This apricot cherry slab pie features an easy-to-make oat crumb topping and can feed a crowd, making it perfect for a large gathering!
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I look forward to stonefruit season every year. The minute they start to arrive in my store, I buy bags of them, eating plums, cherries, and peaches until my stomach protests. But one of the few stonefruits that I prefer to cook and bake with, instead of immediately eating are apricots. If you can source fresh, tree-ripened apricots, they’re a joy to eat out of hand. But most of the apricots I can get are still a bit underripe.
But once they’ve been baked, like in my apricot frangipane tart, apricot braided bread, apricot blueberry cake, or apricot berry cobbler, even the underripe apricots turn into the most marvelous and succulent fruit. And as I am often the go-to dessert person when my friends invite me for dinner, I made this large batch apricot cherry slab pie for a particularly large group dinner. It’s ideal for a group picnic or large dinner party but feel free to cut the recipe in half if you want to make something slightly smaller. But honestly, it’s also awesome as a breakfast pastry, so no need to halve it!
What is a slab pie?
If you’ve never heard the term “slab pie” before, it could be confusing. Most traditional pies are round, baked in a pie pan or pie tin. I have plenty of more traditional pie recipes baked this way, like blueberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, and my blueberry rhubarb pie. But slab pies are made in a sheet pan, typically either a quarter sheet pan (9 x 13 x 1-inch) or in a half sheet pan (13 x 17 x 1 inch).
Not only does this large flat pie offer more crust to filling ratio, as the pie is thinner, but it also means it’s easier to serve. Unlike a traditional round pie, where it’s challenging to cut thin slices, the slab pie can be sliced into smaller pieces, as well as allows folks to cut different size pieces for those folks who prefer larger or smaller pieces. For this reason, slab pies are a great option to make a dessert for a large crowd.
How to make this slab pie
Making a slab pie is similar to making a regular fruit pie, so if you’re familiar with that process, you can easily make a slab pie. But even if you don’t, don’t be intimidated by the process. Here’s an overview of what you will be doing.
First make the crust by combining flour, butter, and salt in a large bowl. Break up the butter into small flat bits by smashing them with your hand, and then drizzle water over the mixture until a dough forms. Divide the dough into two pieces, then flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge and let chill for an hour or overnight.
While the dough is filling, make the crumb topping. Pulse some rolled oats until they’ve broken down a bit, then add flour, white sugar, brown sugar, and spices like cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg. Pulse again to combine. Drizzle melted butter into the mixture, pulse again until they start clumping up, mix in more rolled oats and coarse Turbinado sugar, and then refrigerate the entire mixture to help it solidify.
Then assemble the whole pie and bake! First roll out one of the chilled dough into a rectangle, and then roll out the second dough in the same manner. I divide the dough like this because it’s easier to handle and roll out half a dough than a whole dough sheet. Fit them both into the half sheet pan, making sure some of the dough overhangs the edges. Press them together and decoratively crimp the side of the dough around the pan.
Make the filling by combining pitted, sliced apricots and pitted cherries with lemon juice, vanilla and almond extra, sugar, tapioca starch (or cornstarch), a grated apple, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and salt.
Pour the fruit filling into the pan and bake it for 25 minutes. Pull the oat topping out of the fridge, and sprinkle it all over the partially baked fruit and then continue to bake for another 35 to 30 minutes. Let it cool completely before serving.
How to store this slab pie
You can store this pie like any other pie on the countertop for up to 2 days. Make sure to cover the pie with plastic wrap or foil first. If you want to extend the life of the pie, you can freeze slices of the pie for up to 2 months. Just slice the pie, place it on a baking pan, and put it in the freezer for 2 hours or until frozen solid. Then move it to a container or a resealable Ziploc freezer bag. Thaw the pie on the counter for 2 hours before serving, or warm it up in a 350° oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pie is fully warm.
