I am filled with gratitude that I was born in Canada. While I love to travel, I feel blessed to call Canada home. July 1 is Canada day. We’ll be 152 years old on Monday. Our family’s Canada Day celebration is low-key, without a lot of hoopla, much like Canada herself. But I can’t let the day go unmarked without baking something to celebrate. Plus, it gave me a perfect excuse to use my new Maple Leaf cookie cutter, that I found at Kitchenalia.

For those not familiar with the term, “slab pie” (my husband puzzled over the name), it is essentially a pie baked in a sheet pan. A quarter sheetpan, measuring 9×13 inches will feed at least 12 people, very generously.

As usual, it took me more than one attempt to get this slab pie perfect. While the first pie was still delicious, it just wasn’t camera ready. No one here complained too much about having to eat a second pie.

I srtarted with my favourite browned butter pie crust. In my first attempt, I rolled out the top crust and cut maple leaves out it. It was very pretty and clearly identifiable as a Canadian Maple leaf before it went into the oven.

However, during the baking process, the pastry puffed up, the strawberry juices bubbled over and the finished pie was not as I had envisioned. I quickly realized why we see so many unbaked pies on Instagram. The heat of the oven makes many of those intricate pretty details are a little less defined.

For round two, I decided to use the reverse process. Instead of rolling out a top crust, I just topped the berries with the cut outs.

Much better! While the maple leaves still got a bit distorted, you could certainly tell what they were.

While I’m not a frequent pie baker, I did learn a few tips from this baking venture, which I’m happy to share with you.

1. Strawberries need a bit of acid to make them really shine. A bit of lemon zest and juice help wake up the flavours. If you’re using local berries, you won’t need very much sugar. For 3 pounds of berries I only added 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar.
2. To thicken the juices, I prefer to use Tapioca Starch (aka tapioca flour) rather than flour or cornstarch, which can make the juices a bit cloudy. Mix the berries with the tapioca flour, sugar and lemon zest and juice and let sit for at least 45 minutes.
3. Place an empty baking sheet in the oven while it is preheating. When you put your slab pie on the preheated baking sheet, it gives the pie an extra blast of heat and you won’t suffer from a soggy bottom.

Whether your family eats the pie right out of the baking sheet like some people I know, or you get all fancy and serve it on a plate with a scoop of vanilla ice ceream, this Strawberry Slab pie is sure to be a hit at your Canada Day celebration.