Summer Fruit Pandowdy

panTis the season for fruit crumbles, pies and it turns out pandowdy’s too.   I made a serious sheet pie for 16 the other night and my arms hurt for two days after rolling out the day.  This time I opted for ease.  I saw this recipe in the latest Food & Wine.  The dough is total winner.

Sugar Cookie Dough

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

4 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind + 1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. grated lime rind + 1 1/2 tsp. fresh lme juice

1/2 egg (2 tbsp) beaten

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy with a hand held mixer (about 3 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, lime zest and lime juice.  Then beat in the egg.  Then with the mixer on low speed beat in the dry ingredients.  Continue to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is completely mixed in.  The dough will be soft.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and place it on a plastic sheet shaped into a 9 inch log.  Then flatted it out until a 2 inch wide rectangle and roughly one inch tall.

Put in the fridge for about 2 hours until set.

Pandowdy:

Set oven to 350.  Butter a 13×9 inch pan and use a little sugar to coat it.

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

You need essentially 8 cups of fruit.  I used 4 cups of blueberries, 2 cups of nectarines sliced and 2 cups of blackberries.

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tbsp. grated orange ring + 1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. cardamon

1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg

Mix together 2 tbsp. sugar with the cinnamon and set aside.

Put all the fruit in a large bowl and toss the fruit with 1/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, orange zest, orange juice, ground ginger, cardamon and nutmeg.    Spread the fruit in the bowl.

2 tsp. finely grated ginger and 2 tsp. brandy was also called for but I missed it.  I also didn’t have cardamon so I bagged that too but these kind of dishes always seem to work out just fine.

Take the dough out of the fridge.  Slice them into 1/4 inch rectangle slices.  Lay them over the top of the fruit in whatever pattern you want.  Brush the dough with cream ( I only had milk) and then sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar you set aside earlier.  I missed that and had put it in with the berries.  I had to make some more.  No big deal.

cookiesI had also doubled the dough thinking I would make more but in the end didn’t need to so I made cookies.

This is a huge winner!

Comments (Archived):

  1. P Donohue

    This reminds me of something my grandmother made when I was a child. I can almost smell it!The cardamon is an interesting touch as I would not think of it. I guess I should get to know it better.