Raspberry Swamp Pie
I made the dough (easy-peasy, in the food processor) ahead of time. I lay down plastic wrap, flour it, then lay the dough on top, and flour it, too.
I top the dough with another layer of plastic wrap and get to work -- first pressing the dough down with my palms.
Rolling, rolling, rolling.
This is how you measure to see if the dough will fit the pan. If you can't see the dough around the edge of the pie plate, then keep rolling!
After laying the dough in the plate, gently lift the edge to ease the dough further into the pan. It shouldn't stretch to the rim of the plate.
Aren't they pretty little buggers?
Adding the vanilla sugar. I make vanilla sugar by taking spent vanilla beans, putting them in a container, and covering them with sugar. Every once in a while, I give the container a shake.
Separating the egg for later.
Filling the pie base.
Time to roll out the other disk of dough!
Laying down the top crust.
Trimming the edges. I favor scissors which give you a lot of control.
I fold under the two layers of dough and press it flat. No crimping on this pie.
Brushing with beaten egg white.
Sprinkling with turbinado sugar.
Cutting vents -- this is a key step in swamp pie!
After baking the pie for 40 minutes, I pour a mixture of cream and egg yolk into the pie's center through a funnel.
Some of the cream doesn't cooperate -- thus, the swamp.
But it sure tastes good.
Author Notes: I like cream in my pie, not on my pie. So I was like a moth to light when I read Tamasin Day-Lewis’s Sugar-Topped Raspberry Plate Tart recipe, which starts as a pure-bred fruit pie for its first baking. Then comes the fun part: you take the pie out of the oven as its burbling with warm raspberry juices, and pour a custard through a funnel beneath the crust, like you’re flooding a mine. Then you send it into the oven for one last lashing of heat. The custard doesn't behave exactly as planned. Most of it floods the mine, while the rest floods the crust plain. It all gets a little swampy, in a good way.
I started with Day-Lewis's recipe but ended up somewhere else. I didn't bother with her crust, which I'm sure would have been fine, but it called for weights and I was miles from a scale. I turned to the crostata crust in Cucina Simpatica, but couldn't resist fussing. Taking a nod from Merrill's mom's recipe for Secret Cookies, I used salted butter. In place of the regular sugar, I opted for turbinado, and I increased the flour to make the dough slightly more cooperative.
In Italy, there are cookies called brutti ma buoni -- ugly but good. This pie is their sweet cousin. - amanda
Serves 8
For the pie crust
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out
- 2 sticks salted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon ice water, plus more if needed
For the filling
- 1 pound raspberries
- 1/3 cup vanilla sugar (or sugar blended with either the seeds of half a vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg, separated
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 3/4 cups heavy cream
- Place the sugar in the bowl of a food processor and puree until the sugar granules are fine. Add the flour, and pulse the mixture to blend.
- Add the cubed butter, and pulse until the butter is reduced to the size of small peas. With the motor running, add the ice water through the feed tube, and stop the machine as soon as a mass begins forming. If you pinch a small piece of dough and it holds together, this means it’s ready.
- Lay out two large squares of plastic wrap and divide the dough among them, making one lump slightly larger than the other. Use the plastic wrap to help you shape each mass into a disk, then wrap it up and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured board (or between layers of lightly floured plastic wrap), roll out the larger disk of dough to a circle 1/8-inch thick, about 12 inches in diameter. Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough. Chill the lined pie dough, while you roll out the other disk to a circle 1/8-inch thick.
- In a mixing bowl, fold together the raspberries, vanilla sugar, and flour. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy.
- Fill the lined pie plate with the raspberry mixture. Top with the second layer of dough. Trim the edges with scissors so there’s ¾-inch dough hanging from the edge of the pie plate. Roll this under to meet the edge of the plate and pat it down lightly to seal and flatten the edge. Brush the top of the pie with the egg white and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Cut a cross in the center of the pie and 4 vents around the rest of the pie.
- Bake the pie for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the cream and egg yolk in a measuring cup with a spout and leave out at room temperature. After 40 minutes, the pie top should be golden and there should be raspberry juices bubbling from the vents. Remove the pie from the oven.
- Press a funnel with a narrow tip into the center pie vent and slowly begin pouring in the cream mixture. Pour the cream into each of the pie vents. Some of the cream will sneak under the crust and some will pool on top. Don’t worry about how it looks, but go slowly so you don’t completely drown the crust.
