Apple Cranberry Slab Pie Recipe (2024)

By Melissa Clark

Apple Cranberry Slab Pie Recipe (1)

Total Time
2½ hours, plus 1 hour chilling
Rating
5(667)
Notes
Read community notes

A slab pie is nothing more than a regular pie writ large. Baked in a 9-x-13-inch pan, this pie feeds 24 but is easier to make (and to carry) than 3 separate pies. The filling was inspired by an e-mail from Pete Wells, our restaurant critic, who mused about his ideal Thanksgiving dessert; the brown sugar, ginger and rum give it a complex and more autumnal flavor than most apple pies. Serve with whipped crème fraîche and small glasses of good, aged rum. (Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)

Featured in: Essential Thanksgiving

Learn: How to Make a Pie Crust

Learn: Melissa Clark’s Thanksgiving

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have

    10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers.

    Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Print Options

    Include recipe photo

Advertisem*nt

Ingredients

Yield:18 to 24 servings

    For the Crust

    • cups all-purpose flour (450 grams)
    • 1teaspoon fine sea salt (6 grams)
    • 3sticks plus 6 tablespoons butter, preferably a high-fat, European-style butter, chilled and cut into ½-inch pieces (15 ounces/425 grams)
    • 6 to 8tablespoons ice water, more as needed

    For the Filling

    • pounds apples, preferably a mixture of Gala, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced ¼-inch thick (21 cups/about 3 kilograms)
    • packed cups light brown sugar (300 grams)
    • ¾cup maple syrup
    • 1cup dried cranberries (150 grams)
    • 6tablespoons instant tapioca (75 grams)
    • 3tablespoons dark rum
    • teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (3 grams)
    • 2tablespoons lemon juice
    • 1tablespoon grated fresh ginger (18 grams)
    • teaspoons fine sea salt (9 grams)
    • teaspoons ground cinnamon (6 grams)
    • ¾teaspoon grated nutmeg
    • 2tablespoons unsalted butter, diced small (1 ounce/28 grams)
    • 1large egg, lightly beaten
    • 1tablespoon heavy cream
    • tablespoons Demerara sugar (20 grams)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Nutritional analysis per serving (22 servings)

430 calories; 18 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 65 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 40 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 280 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Apple Cranberry Slab Pie Recipe (2)

Preparation

  1. Step

    1

    Make the crust: In a food processor, briefly pulse together flour and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms chickpea-size pieces. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture is just moist enough to hold together. Form dough into two balls, one about ⅔ of dough and the other the remaining ⅓ of dough. Wrap each with plastic and flatten into disks. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 2 days before rolling out and baking.

  2. Step

    2

    Lightly flour a work surface and remove the plastic wrap from the larger dough ball. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough ball to a 12-by-16-inch rectangle, dusting with flour if dough sticks. (Leave smaller dough ball in the fridge.) Transfer rolled-out dough to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Carefully line the pan with dough, pressing it into bottom of pan and completely up the sides. Crimp the top edges. Chill dough in fridge until ready to fill.

  3. Step

    3

    Roll out remaining dough ball to a 10-by-13-inch rectangle, dusting with flour if dough is sticking. Using a decorative cookie cutter (like apples, leaves or hearts), cut out dough shapes. Reroll scraps if necessary to use up as much dough as possible. Transfer cutouts to a small baking sheet. Return baking pan and sheet to refrigerator to chill while you prepare filling.

  4. Step

    4

    Heat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange a wire rack in the lowest position in the oven. Place a large rimmed baking sheet on the floor of the oven to preheat.

  5. Step

    5

    Make the filling: In a large bowl, combine apples, sugar, maple syrup, cranberries, tapioca, rum, lemon zest and juice, ginger, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Let mixture stand 10 minutes. Pour filling into bottom pie crust and dot with 2 tablespoons diced butter. Arrange dough cutouts on top of apple mixture, overlapping it slightly and making sure several cutout edges touch sides of pan. Whisk together egg and cream. Brush over crust; sprinkle with Demerara sugar.

  6. Step

    6

    Move rimmed baking sheet from oven floor to lowest rack. Place pie pan on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling thickly, 40 to 60 minutes longer. Loosely tent top of pie with foil if crust browns before filling is ready. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Tip

  • To turn this slab pie into a standard 9-inch pie that serves 8 people, use ⅓ of the amount of each ingredient. (The exceptions are the whole egg and the tablespoon of cream for the egg wash; use the same amount as you would for the slab pie.) A smaller pie will bake more quickly, so watch it carefully; it should need about 50 to 60 minutes in the oven. It’s done when the juices bubble up thickly and the apples are tender. And don’t forget when dividing into thirds that a third of a tablespoon equals a teaspoon.

Ratings

5

out of 5

667

user ratings

Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.

