June 2013 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Life of Pie

Crostata di Marmellata - dairy free crust & blueberry honey jam filling

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie!


Of our four choices, I chose the Crostata di Marmellata; although I am very late in posting!  Better late than never?  My boys certainly thought so!  It was devoured.


To read the full challenge and see all four yummy choices and their recipes, please CLICK HERE and visit Rachael at pizzarossa. 

I faced several challenges with this recipe (and found myself very thankful for the Internet and blogs!)

First, I needed a dairy-free crust (preferably without resorting to shortening.)
Second, I wanted to avoid using white flour.
Third, I wanted to avoid using refined sugar.

I was so happy to stumble upon Rosalie's Never Fail (Dairy-Free) Pie Crust recipe at The Joyful Baker!  The recipe uses coconut oil instead of butter - brilliant!

I made a couple of modifications to the crust (one of which likely made my work more challenging than it should have been.)  I substituted King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour for the unbleached all-purpose flour.  Bad idea.  Substituting 1/3 cup would have worked better.  I learned my something new!  Whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour.  I also substituted 1/4 tsp vanilla for 1/4 tsp of the water.  Yum!  Next time, I will try Rosalie's way of making this crust.  Although I had to put a sheet of plastic wrap over the dough to prevent it from falling apart (likely due to my flour exchange), the dough turned out and tasted really great!

As for the filling... Lisa at 100 Days of Real Food was awesome enough to share a recipe from Ashley Eller (of Sweetie Pie Bakery) for Strawberry Honey Jam.  This jam is pectin free and does not use refined sugar.  I made some and it was delicious!  However, my eldest (Monkey) glared daggers at me for even considering the use of his favorite toast topper.   So, I picked up some blueberries at a local berry farm and made the Blueberry Honey Jam by substituting blueberries for the strawberries.  YUM!

I wanted to make my own apricot jam for the glaze, to completely avoid the use of refined sugar.  However, the only apricots I could find were expensive and not local.  So, I bought a tiny jar of apricot jam and used that for the glaze.

To create this delicious treat I made the jam the day before.

Crostata di Marmellata
1.  I made and canned Blueberry Honey Jam following the recipe at 100 Days of Real Food.
2.  I made the pie crust (mostly - see comments above) following the Never Fail (Dairy-Free) Pie Crust recipe at The Joyful Pantry.

3. Using 2/3 of the pie dough, I baked a single crust as directed in the original recipe.

Shh... pretend I did a better job with my foil and part of the edge is not too dark...

4.  I added two cups of Blueberry Honey Jam.

5. Using the last of the pie dough, I created the lattice topping.  (And cut out a few stars for the 4th of July!)

6. I baked the pie as directed in the original recipe.
7. I made the apricot glaze.
8. After removing the pie, I brushed the glaze onto the pie crust.

Did I forget to mention that my picky eater even ate the edge of the crust?!  It was not secretly disposed of in the garbage.  The magic of glaze?!

Now, to see some real works of art, check out the Life of Pie Challenge in the recipe archive at The Daring Kitchen.  And, don't forget to visit pizzarossa!

Rachael, thank you for this amazing challenge!