How to make an American Flag Pie in a sheet pan, perfect for the 4th of July! With a homemade crust and blueberry-strawberry filling.
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Looking for something special to bring to a Fourth of July cook-out? Check out this American Flag Pie! It’s a sheet cake with a homemade crust and a blueberry-strawberry filling, topped with stars and stripes.
While you could conceivably use a pre-packaged folded frozen pie crust (just take four of these and trim them to fit the rectangular sheet pan and cut out the shapes), I highly recommend going with the homemade one To try the crust recipe I’ve attached to this pie.
It is my favorite pie crust recipe. It’s really easy to make, easy to roll out, requires no special equipment, and doesn’t need to be kept cold (in fact, room temperature is best for this recipe). All you need is clean hands, flour, sugar, salt, butter and wait for it… sour cream! The sour cream adds moisture and fat to create a wonderfully flaky crust.
For the filling of this flag cake, we use blueberries for the blue background of the stars and strawberries for the red stripes. You can easily substitute blackberries for the stars and rhubarb, cherries or raspberries for the stripes and spice it up a bit.
American flag cake
If you’ve never worked with a sour cream pie dough, it’s moister and smoother than regular butter crust dough. Don’t worry, it will tighten up when it gets cold.
While this recipe calls for blueberries and strawberries, you can easily change it up a bit. Add raspberries, cherries or rhubarb to the strawberries, or use blackberries instead of or in addition to blueberries.
When rolling out the dough for the crust and stars and stripes, if it gets too soft to handle, simply pop it in the fridge for a few minutes.
ingredients
Crust:
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3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
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3 1/2 teaspoon sugar
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1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
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14 ounces butter (3 1/2 sticks), cut into cubes
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7/8 Cup sour cream (that’s 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
strawberry filling:
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3 1/2 lb strawberriespeeled, quartered
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1/2 Cup sugar
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2 teaspoon Orange peel
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4 tablespoon cornstarchFlour or Minute Tapioca
blueberry filling:
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1 pint blueberries (about 0.6 pounds, 280G)
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3 tablespoon sugar
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1/4 teaspoon Cinammon
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1 teaspoon Lemon peel
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2 teaspoon lemon juice
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2 tablespoon cornstarchFlour or Minute Tapioca
wash egg:
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1 protein
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1 teaspoon milk or cream
special equipment
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Star shape cutter
method
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Prepare the cake dough:
Cut the butter into cubes and let sit for 10 minutes to dissipate the chill. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add the butter and dust with the flour. Using your (clean) hands, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse flour.
Add the sour cream and mix with a fork until well incorporated.
Knead with your hands until the mixture comes together into a ball. Divide into 3 equal sized balls of dough (it helps to use a kitchen scale).
Form the balls into rectangular disks. Sprinkle with some flour and wrap individually in cling film.
Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or overnight (may freeze this point if you make several days ahead).
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Make the berry filling:
Place the quartered strawberries in a large bowl and mix in the sugar, cornstarch (or flour or tapioca), and orange zest.
In a separate smaller bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, lemon juice, and cornstarch (or flour or tapioca) and mix together.
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Roll out the dough for the bottom crust:
Line the bottom of a 13 x 18 inch rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.
Take two discs of dough out of the fridge and let them rest for 10 minutes so that they soften a bit. On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll out an 11″ x 17″ disc and place on half of the baking sheet, leaving a 1-inch border over the sides of the baking sheet.
Roll out the second slice and cover the other half of the sheet pan.
Fold the edges of the dough and press firmly.
Remove excess dough from the center. Form into a ball and then roll into a long rope with your hands. Gather this strand of dough and form a rectangle in one corner of the sheet pan. This is where your berries and stars go. The batter will keep the blueberries from running into the strawberries. (If you don’t have excess dough at this point, don’t worry, you will later when you trim away the stars and stripes.)
Place in the fridge to cool.
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Do the egg wash:
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk or cream.
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Roll out the dough for stars and stripes:
Take the third square of dough out of the fridge and let it rest for 10 minutes to soften it up a bit. Roll out so the longest part is 18 inches.
Cut out strips with a knife (blunt) or a pizza wheel. You will need 2 strips that are about 18 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide and 2 strips that are about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.
Use a star shaped cutter to cut out stars.
Place the stars and stripes on a baking sheet, baking sheet or large plate. Brush with egg yolk. Cool.
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Preheat the oven:
Preheat oven to 450°F.
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Fill the cake and top with Stars and Stripes:
Spread the strawberries on the part of the sheet where the red and white stripes should be. Scoop the blueberries into the corner where the stars should be.
Arrange the stars and strips of dough on the berries to form the flag. Chill for 10-15 minutes before baking.
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Bake:
Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes. Then tent with foil and reduce the heat to 375°F and bake an additional 45 to 55 minutes or longer, until the filling bubbles.
Remove from the oven and let cool for at least an hour before serving.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 531 | calories |
| 31g | Fat |
| 59g | carbohydrates |
| 6g | protein |
