Summer Triple Berry Pandowdy
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Celebrate summertime with this stunning Triple Berry Pandowdy! Bursting with juicy raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, this classic dessert is the perfect way to enjoy the best of the season. Topped with a star-shaped pastry crust (perfect for the 4th of July!), it’s as delicious as it is beautiful!
A Taste of Summer: This Triple Berry Pandowdy is a true celebration of summer. Right now, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are at their peak ripeness! This means they’ll be bursting with flavor and juicy perfection, making them ideal for this recipe.
Not only will you be using the freshest ingredients, but the vibrant red, purple, and black colors of the berries will create a stunning and festive dessert perfect for summer holidays like 4th of July!
What Even is Pandowdy?
Pandowdy is a delicious American dessert, traditionally made with apples, but other fruits like berries are becoming popular choices too! Here’s a breakdown of its key features:
- Deep-dish fruit filling: Imagine a bowl overflowing with juicy, sweet fruit – that’s the base of a pandowdy.
- Simple pastry crust: Unlike a traditional pie with a fancy top crust, a pandowdy uses a single layer of pastry dough.
- “Dowdied” topping: This is where the name comes from! The crust is broken into pieces and scattered over the fruit filling before baking. This creates a rustic, slightly crispy topping that gets infused with the fruity juices below. But instead of breaking the crust, we cut them into stars to make it a little more festive!
- Warm and comforting: Pandowdy is typically served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream, making it the perfect ending to a summer meal.
Why This Pandowdy is Literally the Best
- Easier Than Pie: With this pandowdy, we’re taking a berry pie and replacing the difficult double crust with a simple top crust cut into stars!
- Shorter Cooling Time: As delicious as homemade pie is, it takes a lot of planning ahead as it has a LONG cooling time. Sometimes we just need something a little quicker than a cherry pie, but just as delicious and impressive!
- Adaptable: This pandowdy is totally adaptable to whichever berries you want! You can make a strawberry rhubarb pandowdy or a blueberry pandowdy, even a peach pandowdy simply by using all of that particular fruit.
- Simple Ingredients: Nothing specialty here! This pandowdy doesn’t require much, just a handful of fruit, flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest, and cornstarch.
- Full of Summer Flavor: Celebrate the season’s sweetest natural flavors! A lot of the flavor in this pandowdy comes from the juicy mixed berries.
- It’s Delicious: What’s better than sweet berries and a flakey golden buttery crust?!
We love to make this pandowdy during the summertime and it’s perfect for 4th of July, BBQs, Father’s Day, family gatherings, and SO much more, but since you can use frozen fruit, it’s great any time of year!
Bonus? It’s Easy To Make!
This recipe is a quick summer dessert that the whole family will enjoy! The first step is to whip up a single batch of pie dough. This is only 5 ingredients and prep time is minimal! Just combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Then, pulse in the butter. Add the water and now you have pie dough!
From here, all you need to do is just roll it out and cut it with multi size star cutters. Oh, and you won’t need to reroll the crust! You want some of that berry goodness showing through. Plus, you can bake the excess pie dough as sweet munchies to enjoy while you wait for the pandowdy to bake!
Next, just mix the berries with cornstarch, sugar, and lemon zest. Top with the star shaped dough and bake for about 1 ½ hours!
More Summer Treats You’ll Love:
When you make these Summer Triple Berry Pandowdy, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.
Happy baking!
x, Caylie
Summer Triple Berry Pandowdy
Ingredients
Filling
- 8 cups mixed berries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons lemon zest
- ½ cup cornstarch
Topping
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
- ⅓ teaspoon salt
- 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, sliced
- 3 Tablespoons water, ice cold
- heavy cream
- coarse sugar
Instructions
Topping
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse a few times to mix.
- Add butter, a little at a time, pulsing after each addition.
- Add water in small amounts, pulsing after each addition, until the mixture forms a cohesive dough.
- Remove dough from food processor.
- Roll to ⅜ inch thick between 2 lightly floured pieces of parchment.
- Cut out stars using a variety of sizes of star-shaped cutters.
- Remove excess dough.
- Place stars on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and freeze until you need them.
Filling
- Heat oven to 375℉ (190℃).
- Spray a 9 inch pie dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine berries, sugar, zest, and cornstarch.
- Gently mix until berries are completely coated.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Top with stars.
- Brush tops of pastry with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes, covering the top with aluminum foil after 55 minutes (or sooner, if needed). When done, the fruit should be bubbling and the pie crust should be golden brown.
- Allow to cool before serving.
Notes + Tips!
- Let it cool completely: Before storing, allow the pandowdy to cool completely at room temperature. This helps prevent condensation from forming within the container, which can make the crust soggy.
- Choose an airtight container: Once cool, transfer leftover pandowdy to an airtight container. This will prevent the flavors from drying out or absorbing any unwanted odors from your refrigerator.
- Refrigerator: Store leftover pandowdy in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: For longer storage, you can freeze the pandowdy for up to 3 months.
- Use Cold Ingredients: Cold ingredients are key! Use chilled butter and ice water in your dough. The cold fat stays in little pockets throughout the dough, creating flakiness when baked.
- Don’t Overwork The Dough: The key to perfect pie dough is to not overwork it! Mix until it just comes together.
- Star Cutters: Don’t have star-shaped cookie cutters? No problem! Use any shape you like, or simply cut the dough into squares or wedges for a rustic touch.
- Golden Crust: Want a guaranteed golden brown crust? After assembling the pandowdy, brush the top crust with milk or egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar for a beautiful sparkle.
- Check Your Fruit: Give your berries a quick inspection before tossing them in. Remove any mushy or moldy ones, and discard any leaves or stems.
- You Can Use Frozen Fruits: If the fruit you want isn’t in season, you can use frozen fruit in this pandowdy! But you might need to increase the cornstarch slightly.
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