Blueberry Slab Pie with Strawberry Marscarpone Ice Cream
Zac and I teamed up to make a fantastic dessert for Independence Day. Zac made a lovely blueberry slab pie with star cutouts in honor of the holiday. Slab pie is just pie that’s made on a sheet pan rather than in a pie pan. The resulting pie is more shallow than regular pie but it also gives you a greater crust to filling ratio that we love. Just about any pie can be made into a slab pie. We find that slab pies work much better when serving a crowd.
Zac’s Blueberry Slab Pie
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For The Crust
- 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups (4 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups ice water
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For The Filling
- 2 1/4 pounds fresh (8 cups)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest, plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Directions
- Make crust: In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar until combined. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. With machine running, add 1 cup ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 1/2 cup water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Do not overmix. Divide dough into 2 disks; wrap each tightly in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to overnight).
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make filling: In a large bowl, toss together blueberries, cornstarch, sugar, and lemon zest and juice. On a floured work surface, roll out 1 disk to a 12-by-16-inch rectangle. Place in a 10-by-14-by-1-inch rimmed sheet pan. Pour in blueberry filling, then lightly brush edges of crust with water. On floured surface, roll out second disk to an 11-by-15-inch rectangle, carefully cutting out the star shapes. These will serve as vents to allow steam to escape. Lay over blueberry filling; press along moistened edges to seal. Fold overhang under, tucking it into pan, and crimp edges.
- Place pie in oven, then reduce heat to 375 degrees. Bake until crust is golden and juices are bubbling, 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour, preferably two. Allowing the pie to rest will keep the filling from running when you slice it.
For the ice cream, I modified a recipe from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home
Strawberry Marscarpone Ice Cream
- 8 cups strawberries, sliced
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 4 cups whole milk
- 2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 16 ounces marscarpone cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
Directions
1. Place the slice strawberries in a bowl and mix with the balsamic vinegar. Refrigerate for overnight, or for a minimum of 2 hours.
2. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the marscarpone cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
3. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
4. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the marscarpone cheese mixture until smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly. I usually just put the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours but if you are in a hurry you can use Jeni’s quick chill method. Pour the mixture into a 2-gallon Ziploc freezer bags and submerge the sealed bags in an ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
5. Strain the strawberries, saving the balsamic vinegar for a salad dressing. Add the strawberries to the ice cream base and pour the base into your ice cream makers’s canister and proceed according to the manufacturer’s directions. Spin until thick and creamy. If you prefer your ice cream more solid, you can pack it into a plastic container and place it in the freezer for a few hours.We like it the way it comes out of the ice cream maker.
Makes two quarts ice cream, which may sound like a lot before you taste it, but it really isn’t.
