Cherry Chocolate Bourbon Slab Pie in a Sheet Pan
This cherry chocolate bourbon slab pie, baked in a quarter sheet pan, pairs a thick cherry filling with smooth vanilla bourbon…
- Prep
- 1 hr 35 mins
- Cook
- 1 hr 30 mins
- Total
- 3 hrs 5 mins
- Makes
- 12 servings
This Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Slab Pie, baked in a quarter sheet pan, pairs a thick cherry filling with smooth vanilla bourbon and melted dark chocolate. Everything sits inside a homemade all butter crust! The flavors work together beautifully, and it’s a great fit for a small dinner or a work party!
What Is a Slab Pie?
A slab pie is a wider, thinner take on a standard 9-inch pie. A quarter sheet pan makes one that suits a small dinner party. Half-sheet pans are better for bigger get-togethers. You can cut the squares as large or small as you like.
I used a quarter sheet pan with two pie crusts for this bourbon cherry chocolate slab pie, so it is the same dough you would use for a regular pie.
How to Make Them
This recipe is adapted from my Homemade Cherry Pie, and the steps are nearly the same as for a 9-inch pie. The main change is the quarter sheet pan, and that’s really all there is to it!
Homemade All Butter Pie Crust
ingredients needed: all-purpose flour, salt, very cold unsalted butter, and ice-cold water
As the name says, this homemade all-butter crust is made entirely with butter. There’s no vegetable shortening! Like my other pie crust recipe on the site, it needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour and makes two crusts. For this pie, the crust doesn’t need blind baking.
You don’t have to make your own crust, either! If you’d like to save time, store-bought is perfectly fine. I’ve used it myself several times, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Pie Filling
ingredients needed: 3 cans of Oregon Fruit Products red tart cherries packed in water, vanilla bourbon, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, almond extract, vanilla extract, 70% cacao dark chocolate, and an egg (used for the egg wash with the pie crust)
This filling is simple to make. Combine everything except the melted chocolate in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and stir constantly until the filling thickens. Let it cool nearly all the way before spooning it into the crust.
I used Jim Beam’s Vanilla Bourbon because it complements the cherry and chocolate really well, but feel free to use any bourbon you like. It adds just a hint of warmth to the filling, and you can leave it out entirely if you prefer.
To melt the chocolate, break the bar into small pieces and heat them in a microwave-safe glass bowl in 30-45 second bursts at about 50% power until smooth. I suggest glass for microwaving. A metal bowl won’t work for this step.
Recommended Baking Tools
My favorite part, aside from the taste, is that you do not need a stand mixer or even a hand mixer. You will need a large pot to simmer down the filling, a glass mixing bowl or jelly roll pan to cool it, and a quarter sheet pan.
Here are a few more recommended baking tools for this slab pie!
Can I Make the Cherry Filling the Day Before?
Yes, you absolutely can!
I made the filling the day before, kept it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and waited to bake until I was ready. I’ll repeat this a few times in the post: don’t add the melted chocolate until you’re ready to bake!
Quick Recipe Tips
Homemade All Butter Pie Crust
- Store-bought crusts are welcome for the crust part of this chocolate cherry bourbon slab pie. You’ll need two, one for the bottom and one for the top. Store-bought crusts are round, so roll each one out an inch or two past the edges of the quarter sheet pan.
- After you divide the dough into two crusts, shape each one into a rectangle instead of the usual circle. That makes rolling them out much easier later on.
- I suggest chilling the bottom crust once it is in the quarter sheet pan. If you are making a top crust with a design like mine, chill it in the freezer for 15-30 minutes after cutting out the shapes. I found the slightly chilled dough easier to handle when placing it over the filling.
Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Pie Filling
- I used Oregon Fruit Products Red Tart Cherries packed in water. Some people turn their noses up at canned cherries in a cherry pie, but these are packed in water rather than syrup, and they’re terrific. Also, I’m not being paid to say that. I just really like this brand of cherries!
