Cherry-Nectarine Pandowdy Recipe
Flawless pastry crusts are expected when you are making a lattice-top or double-crust pie, but if you're in need of a more forgiving fruit dessert, look to the pandowdy. Popular in the 1800s and early 1900s, it is essentially cooked fruit under a pastry crust. But unlike a cobbler, the cook uses a fork to break, or "dowdy" the crust. As the dish cools, the broken crust absorbs the sweet juices from the cooked fruit, creating a deliciously messy dessert. While developing this recipe, Test Kitchen Professional Deb Wise was reminded of a favorite childhood dessert. Made with gooseberries, boysenberries, or blackberries, the dessert had a double crust that Deb's grandmother would "break open to let the juices bubble up and over it." Deb adds her own twist to the pandowdy by using plump nectarines and cherries and a pretty patchwork-style crust, thick enough so that it doesn't disappear into the filling.