Strawberry-Ginger Pandowdy
Ingredients
for the crust:
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 3 - 4 tablespoons cold water
for the filling:
- 3 lb strawberries, halved or quartered if large
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons 1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
for the topping:
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2-3 tablespoons Swedish pearl sugar or any coarse sugar
Instructions
- We made the dough the night before making the pandowdy and refrigerated it. If not making it the night before, take care to leave yourself time to refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. Really, do yourself a favor and make it the night before, it makes the rest of the recipe go very quickly.
- In a food processor, pulse flour, ginger, sugar, and salt until you can see the ginger is evenly distributed in the flour. Add butter; pulse until it looks like coarse meal (wet, clumpy sand). Stream in the water and stop when it looks like dough. Check to see if you can easily shape it in your hands without crumbling. If not, add a little bit more water and try again. If the dough is wet, add a little flour and try again. Shape the dough into a round or rectangle and refrigerate, in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate at least 1-hour or overnight.
- The next day (or in an hour):
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Lightly flour a clean, flat surface and roll out the dough to it's a 1/4 inch thick circle. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, toss together the filling ingredients until evenly distributed and the apples look well coated. Pour into the bottom of a 1 1/2 - 2 quart pie plate. I used a deep dish pie plate that was 1.75 quarts.
- Top the strawberry mixture with the dough. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Piece the top with the tip of a knife to vent.
- Bake 20 minutes. Carefully remove the pie plate from the oven and using the tip of a sharp knife cut the crust in a criss-cross pattern leaving approximately 1/2 inch squares. Lightly press the dough into the filling and return to the oven for 35 more minutes or until browned and bubbling up in the cross-hatching.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
I’m back on my pandowdy game! I had vowed to pandowdy any fruit I came in contact with after making my delicious cranberry-apple pandowdy late last year but had to wait until something actually came in season. I’m on the fence about attempting a citrus pandowdy and I live in Maryland so my wait was long.
I would also very much like to make a rhubarb pandowdy but rhubarb is nowhere to be found (yet? is this something else I can blame on the pandemic?) but strawberries are coming into season on the East Coast so it’s pretty easy to find tasty ones. There is not a lot in this pandowdy–simply fruit and limited spices so you really need the berries to be at their peak flavor. It’s more budget-friendly to make it in season too, strawberries are a fraction of the cost they were a couple of weeks ago. I have not tried it with frozen fruit.
Strawberries are very juicy when baked so I suggest you don’t skip the corn starch or you will end up with a pastry island floating in a sea of strawberries which is not quite what you want. Luckily, cornstarch does not distract from the bright, clean strawberry flavor. I love ginger with strawberries, the spicyness really offsets the sweetness and in this recipe, the candied (crystallized) ginger really melts into the mixture and creates a sauce. 10/10 springtime dessert.
