Blackberry Pie

When I was a little girl, every summer we would visit my Grandma's farm in upstate New York. My dad would cut trails through the brush and we would have grand adventures following the trails. Hidden in the brush were usually some wild blackberries. We would gather them and bring them back to Grandma who loved to make berry pies.

This is the same Grandma who sent me a message from heaven when I was trying to decide whether to try the GFCF Diet with the Prince. Celiac runs in our family, and when word got around that we were considering this, my aunt sent me a recipe card written by my Grandma that had all her GF notes and tricks she used when cooking for my cousin, who has Celiac. When the note came in the mail, it was my private signal from Grandma that we should try the diet.

But when Grandma made pies for most of the family (who were not GF), she had that wonderful flaky Crisco crust that I could never duplicate. Here is my GFCF version of her recipe, which brings back fond memories of my summer childhood rambles.

Easy Berry Pie

(based on Whole Foods recipe)

Bette Hagman's Very Best Cereal Crust:

1 cup GF rice flakes

1 cup GF corn flakes

3 TB brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 TB butter substitute, melted (like Earth Balance)

1/2 cup coconut, crushed

Filling:

4 cups berries of choice (blackberry, strawberry, blueberry)

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

3 TB cornstarch

To make crust: crush coconut in a food processor, add cereals and continue to crush. Mix in sugar and cinnamon. Mix in butter and press into bottom of a 9" pie pan. Bake at 375 for about 5-8 minutes until lightly browned.

For a no-bake crust, you can substitute 2 cups of crushed ginger cookies for the cereal. Instead of baking, chill until ready to use.

To make the filling: Mash 2 cups of berries. Place in a saucepan, add water, heat over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Meanwhile, mix the cornstarch with sugar. Add to the hot berries. Stir constantly until mixture thickens (about 3-5 minutes).

Remove from heat and cool for about an hour, or until cool enough to handle.

Scatter remainder of raw berries in pie crust. When filling is cool, pour over berries. Let pie chill for about 24 hours then serve.

If your little ones do not like the texture or seeds of the raw berries, you can omit them and just use the cooked berry filling, which is very sweet and almost like a jam.