You can toss almost any grains, beans and vegetables into a soup and create a nutritious meal. You can do the same with a pie crust. Whether you top your ingredients with another crust, mashed potatoes, cracker or bread crumbs, you can still get away with hiding a lot of nutritious ingredients inside.To avoid the trans-fatty acids in shortening and the cholesterol in butter and lard, I use vegetable oil in my crust, preferably olive oil.
Whole Wheat Pie Crust Mix
Mix flour and salt. Gradually add vegetable oil, stirring well, or use electric mixer. If not used within 1 month, store in refrigerator or freezer. (More oil makes the crust more tender, but I'd rather have fewer calories.)
6 c. whole wheat flour 1 1/2-2 c. vegetable oil 1 T. salt To make a double crust, measure 2 1/8 c. dry mix. Sprinkle 6-8 t. ice water on mixture, stirring lightly with a fork. Do not overmix.
Shape into a ball and place half of ball in a gallon zip-loc or large plastic bag (the kind you get at the grocery store when you buy fruits and vegetables). Roll out to fit pan. Cut sides of bag and peel off one side of plastic. Lay exposed crust on pan. Remove other side of plastic and press crust into pan. Repeat with top crust.
If single crusts start to get too brown during baking, cut thin strips of aluminum foil and cover crust, pressing excess foil under rim of pie pan.
Copyright 1999 by Natural Meals Publishing. The information in this section may be freely used for non-profit purposes as long as the book source and author remain intact. Express permission of the author, Rita Bingham, must be received for commercial profit.
Updated: 24 Mar 99