Cooking Notes

Bonnie

Can this slab pie be frozen?

Diane

How far in advance can you make this pie

LEL

Commercially dried cranberries contain added sugar.
Fresh cranberries add a lot of additional liquid.
If using fresh berries, simmer the filling, uncovered, for about 15 or 20 minutes to reduce moisture before filling the pie. Baking time may be reduced--stop when the crust is golden brown.

Becky K

I omitted the maple syrup and subbed fresh cranberries for dried, which--to me--was the perfect blend of sweet and tart. I also threw in approx. a cup of chopped pecans to up the Thanksgiving factor (and add an interesting crunch). The leaves on top came out looking gorgeous & rustic. Crust was perfect. Two thumbs up for this pie!!

Melissa Clark

This is the amount you need to buy when you're shopping. The apples will weigh less after peeling and coring.

Melissa Clark

They will get too juicy and browned in the fridge, and lose flavor. You could peel them, but don't slice.

citymom92

There's never enough apple pie until you make this one because it's so big. I'll never make a regular sized pie. And it turns out so pretty and delicious!

AH

I made this with 6.75 pounds apples before peeling and coring.

Parker

Delicious and pretty simple to create, but HUGE, even in the 9.5x13.5 dish I made it in. By huge, I mean it was one seriously tall pie and all but bulged out of the dish. I'd post the picture I took if I could. This doesn't strike me as a slab pie, but wandering more into deep-dish territory instead.

Julia

Can you cook this without the alcohol or will the flavors change to much? Anything non alcoholic I could substitute for the rum?

Barb H.

This was the most phenomenal apple pie I've ever made. The family swooned over it! It will be an heirloom recipe in our household. We did have vanilla ice cream with it, but it was almost unnecessary.

Lorene

Try arrowroot or corn starch

Carole

Flour instead of tapioca like in most apple pies.

NYT Cooking

Hi, Bette. Yes, cover it with plastic wrap and store it at room temperature or the fridge.

Melissa Clark

Yes, but use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon. OR use any other double pie crust recipe, and then use this filling.

Marina

6.75 lbs of apples after they have been cored and peeled is way too much filling for this size pan. 5.5 lbs weighed before you peel and core is what I would suggest using.

Leila

Love the flavors of this pie - really good combo. My only problem was that the crust was soggy. Should I pre-bake? Melissa - help! :)

miacomet

This was crazy good!!! So many flavors layered in there, all blending deliciously! This will be on our Thanksgiving table from now on. Made for a 9”, deep dish pie plate, I agree with others to do half (not ⅓) of ingredients. I used small honeycrisp apples from my tree. They took awhile to peel, core, and slice so I put them in lemon water while processing. I used my own (gluten-free) pie crust recipe but otherwise didn’t change a thing.

Kris G

This pie is really good but soooooo liquidy. Had to tent the pie bc it was burning at the recommended temp and time. It is super impractical to even attempt to serve a slice because it is so thick. Decent presentation though!

olivia

I reduced the brown sugar and used only 1 cup, and substituted Bourbon for the rum. I also did 9 TBS of tapioca because everyone said it was too liquid. Was PERFECTION.

DeeDee

I have been making a deep dish cranberry apple pie most of my adult life. (I'm 69). I also use a 9x13 cake pan. I use a package of fresh cranberries, bad ones picked out and pulsed once or twice in the food processor, large pieces. 12 Granny Smith apples, 3 c sugar, 2 t cinnamon and 2 T butter dotted on the filling before the top crust. Filling is a beautiful shade of red. One of our Christmas favorites.

Ella

I used half the sugar and maple syrup because the apples I had were very sweet, and used dried cherries instead of cranberries. Also found 3 sticks of butter is plenty, same amount of flour and still had enough left over pastry for a 9 inch pie pan.

Jessica

This was delicious, great flavors, but too much liquid in my opinion, and much more than I’ve ever seen in any other pie recipe. I’ve never had a pie spill-over so much juice, and I’ve made a LOT of pies. My oven was a total mess, and my house was filled with smoke from the burning sugar. I recommend putting a very large tray covered with foil on the bottom of your oven!

Juliet

Could I make this with store bought puff pastry? (TJ's, with real butter)

doemora

Tapioca is something we can't have. What is a good substitute?Thank you!

Kelin

Crust was delicious - and it was my first time making pie crust! I found the rum flavor a bit stronger than I would have preferred. I used fresh cranberries and upped the sugar a bit. I didn't have tapioca so I used corn starch (found a conversion somewhere) and it was fine, texturally. I would make the crust again but do a different filling.

Shavaun

Great recipe and easily adaptable. Didn’t have enough apples on hand for even the 1/3 version, so made a galette with everything proportioned to the weight of the apples. It was terrific and, with a little vanilla ice cream, we didn’t need more anyway.

