My former boss Jon does a great job of maintaining ties with the attorneys who served as his advisors when he was a principal at the agency where I still work. From time to time he arranges gatherings of what I like to think of as his personal alumni association. Jon and his wife recently hosted us for dinner at their home and I asked if I could bring dessert. He happily accepted my offer and added that he would supply ice cream to go along with whatever I made. Shortly before the dinner, The New York Times ran an article about foods at Juneteenth festivals, including a recipe for Strawberry Slab Pie. As soon as I saw the recipe I decided that the pie would be the perfect dessert for the dinner. First, a traditional round pie would be not be big enough to serve all of the attendees (about a dozen). Second, a fruit pie would be a great pairing with the ice cream Jon had promised to provide.
When it comes to pies, I often ignore whatever crust recipe is included and just use Stella Parks' foolproof crust recipe instead. But here I decided to go ahead and try the crust recipe provided, because it's somewhat unusual in that it includes cracked black pepper. You make the crust by hand, by cutting cold butter into a mixture of flour, sugar, salt, and pepper; sprinkling over ice water; and stirring the dough with your hands until you can gather it into a ball. I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and chilled it before rolling it out and pressing it into a parchment-lined 14-inch by 10-inch jelly roll pan. I chilled the shaped crust for about an hour. Meanwhile, I rolled out the excess dough and cut it into circles to use to top the pie.
The pie filling is a mixture of strawberries, dark brown sugar, cornstarch, grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, grated ginger, vanilla, and salt. I let the filling sit at room temperature while the crust was chilling. Then I poured the filling into the crust, brushed the edges of the crust with buttermilk, and baked the pie for 30 minutes. Then I pulled the pie out of the oven and added the circle cutouts, after brushing them with buttermilk and sprinkling them with coarse sugar. I put the pie back in the oven and baked it until the filling was bubbling.
I personalized the cutouts with Jon's initials because his advisors commonly referred to him (in the third person, not to his face) by his initials, JDL. I wasn't keeping count of how many circles I cut out and I hadn't planned any particular layout for the cutouts on top of the pie, so I just cut an arbitrary number of circles. Because you place the cutouts on a hot pie right after taking it out of the oven, you don't really have the opportunity to move the cutouts once they're applied. So I just started laying out the circles in rows and it turned out that I was one short to make a nice six-by-four grid.
I had to make this pie a day in advance (because dinner was on a weeknight) and I let it cool completely before covering it with Press'n Seal and leaving it at room temperature. Because Press'n Seal is semi-opaque, you couldn't get a clear view of the pie through it and I didn't unveil it until we were ready for dessert. Until then, whenever someone asked me about the dessert, I simply stated that I had made a "JDL Pie."
The pie was easy to serve and I was relieved to see that the crust was cooked through on the bottom. But I was disappointed with crust and regretted not using Stella's recipe instead. Despite the fact that it had both salt and pepper, I didn't think it had that much flavor. And while the bottom crust was cooked, it was not flaky or crisp. I also didn't love the fruit filling. For me, it wasn't sweet enough (granted, I did use supermarket strawberries, but at least they were organic) and I did not like the addition of ginger, which I though pushed the pie too far into the savory direction. I was expecting this pie to deliver a concentrated dose of sweet and fresh strawberry flavor. Instead, I thought the strawberry flavor was muted and muddied. Thank goodness for the ice cream, which definitely helped -- but I wouldn't make this pie again.
I took home the leftover pie and since I wasn't a fan of the crust but didn't want the pie to go to waste, I scraped out the fruit filling and ate it on top of a toasted bagel the following morning. Even for that purpose, I think butter and strawberry jam would have been better. The pie might have been suboptimal in my eyes, but my kind former colleagues still happily ate it. And that camaraderie is what the JDL alumni association is all about!
Recipe: "Strawberry Slab Pie" from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
When it comes to pies, I often ignore whatever crust recipe is included and just use Stella Parks' foolproof crust recipe instead. But here I decided to go ahead and try the crust recipe provided, because it's somewhat unusual in that it includes cracked black pepper. You make the crust by hand, by cutting cold butter into a mixture of flour, sugar, salt, and pepper; sprinkling over ice water; and stirring the dough with your hands until you can gather it into a ball. I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and chilled it before rolling it out and pressing it into a parchment-lined 14-inch by 10-inch jelly roll pan. I chilled the shaped crust for about an hour. Meanwhile, I rolled out the excess dough and cut it into circles to use to top the pie.
The pie filling is a mixture of strawberries, dark brown sugar, cornstarch, grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, grated ginger, vanilla, and salt. I let the filling sit at room temperature while the crust was chilling. Then I poured the filling into the crust, brushed the edges of the crust with buttermilk, and baked the pie for 30 minutes. Then I pulled the pie out of the oven and added the circle cutouts, after brushing them with buttermilk and sprinkling them with coarse sugar. I put the pie back in the oven and baked it until the filling was bubbling.
I personalized the cutouts with Jon's initials because his advisors commonly referred to him (in the third person, not to his face) by his initials, JDL. I wasn't keeping count of how many circles I cut out and I hadn't planned any particular layout for the cutouts on top of the pie, so I just cut an arbitrary number of circles. Because you place the cutouts on a hot pie right after taking it out of the oven, you don't really have the opportunity to move the cutouts once they're applied. So I just started laying out the circles in rows and it turned out that I was one short to make a nice six-by-four grid.
I took home the leftover pie and since I wasn't a fan of the crust but didn't want the pie to go to waste, I scraped out the fruit filling and ate it on top of a toasted bagel the following morning. Even for that purpose, I think butter and strawberry jam would have been better. The pie might have been suboptimal in my eyes, but my kind former colleagues still happily ate it. And that camaraderie is what the JDL alumni association is all about!
Recipe: "Strawberry Slab Pie" from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
- "Cloudy with a 100% Chance of Delicious: Cherry-Almond Slab Pie with Marzipan Crumble," July 20, 2019.
- "A Slab is Fab: Sour Cherry Slab Pie," August 5, 2017.
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