.
8. Optional: Brush top of triangles and flowers with ice water and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
9. Place half sheet pan back in freezer. Any leftover pie crust here can be put in a freezer bag and placed in the freezer.
10. Use a piece of parchment paper larger than your sheet pan by several inches. Place the parchment paper on the counter and flour it and the rolling pin.
11. Remove second folded pie crust from fridge.
12. On the parchment paper, roll the dough out to 19 inches x 14 inches, making sure to add flour to the parchment paper if the dough starts to stick.
13. Carefully, fold the dough into 3 folds starting from the 14 inch side and carry it to the second half sheet pan on the parchment paper.
14. Slide the dough from the parchment paper onto the sheet pan. Unfold the dough so the 19 inches is along the long side of the half sheet pan and the 14 inches is along the short side.
15. Once unfolded, carefully press the pie crust into the bottom of the pan and sides of the pan. Prick the pie crust with a fork.
16. Place the pie crust in the freezer. It is okay to remove the pan with the triangles if you need space.
17. Let freeze for 10 minutes.
18. Remove the bottom pie crust from freezer and filling from fridge.
19. Spread filling over bottom pie crust in an even layer.
20. With a ruler, determine the middle of the sheet pan’s length. Place the first triangle so the 3 inch side is 1 1/2 inches on each side of the center point.
21. Finish laying out your pattern onto the filling and cut the edge to the rim or flute it.
22. Place pie in freezer.

Bake

1. Place rack in center of oven. If worried about spills in oven, place a piece of aluminum foil on bottom rack to catch spills.
2. Turn in oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Once oven has preheated, remove pie from freezer and place in oven on center rack.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes to an hour.
5. Remove from oven and let cool down in the pan on a wire rack for at least an hour and a half for the filling to set.
6. Once pie has cooled to room temperature, it can be covered with aluminum foil.

Day 3 – Serve

1. Cut into squares following along the 3 inch “squares” created by laying out the triangles.
2. Fancy it up with a dollop of whipped cream for each square.

Notes: