Sugarless Honey-Blackberry Pie with Whole-Wheat Rye Crust

It's that time of year when the incessant snow and ice make you think longingly of summer...

Wait a minute... this is the second-mildest winter on record. I wore a T-shirt to the store today and was slightly too warm. There's a sunny blue sky above, with soft scudding clouds. 

Nevertheless, it's time to pull out the fruit we froze in September and make it into delicious pie. First up: farmers-market blackberries.

I wanted to make a sugarless fruit pie, very honey-flavored, and chose this recipe for the filling (from http://just-making-noise.blogspot.com/2009/07/crazy-about-mango-coconut-winsome.html, but heavily modified as noted below).

The recipe invoked above originally calls for a coconut crust, which sounds great. But I'm ornery by nature, so I didn't do that. My bottom crust was a pleasant rye-flour shell still in the freezer from the last pie (I made two batches). (I won't go back over the pie crust recipe, since it was discussed in that post). I did create a new top crust though: using a home-invented version of Carolyn's method involving 2/3 cup rye flour, and 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. I rolled the top out a bit thick, and thus it was a bit overbearing, though enjoyable. Overall this pie was meant to be fruity and not too sweet, and that certainly came out that way- the end results were heartily health-foody. The sort of pie you'd serve your vegan cousin after a kale-and-rice meal. (Confession: we're not vegan, but I think we actually ate this after a kale-and-rice meal. So, um. Never mind). 

The bottom crust- ready to roll! 

 The bottom crust: rolled out and draped.

The bottom crust, shaped. Note that I crimped it so beautifully before adding the top crust-- which was dumb.

Let's talk about the filling! As stated above, this recipe was stolen/corrupted from http://just-making-noise.blogspot.com/2009/07/crazy-about-mango-coconut-winsome.html, where the original poster undoubtedly knew more about pies than I ever will. Nevertheless, since I was looking for something sort of particular, I changed things pretty freely, as noted below. 

Filling:

• 1 pound (about 4 cups) frozen or fresh blackberries (I wound up using about 8 cups of frozen berries, which thawed down to perhaps 5 cups, though I didn't measure the end result too closely)
• 3/4 cup water (I used about 1/2 cup, because I was worried about too-loose filling)
• 1/2 cup honey (I used about 2/3 cup, 1/2 cup seemed forbiddingly not-sweet)
• 2 Tbsp. arrowroot powder (I used cornstarch, having failed to procure arrowroot)
• a hearty shake or three of cinnamon
• a light shake of powdered ginger
• juice from 1/4 lemon
• 1/4 cup warm water (this part I didn't change)
• handful of whole berries (ditto)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Add berries and water to a pot on medium heat. Let it warm up for a few minutes. Mix cornstarch and warm water, set aside. Add honey and bring it to a gentle simmer. Stir in cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice. Lower heat and add starch mixture. The mixture will get thick very quick. Let it simmer for a few more minutes.

Here's a photo of the mixture, simmering:

Pour into crust and throw in a handful of whole berries to give it a chunky texture. 

Here it is, poured hot into a hot shell.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or till it gets bubbly (I left mine in about 45 min). Pull out and let it cool completely before transferring it to the fridge.

My top crust, which as you can see was thick and wheaty, worked pretty well, though it dominated the more delicate bottom crust a little.

The results were pretty great: even with the extra honey (and, as pictured at top, some agave-and-cinnamon-and-vanilla-flavored whipped cream), this pie was heartily, robustly healthy-tasting, reminiscent of extra-whole-grain wheat bread and somehow still bursting with exciting berryness. The berry filling itself was a bit jammy due to the freeze-and-thaw-and-simmer dynamic (and the berries also turned out to be crunchily seed-heavy), but it still tasted enough like real fresh fruit to be pretty exciting. All in all, this might not be the decadent symphony-of-sin pie you dream of- but it's very satisfying all the same.

Overhead photo: