Peach Crumble Slab Pie

Shame on me for not posting this recipe sooner. Dad requested this for dessert on Father's Day, and I think it turned out better than ever. Must have been all the love!

Plan to start making this 2 or 3 hours before you want to eat it, longer if you are going to refrigerate the crust.

1. Eventually you will need to preheat oven to 425 - don't do it immediately because it will take some time to get everything ready to go! 
2. Place large rimmed cookie sheet on bottom of oven; arrange oven rack on the lowest position and a second rack in the center position. 
3. When ready to bake pie, move cookie sheet from bottom of oven to bottom rack and place pie on baking sheet. The really hot cookie sheet helps the crust bake to perfection. 
4. Bake 15 minutes.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 375.
6. Move baking sheet and pie to center rack; continue baking until pie is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
7. Remove to wire rack to cool completely before slicing. (We never wait that long!)

Crust 
1-1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Blend flour and salt together in bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour until mixture forms small chickpea-size pieces. Add ice water 1 tablespoon at at time until mixture is just moist enough to hold together. Form dough into a large ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Optional: refrigerate at least 1 hour. 

Use a lightly floured rolling pin and cloth (a clean pillowcase can work!) to roll out a circle for a 9-inch pie pan. Use flour as needed to keep from sticking. Gently press into pan and completely up the edges so pastry is flush with the top of the pan. No need to crimp the edges. Cover and return to fridge while preparing the filling and topping.

Filling
5 cups peeled and sliced peaches
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix peaches and lemon juice together. In separate bowl stir together sugar, flour and cinnamon; mix with peaches. Pour into prepared pie dish.

Topping
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Mix in butter with pastry blender or fingertips until mixture is uniformly moist and comes together in large clumps. Top pie filling with topping.

Follow directions for baking above.

You can double everything and make a 9x13-inch pie and invite your neighbors! Don't forget the vanilla ice cream.