A healthier Blueberry Pie with Olive Oil Crust and Crumble, you will not find, with crushed almonds, spelt flour, unrefined sugar and quality olive oil.
A Healthy Blueberry Pie Recipe?
Who says pie needs to be drowning in butter and over processed flour and sugar!
This fabulous blueberry pie, perhaps the most delicious pie I’ve ever made, was an accident.
I had a little sweet tooth but wanted to be mindful of not pigging out on a ton of naughty ingredients.
Having spent a week cooking, partying and pigging out with all my family I needed something less naughty.
And then… this amazing accident pie happened.
Easy Pie Crusts That Don’t Need Rolling
Once I started making pie crusts differently than how I grew up making them, the options became endless.
With crushed nuts or oats as a replacement for all-purpose flour, the texture becomes more like a cookie.
This type of pie crust is so easy that I now make lots of small individual pie crusts, tuck them into the freezer and pull them out as needed.
Individual pies look lovely on a large platter for a gathering, but also become a quick dessert when it’s just for two.
Olive Oil Pie Crust and Crumble
Back in the day, when I was a kid and learning to cook, I learned to stick to a recipe, measure everything precisely and always use butter when baking sweets. Not anymore!
When baking cookies, pies, cakes or even crackers, you need fat. So why not use a vegetable fat, especially one that tastes amazing and a bit exotic?
The famous Pizzelle cookies that Italians have been making for centuries, are always made with olive oil and they are fabulous!
Using half cup of good quality olive oil in this pie instead of butter, made all the difference. The texture and flavor is amazing.
Pie crusts, that are not a ‘roll-out’ pie crust, but rather a press into the pan, pie crust, makes for a quick and often heather pie crust.
Had I used wheat flour instead of nut flour and spelt flour, it would have rolled out, but I was also looking to move away from a basic, over-processed wheat crust too.
How To Make Olive Oil Pie Crust?
First, crushed nuts, I used almonds, elevate this pie crust into a cookie-like texture. This crust uses spelt flour instead of wheat, though a whole wheat flour can be used.
Secondly, spelt flour, my choice of flour, as it is an easily digestible grain that has been around for as long as wheat flour. Difference? It never got over-processed as did wheat.
Thirdly, we need a sweet pie crust, kind of like a cookie which turns a good pie into a fabulous pie. Panela sugar, 100% unprocessed, unrefined organic cane sugar, is what I used.
Last, for the pie crust, is an egg to bind it together. Very quickly you’ve got a dough you can easily press and shape into the pie dish, saving 1/3 of the dough to crumble across the top of the pie.
- Nuts in a pie crust are really just a wheat flour replacement.
- Oats can also be used instead of nuts should you have nut allergies.
- Crushed nuts make for a more rustic crust instead of a tightly bound crust that wheat flour makes.
- A spice of your choosing, mine is cardamom but cinnamon is great too and you’ve got a pie crust that beats most cookies!
Blueberry Pie Filling
Blueberry pie filling really only needs two ingredients: blueberries and a starch to bind the juices that are released from the berries while baking.
The starch is often corn starch but I am not a big fan of corn starch so I used potato starch. In my experience, potato starch binds even better than corn starch does.
Another option for a binder is arrowroot or tapioca starch (yucca starch), can also be used.
From those two ingredients I added just a few more to tweak the berries: lemon juice for tart, Panela (raw) sugar for sweet (agave or maple syrup can be used instead), and a few eggs to hold it together into a custard kind of texture.
This blueberry pie filling is one I will also use for Blueberry Tarts, an easy party gathering dessert option.
Who Doesn’t Love An Easy Pie Crust Hack!
Because I have a large family, one in which we all love to cook, a gathering is an ultra special occasion.
However, I am often guilty of spending way to much time preparing lots of food and not enough time with them when together.
For this reason, I created a simple Pie Crust Hack so that I could easily make up lots of tart crusts, sweet or savory, tuck them into the freezer for one less thing to do later.
Using the lids on wide-mouth Mason jars, inverting the lid inside of the rim, makes for an affordable cluster of tart pans to make lots with.
Ingredients Needed
- Olive oil
- Eggs
- Raw sugar
- Almonds
- Spelt flour
- Cardamom
- Salt
- Blueberries
- Lemon juice
- Potato starch
Equipment Needed
- Food processor or hand mixer with a mixing bowl
- Pie baking dish
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Citrus press
- Wooden spoon
- Oven
Blueberry Pie with Olive Oil Crust and Crumble
Equipment
- Pie pan
- Food processor or hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Olive oil
- 1 Egg
- 3/4 cup Raw sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 cup Almonds crushed
- 2 cups Spelt flour or whole wheat
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 cups Fresh Blueberries whole
- 1 cup Crushed Blueberries or pureed
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tbsp Potato starch or cornstarch
Instructions
- Crust – In a food processor, or with a hand mixer, blend the crushed almonds, flour, spice, salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix the egg and oil together in a small cup. Whisk it into the dry mixture until the crust comes together into a rough crumbled texture.
- Press 2/3 of this crust mixture into a pie pan and set aside the other 1/3 for the crumble on top of the blueberry filling.
- Filling – place the whole blueberries into the pie crust. Whisk together the crushed blueberries, lemon juice, remaining sugar, eggs and starch. Pour this mixture on top of the whole berries. Sprinkle the remaining pie crust mixture on top of the filling.
- Bake in a 350 degrees oven for about 40 minutes or until the center feels firm to the touch.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.