Pie has been around since the days of the Egyptians. It made its European debut in the 14th century according to the Oxford Dictionary. Those original pies were made of goat cheese and honey, fowl, or cherries.
In fact, they used to call the crust a “coffyn” because they used a basket/cooking pot to hold the insides – but this “coffyn” wasn’t eaten.
Pies traveled to America with the English settlers. They continued to use the European “coffyns” until the American Revolution, where “crust” was coined. This flaky crust grew in popularity and the filling evolved with the birth of the United States of America.
Today, we eat crusts on pies filled with fruit, pudding, meat, or vegetables. Most crusts are still crisp yet flaky, and are often made of all-purpose flour.
But this recipe is for a hearty whole wheat pie crust. The base is whole wheat flour combined with ice cold butter. That’s pulsed together with salt and water until a thick dough is formed.
The whole wheat dough is rolled out into a top and bottom crust, laid in a dish, and sandwiched around a delicious filling.
After it’s baked, the crust is a dark color with the flakiness you expect from a buttery dough.
This whole wheat pie crust tastes best around a traditional chicken pot pie filling, meat and gravy, or stewed red fruits with fresh whipped cream on top.
Whole Wheat Pie Crust (made from hard red wheat berries)
A hearty version of the traditional pie crust. Made with freshly ground whole wheat flour from hard red wheat berries.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour, + 2 tablespoons, and extra for rolling out the dough
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, unsalted and cold
- ¼ cup water, plus ice
- Filling of your choice (fruit, chicken pot pie, minced meat, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Grind 1 cup of fresh whole wheat flour by blending 1.5 cups of hard red wheat berries in the Vitamix Dry Container for 1 minute.
- Pulse the flour and butter in a food processor until the butter is finely chopped to about pea-sized.
- Add in the salt and water, and continue pulsing until the dough forms a ball.
- Knead for 1-2 minutes on the counter, before rolling out to the size of your pie plate.
- Fill the pie plate with filling (fruit, chicken pot pie, etc.). Then top with your dough. Trim off the excess dough around the edges, and press the dough to the dish.
- Bake at 400F for 20-30 minutes, until the dough is baked and golden brown.
Notes
It's always a smart idea to place your pie plate onto a baking sheet while baking...if any juices decide to ooze out of your pie, the sheet pan will catch them (instead of the bottom of your oven!).
If desired, double this recipe to make both a top and bottom crust. Prebake the bottom crust in the dish for 20 minutes. Then fill with the filling, add the second piece of crust on top, and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 373Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 256mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 3gSugar: 0gProtein: 4g