Rachna

Made a smaller round pie and used 1/2 the ingredients for the filling (rather than 1/3 as suggested by the tip), and it was perfect in quantity and really delicious.

LTCdetroit

Outstanding recipe - the most popular dish on our Thanksgiving table this year! The only comment I followed the recipe to a "T" ;) with one important exception: there is no way 21 cups of sliced apples will fit into a 9 x 13" baking dish. I used 14 total apples (mix of Michigan Gala and Northern Spy). Will definitely make again and again!

Rocco

This is my go-to apple pie, and it gets raves. BUT NOTE: you need HALF and not 1/3 of the filling for a 9 inch pie.

Private notes are only visible to you.

Apple Cranberry Slab Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you make an apple pie less juicy? ›

Partially pre-cook the filling to evaporate its excess juice. Experiment with different thickeners beyond flour — we love Instant ClearJel. Vent the pie's top crust so steam from the juice can escape. For even better evaporation, try a lattice crust or crumb crust.

What are the three best apples for apple pie? ›

The best apples for making apple pie
  • Braeburn. This apple is a descendant of Granny Smith, but slightly sweeter. ...
  • Cortland. ...
  • Crispin (Mutsu). ...
  • Golden Delicious. ...
  • Granny Smith. ...
  • Honeycrisp. ...
  • Jonagold or Jonathan. ...
  • Northern Spy.
Oct 8, 2021

What is the number 2 most important thing when making pie crust? ›

#2—Add cold water

Before you start making the dough, fill a glass with ice and water. Add the ice water gradually to the dough, about one tablespoon or so at a time, and stop when the dough is just moist enough to hold together when a handful is squeezed.

How do you keep the bottom crust of apple pie from getting soggy? ›

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

Why does my apple pie have so much liquid? ›

When you cook apples, the pectin in them breaks down, making the apples watery. The lower pH value of tart apples reduces the amount of pectin that breaks down, so the apples hold their shape and get less mushy. This will prevent your pie from getting watery.

Can you mix different apples for apple pie? ›

The key word is “mix.” Instead of selecting one variety of apple, it's best to opt for a few, which will give the filling a more balanced and nuanced flavor. You'll want some sweet and some tart, and most should be firm enough to hold their shape when baked. No one wants a mushy pie!

What kind of apples does mcdonalds use for their pies? ›

A-Plus Apples

Instead, Mickey D's makes their pies with six different types of apples — Jonagold, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Gala, Rome, and Ida Red, all of which are homegrown in the U.S. And the apples are sliced instead of diced, so you'll notice big chunks of apple in every bite.

How many apples for one pie? ›

It's hard to know exactly how many apples you'll need for an apple pie, but for one 9-inch pie, you probably won't need more than 10 apples. If your apples are smaller, you'll probably need 10; if they're really big apples, you'll use fewer of them.

What is one thing you should not do when making pie crust? ›

The Most Common Pie Crust Mistakes (And Ways To Avoid Them)
  1. The ingredients are too warm. ...
  2. The pie dough is overworked from excessive mixing or rolling. ...
  3. The pie dough isn't given enough time to relax and chill. ...
  4. The pie dough is shrinking down the sides of the pan.
Oct 18, 2022

What apples should not be used for apple pie? ›

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

Is pie crust better with butter or crisco? ›

My preferred fat for pie crusts will always be butter. To me, it is all about flavor, and no other fat gives flavor to a crust like butter does. Other fats, even though they have great pros, lack flavor,” De Sa Martins said. “The more flavorful the butter, the more flavor your pie crust will have,” Huntsberger added.

What is the best flour for pies? ›

What you want for pie is flour that yields a tender, flaky crust, which means medium-protein all-purpose flour or low-protein pastry flour.

What are 2 disadvantages of using all butter in pie crust? ›

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using butter in a pie crust? Advantages : excellent flavor and forms distinct flaky layers. Disadvantages: Expensive and butter melts easy bettween 82.5 and 96.8 degrees F. It takes more time to make pastry because it must be refrigerated.

How can I make my pie more firm? ›

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

How do you save a watery pie? ›

Easiest ways to fix a runny pie.
  1. Put your pie back in the high temp oven on the lowest rack until the filling is bubbly and the crust is brown. ...
  2. Let your pie cool overnight. ...
  3. If possible, pour the extra liquid off the pie (save that for ice cream!) and pop it into the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.
Sep 13, 2022

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: The Hon. Margery Christiansen

Last Updated:

Views: 6665

Rating: 5 / 5 (70 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: The Hon. Margery Christiansen

Birthday: 2000-07-07

Address: 5050 Breitenberg Knoll, New Robert, MI 45409

Phone: +2556892639372

Job: Investor Mining Engineer

Hobby: Sketching, Cosplaying, Glassblowing, Genealogy, Crocheting, Archery, Skateboarding

Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.