If you like this apricot cherry slab pie, check out some of these other slab pies
And here are some other summer fruit recipes
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Large Batch Apricot Cherry Slab Pie with Oat Crumb Topping
Unlike some of my other slab pies, this particular slab pie doesn’t have a double crust. Instead, the top of this pie is a crumb oat topping which gives it lovely counterpoint crunch and texture to the warm soft apricot and cherry filling. If you can’t find apricots, try swapping out peeled peaches or nectarines for them. This recipe makes a half sheet pan pie, 13 x 17 inches. You can easily cut the recipe in half if you want to make small slab pie, using a 9 x 13 inch quarter sheet pan.
IngredientsCrust3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon kosher salt1 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter 285 g or 2 1/2 sticks3/4 cup ice cold water more if necessaryStreusel topping1 1/2 cups rolled oats divided 165 g3/4 cup all-purpose flour 105 g1/2 cup white sugar 100 g1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 55 g1 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon ground ginger1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg1/2 teaspoon kosher salt1/2 cup unsalted butter melted 115 g or 1 stick2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar or other coarse sugar, optionalFilling1 pound apricots pitted and sliced1 1/2 pounds sweet cherries pitted and halved1 tablespoon lemon juice2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/2 teaspoon almond extract optional but recommended1/2 cup white sugar 100 g6 tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch 65 g1 apple peeled, cored, and grated through the big hole in a box grater6 tablespoon crystallized ginger 751/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground ginger1/8 teaspoon nutmeg1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
InstructionsMake the pie crust by placing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle it over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, smash and break up the butter into flat pieces, about the size of peas. Drizzle the water over mixture, tossing with a fork as you do. Continue to mix and toss the water and dry ingredients together until a shaggy dough forms. Dump the mixture onto a clean surface and then fold and massage it until it forms a dough. Divide in half, flattening each half into a 1-inch disk, then wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight. (see note below on why I divide the dough in half) While the dough is chilling, make the streusel topping by placing 1 cup of the oats in a food process and pulse until the oats have been broken down into small bits. Add the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Pulse 7 or 8 times or until the oats start to break down a bit. Dump the topping into a bowl and add the remaining 1/2 cups of oats along with the Turbinado sugar (if using). Drizzle the melted butter over the ingredients, tossing together until the butter it absorbed and clumps start to form. Dump into a bowl or a Ziploc bag place in the fridge to chill. When the dough is chilled preheat the oven to 375°F. Make the filling by combining the apricots, cherries, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract, sugar, tapioca starch/cornstarch, grated apple, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Toss to coat the fruit. Roll out half of the dough into a rectangle, roughly 13 x 9 inches. Fit the dough sheet into a 11×17 inch half-sheet pan, with the dough overlapping slightly in the middle. Repeat with the second half of the dough, rolling it out into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle and laying out into the other half the half sheet pan, overlapping the first dough. Press down in the middle to seal the dough together and then crimp the sides of the dough, making sure the dough is anchored to the sides of the pan. Pour and spread the fruit filling into the crust and bake it in the oven (without the topping) for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the streusel topping over the fruit filling. Break up any super large boulder sized chunks but leave the topping mostly chunky. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes more, or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling thick in the center.Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
Notes1. You can keep the dough in one piece if you want. Just roll the whole dough out to a large 13 x 18 sheet and fit it into the pan. But I find that working with half the dough is easier to roll out and move to pan.
2. This recipe can easily be cut in half and baked in a quart sheet pan, 9 x 13 x 1-inches. If you only have a taller 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan (the kind you bake brownies in), you can spray the pan with cooking oil, line with parchment paper, and then proceed with the half recipe as directed. Once baked, just lift the entire pie out of the pan by grabbing the sides of the parchment paper and move it to a serving plate.
NutritionCalories: 420kcal | Carbohydrates: 81.3g | Protein: 3.6g | Fat: 7.4g | Saturated Fat: 4.2g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 3286mg | Potassium: 236mg | Fiber: 4.7g | Sugar: 31.9g | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 3mg