Lavender & verbena scented blueberry-apricot slab pie
Pies
Fruit pies and summer go hand in hand. Blueberries and apricots are in season and make a perfect pairing for a slab pie. I took Martha Stewart's basic recipe and tweaked it using some Cook's Illustrated tips and the strawberry jam recipe Cathy Barrow (f52's MrsWheelbarrow) recently published in the New York Times. When I make a standard blueberry pie I use a combination of tapioca starch and pectin from a grated apple as a thickener – a trick I learned from Cook's Illustrated, which makes the best blueberry pie ever. The pectin allows for less starch use, so a more pure fruit flavor shines through. MrsWheelbarrow uses a kiwi fruit as a pectin source in her strawberry jam, so for my slab pie I decided to use a kiwi and tapioca to thicken the fruit. To add some sophistication I incorporated lavender blossoms and verbena leaves. Feel free to omit them if you'd like, and if you can't get verbena you can substitute lemon zest. I also tweaked the crust recipe (using the Cook's Illustrated vodka crust technique) to make the dough easier to work with, and because I like the texture from a mix of butter and vegetable (or in this case) coconut oil. The resulting pie was almost fully consumed at a Fourth of July gathering that had a somewhat insane amount of food, so I know it is pretty delicious! Note: I like to pour liquid coconut oil into a container so it makes a layer somewhere between ¼- and ½-inch thick, then freeze it to make cutting it into small chunks easier.
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