- Set the pie back in the oven and bake until the cream just sets but is still a little wiggly in the center, about 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and let the pie cool off before serving -- or it will be more soupy than swampy!
- This recipe is a Community Pick!



11 months ago mbj913
i made blueberry swamp tart today. used favorite tart crust, pint bluberries, 1/2 of vanilla sugar and flour, then the cream and yolk for flooding worked well.
11 months ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Glad to hear a blueberry version worked well for you!
11 months ago mbj913
i was too lazy to make a creme anglaise for a fresh blueberry tart and this was much easier. definitely a keeper. someday when i'm motivated, i'll make your two-crust raspberry pie.
11 months ago JadeTree
Made this for Fourth of July to great acclaim! The crust was excellent, crisp and not too sweet - the three-year-old went around stealing everyone's crusts when he could. The filling is both tart and creamy - the flooding is brilliant and fun to do. Love this.
11 months ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Happy 4th!
over 1 year ago Shanaralane
This was so good!!!! Loved the crust. Loved the Turbinado sugar.
over 1 year ago Muncieats
I made this with fresh blueberries and it was really terrific. Everyone loved the crust. I didn't use all of the custard - it seemed like it was flooding a little too much.
Great recipe - thanks so much.
almost 2 years ago The Procrastobaker
I truly think i will be giving this one a go, it looks unique and utterly wonderful! Will let you know how it turns out if i do and thanks for sharing such a lovely recipe :)
almost 2 years ago paloma5892
I have a quick q if you have a second:
I just made a blueberry version, changing nothing except the fruit. And it is delicious, but it doesn't have the pools of custard that I lusted after from the photo. It sort of just made the filling more creamy, and there are a couple dollops towards the top.
I'm wondering what your thoughts on are why that might be? And how to fix it? Pourer error? Timing error? Something about the blueberries? My old, metal pie plate?
Otherwise, thanks for a fantastic summer recipe!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Interesting. I don't know the answer. Did you pour the cream mixture through in several places? Can't imagine the timing or pie plate had anything to do with it. Did the filling firm up enough to slice and serve? Could be the fruit, I guess, but never would have guessed it! Hope you weren't disappointed.
almost 2 years ago paloma5892
Amanda, if you have a second, I have a quick q: I just made a blueberry version, changing nothing except the type of fruit. It is delicious but lacks the pools of custard I see in this picture (which are calling to me). It sort of just made the filling more creamy, with a few small bits of custard just under the crust.
I'm wondering what your thoughts are on why that might be? Could it be because I used a metal pie plate? Or something to do with the blueberries? Or timing/method of pouring?
Thanks for the great summer recipe! I am a newly-obsessed reader.
almost 2 years ago AnnaKay
I'm still dreaming about this pie!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
I may have to make it again.
almost 2 years ago lasalle28
Wow this was good, my crust was a little thicker than I wanted, but tasted fantastic
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
So glad!
almost 2 years ago amt0023
I made this pie yesterday and it was the most delicious pie I have ever made. Thank you so much for the recipe! It was a hit!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Wow -- thank you!
almost 2 years ago creamtea
To paraphrase Kitchen Butterfly, I like cream with anything. Alas.
almost 2 years ago EmilyC
This is seriously good. I didn't have enough raspberries so I made up the difference with peaches. It's fun to eat and make -- loved the step of flooding the mine! I also really like the turbinado sugar in the dough. This is my new favorite pie.
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Glad you tried a variation and had suggest. I've been thinking of trying it with blueberries, or blueberries and blackberries.
almost 2 years ago lorigoldsby
there's nothin' ugly about this result!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
You are kind.
almost 2 years ago Sagegreen
I just love the name!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
Thank you.
almost 2 years ago sdebrango
Suzanne is a trusted source on General Cooking.
I like so much about this pie, flour as a thickener, salted butter, cream, turbinado sugar. I don't care how it looks it has to taste fantastic,
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
thanks.
almost 2 years ago Kitchen Butterfly
I like twice-baked anything! And this looks good......Flooding with custard, like a mine, Italian cousins all call out to me!
almost 2 years ago amanda
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
I hear you on the twice-baked.