General
- For the top crust, I used the letter “V” from my Ateco 1″ alphabet cutter set. In my two earlier tests of this recipe, I used a small cookie cutter I had for linzer cookies, but I lost it. Ugh!
- If this is your first slab pie, keep the top crust simple. Lay the crust on top and cut a few X’s with a knife. A cookie cutter works too, the way I did it.
- While the oven preheats, set a larger sheet pan on the rack. Bake the slab pie on top of it to catch any drips. This also keeps the bottom crust from turning soggy.
More Pie Recipes to Try
Cherry Chocolate Bourbon Slab Pie in a Sheet Pan
This cherry chocolate bourbon slab pie, baked in a quarter sheet pan, pairs a thick cherry filling with smooth vanilla bourbon and melted dark chocolate, all inside a homemade all butter crust! Yields 12 larger slices.
- Prep
- 1 hr 35 mins
- Cook
- 1 hr 30 mins
- Total
- 3 hrs 5 mins
- Makes
- 12 servings
Ingredients
homemade all butter pie crust
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 4-6 tbsp Ice Cold Water
chocolate cherry bourbon pie filling
- 29 oz Red Tart Cherries in Water + 1/2 can of water, 2, 14.5 oz cans
- 1/2 cup Bourbon, such as Jim Beam's Vanilla Bourbon
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Almond Extract
- 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 4 oz 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate, chopped and melted
- 1 egg, beaten, used for egg wash
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, use a pastry blender (or two forks) to combine the all-purpose flour, salt and cold cubed butter until the mixture looks like small peas. A few larger pea-sized bits are fine!
- Add 1 tablespoon of the ice-cold water and work it in with a spatula or your hands. Keep adding ice-cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together and is no longer crumbly. If any crumbly bits remain, add the tiniest drop of cold water so they blend in.
- Form the dough into a ball, place it on a lightly floured, clean surface, and cut it in half with a pastry cutter. Pat each half into a rectangle 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches thick, wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap, and chill in the coldest part of the fridge (usually the back) for at least 1 hour.
- In a large pot, combine the cans of red tart cherries (don’t drain them), an extra 1/2 cup of water, bourbon, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, almond extract and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat to a simmer and stir constantly until the filling thickens.
- Take the filling off the heat and carefully spoon it into a large bowl or jelly roll pan to cool until nearly room temperature.
- While the filling cools, roll out the first crust on a clean, lightly floured surface. Leave about 1 inch of overhang to fold over the top crust.
- Set the crust into the quarter sheet pan, then chill it in the freezer (preferred) or the refrigerator to firm up. Next, roll out the second crust for the top. I like to chill that one in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes too, which makes it easier to lift and place over the filling. This step is optional.
- Set an oven rack in the middle of the oven, place the jelly roll pan or cookie sheet on it, and preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Put the broken chocolate pieces in a small microwave-safe glass bowl and heat them for 30-45 seconds at about 50% power until smooth and melted. Set aside.
- Take the quarter sheet pan out of the freezer or fridge and spoon the filling into the crust. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the filling and swirl it in. Cover with the 2nd layer of crust, press the edges together and fold them under. Trim any excess if needed. Crimp the edges with your fingers or with a fork dipped in a little flour so the dough doesn’t stick.
- Brush the egg wash lightly over the top of the pie with a pastry brush. You won’t need all of it, just enough for light coverage. Set the pie on the preheated jelly roll pan and bake for 15 minutes at 425ºF.
- After 15 minutes, lower the oven to 375ºF and bake for another 40-45 minutes, until the top is a nice golden brown. At the 15-minute mark, add a pie crust shield to keep the edges from burning. You can use strips of aluminum foil around the edges, or cut a rectangle out of the center of a sheet of foil and lay it over the top. Wear oven mitts for this step so you don’t burn your fingers!
- When the chocolate cherry bourbon slab pie is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool completely.
Baker’s notes
- Adapted from my Homemade Cherry Pie.
