About a week ago, my mom picked blueberries at a local farm and even though I had the best of intentions to eat massive amounts of blueberries until they were gone, I felt I wanted to make something to use some of them up. I am a big fan of cherry pie and thought a nice blueberry pie would be yummy.
Whenever, I have an abundance of anything, I usually go to All Recipes website and do a search of the ingredient and see what comes up. I found a great simple recipe for a blueberry pie here.
Usually what I like to do when I first see a recipe is to see how I can lighten it up or improve the quality of the ingredients. In this case, I planned to use unrefined, organic sugar (and 1/3 less of it) instead of refined, processed sugar. The other changes I made were to add an additional tablespoon of cornstarch as some of the reviewers had mentioned. I purchased a basic deep dish frozen pie crust from my local market but if you are close to a Whole Foods (mine is about 40 mins away), I’m positive there are other healthy options. I even recall they had a gluten free pie crust. I also chose to forgo the pretty lattice top to the pie because that’s just extra carbs.
Here’s the recipe I ended up with:
- 1 frozen deep dish pie crust
- 4 cups blueberries rinsed
- 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice organic sugar
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 375. Mix cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl. Sprinkle over blueberries and mix. Pour ingredients into the pie crust and dot the pie with small pieces of the butter. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
I just topped with some real whipped cream not Cool Whip which it basically hydrogenated oil.
Here’s a pic of the finished product:
It’s hard for me to make any baked goods and have it sitting around the house. I have a sweet tooth and it’s just temptation. I would bake this if I was having people over (which was the case this time) or if I was going to a bbq. This way I could have a piece and not have the rest of the pie sitting in my house.
I hope the next time you have an abundance of blueberries you’ll give this recipe a try.
Thanks for the recipe! I love blueberry season – they’re so delicious and easy to pick, unlike raspberries. Just grab ‘em in handfuls and no thorns.
Ooh! this looks lovely. Lately I’ve been making cobblers rather than pies–cobbler topping seems easier than pie crust to health-ify without ruining the texture. DH has a major sweet tooth but he needs to keep a bit of an eye on his cholesterol so I’m always on the lookout for heart-healthy dessert recipes.
Thanks for commenting ladies! I must try experimenting with cobblers. I’m sure it’s easy to come up with a healthy topping. Maybe some oats, nuts, brown sugar, some butter. Only bad thing is when I think of cobbler I usually think of ice cream!
Mmmmm…. this looks so yummy! DH took me BB picking on my bday so we have loooots of berries. I’m gonna try out your recipe! Thanks Julie!
Would love to hear how it comes out Cath!