Nothing brightens a summertime picnic or grill-out quite like bringing a pie to the party, especially when it features fresh, seasonal fruit from the farmers’ market or grocery store. But even with the best intentions, it can often be overwhelming to imagine making a pie crust from scratch, filling it with strawberries, and crimping the edges. Enter the creative summertime dessert solution we all need: Slab pie made with fresh summer fruit and store-bought puff pastry. Think of it like the sheet-cake treatment for your favorite pie recipes, but even simpler and more convenient — not to mention irresistibly flaky.
If you’ve never tried a slab pie, it’s exactly as it sounds: A pie made on a sheet pan and baked like a big, rectangular turnover in the oven until golden brown. The inherent beauty of the slab pie is that, once cut into slices, it becomes a hand-held treat meant for serving to a crowd or gathering. While slab pies can be made with regular pie crust, using puff pastry gives the dessert an elevated twist, balancing the textures of cooked summer fruit fillings with its delicate laminated layers. And since it’s already portioned into rectangular sheets, using the pre-made puff pastry dough couldn’t be easier.
Assemble puff pastry pie like a pro
Making a puff pastry slab pie involves laying out cold, thawed puff pastry on a rimmed sheet pan and topping it with seasonal summertime fruit, like peaches or nectarines, before covering it with a puff pastry top crust (unless you’re making it open-faced like this classic peach galette). You can adjust the size of your slab pie, opting for a smaller dessert, or choose to cover the surface area of an entire sheet pan by pressing together a couple of pastry sheets and rolling them out.
From there, cook from-scratch pie filling with fresh blueberries or cherries by simmering fruit with sugar and cooling it slightly before layering it onto your puff pastry. Pre-cooking the fruit is helpful for deepening flavors and preventing soggy pie bottoms. However, you can also simply toss in summertime fruit like blueberries and raspberries with sugar, lemon juice, and citrus zest. Just be careful not to overfill your puff pastry slab pie, or else a leaky situation could arise. Apply an egg wash border around the fruit on the bottom pastry layer, then seal the whole deal by pressing down the edges of the top and bottom pastry sheets with a fork. Finally, apply an additional egg wash, make a few slits in the top crust, and sprinkle on sugar before baking it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes, depending upon size. Though it might be tempting to dig right in, it’s best to let your slab pie cool before slicing and serving.
