Grain-Free Blueberry Pie

Summer is just around the corner and what says summer better than a nice berry pie? Ok, maybe a grilled burger and hot dog might come close but, whatever. It’s berry season and it’s time to take advantage!

This post was actually THIS CLOSE to being a strawberry poppy seed dressing. Which still sounds pretty great but I nixed it at the last hour. Want to know why??

Well as it turns out, a former colleague of mine, Nick Nappi is currently a contestant on Fox’s Master Chef. (So tune in to cheer for him and you can  follow him on Facebook HERE.) Last week’s challenge was for them to bake an apple pie and it got me thinking… if it was me up there I’d be damn sure I was heading home that day because I have no idea how to make a proper paleo pie crust. So Wednesday night I switched up my game and figured out exactly what kind of crust and pie I wanted to make. Whole Foods’ One Day Sale Item this week is berries so it seemed to me that the universe was telling me to make a berry pie. And blueberry it was.

It took me a couple of tries to get this just right but I finally figured it out and am happy to say it’s delicious! Something I wanted to keep in mind while developing this recipe was to keep the crust simple enough for anyone to make. I always seek out to make my recipes day and doable for everyone and sometimes pie crusts can be a little tricky.

As far as the crust goes, you have a couple of options here. There’s enough of the dough to create the bottom crust and a full top crust. But personally I really like the taste of the berries and think a full top crust takes away from that a bit and makes it a bit heavy for a summer pie. And it’s kind of a pain if you ask me, and I’m a bit lazy so I opted for option number two.

The other option is to roll out the dough and cut some shapes out using a cookie cutter and place them on top. I love how festive it looks and for me personally it gives a better filling to crust ratio. It’s your call. You can also add a bit more sugar to the remaining dough, cut them into cookies, bake them and you have yourself a nice little shortbread cookie. In fact, I’m planning to post a separate recipe for those with some different variations that you can make so stay tuned.

A secret to this pie to definitely mashing the blueberry mix up a bit to release some of the juices before you load them into the pie crust. That way when it bakes it gets nice and syrupy. And personally I like this pie more once it’s chilled. Maybe because it’s almost summer? It tastes delicious warm too so that will be simply a matter of personal preference.

I also love the flavor the cinnamon adds to this so make sure you don’t skimp on it!

Anyways, don’t let this pie intimate you as it’s pretty simple and it’s the perfect thing to take to any summer get together.

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5 from 2 votes

paleo blueberry pie

A paleo gluten and grain free summer favorite, blueberry pie!

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time1 hr 15 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Paleo

Servings: 8

Author: the whole smiths

Ingredients

• 4 C. almond flour
• 3 TBPS. tapioca flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of cold ghee
• 1 TBSP. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 TBSP. coconut sugar
• 6 C. fresh blueberries
• 1/2 C. coconut sugar
• 3 TBSP. arrowroot flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice from 1/2 lemon

Instructions

Crust:

• Preheat oven to 350*
• In a large bowl combine almond flour, tapioca flour, salt, baking soda and coconut sugar
• Add egg and vanilla and combine
• Once combined, add cold ghee and use a pastry cutter to cut ghee into dough
• Once ghee in incorporated into dough and cut into small pea sized amount knead dough into a loose ball and put onto parchment paper
• Roll about 1/2 of the dough out until it is 1/4 inch thick (doing so between parchment paper will prevent sticking)
• Once rolled out gently peel one side of parchment paper off and flip doing into a pic pan carefully
• If any pieces break, simply press tears together
• Roll out second piece of dough and either roll out flat like first version for a closed crust or use cookie cutter shapes to create a pattern

Filling:

• In a large bowl toss blueberries, coconut sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest and arrowroot powder together until blueberries are coated
• Using a fork or potato masher gently smash blue berries mixture to break open some of the blueberries (this will help them release their moisture later)
• Toss again with lemon juice

To assemble:

• Pour blueberry mix into pie crust evenly
• Place solid crust over the top and pinch sides in or place cookie cutouts over top of blueberries
• Bake for 25 minutes
• Then place a loose tin foil tent over pie and bake for a remaining 20 minutes
• Let cool and serve

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