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I often get asked about what to do with the surplus of summer blackberries that pop up in yards across the country this time of year. Before I embarked on the autoimmune protocol, I would make blackberry pie at every summer’s end. This tradition ended, as I had not been able to come up with a suitable crust recipe. Recently, I came up with a way of making crust, and my kitchen experimenting happened to collide perfectly with a surplus of berries – all around the time I was visiting my mom for her birthday. What I ended up with was a fantastic pie recipe, and the ability to share it with my family.
This recipe is as simple as they come – don’t be intimidated about cutting in the coconut oil. The idea is to leave little bits of fat in the dough, so that as the crust cooks it becomes flaky. I have only added a little honey to sweeten the naturally tart blackberries, but you can do without if you prefer. Feel free to adapt this recipe to suit any summer fruit you have available to you at the moment – I think it would work lovely with apples or pears, both coming available later in the season.
- For the Crust:
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup arrowroot flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ cup coconut oil
- ½ c cold water
- For the Filling:
- 6 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ¼ cup honey
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. To make the crust, combine the coconut flour, arrowroot flour, and sea salt in a large bowl. Cut in the coconut oil with a pastry cutter or stand mixer until you have pea-sized granules. Add the cold water, little by little, and mix until the dough is just moist enough to all stick together (it will still be pretty crumbly, not like regular dough).
- Place in a 9-inch deep pie dish, and spread evenly across the bottoms and sides using your fingers. Prick some holes around the bottom with a fork, and bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- While the crust is baking, place 3 cups of the blackberries and the lemon juice in a small saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil, and then turn to low and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the mixture has reduced and thickened. Take off the heat, stir in the honey and add the remaining blackberries. Pour into the baked pie crust, spreading it evenly into the corners.
- Turn up the heat to 350, and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.
47 comments
Thank you for this recipe! I can’t WAIT to try it!! It would be good with coconut whipped cream on top.
Yes it would! Enjoy! 🙂
I was excited to find a grain free egg free crust recipe. But I found this crust to be rubbery and not very tasty.
Hi Amy, Sounds like you may have overmixed the dough! It comes out flaky if it is just barely mixed together.
If im allowed to have butter can I swap the coconut oil for the same amount of butter for the crust?
Hi Norah, you could try it but I have never made this recipe with butter and no guarantees on your results.
Looks great – I can’t get arrowroot flour though, can I just double the coconut flour instead? thanks 🙂
Jo – Unfortunately it is the blend that works, all coconut flour won’t work. You are welcome to experiment though!
Thanks Mickey, will see if I can get hold of some online. Really want to make this pie!
Jo – can you get tapioca flour/starch? I have had luck interchanging that with arrowroot in other baked goods. They look and seem to behave in a very similar way.
Mickey – can’t wait to try this out! 🙂 I was just thinking recently how I needed a good replacement no-grain pie crust! 🙂 Yay!
Yes, Tapioca would be a good idea, come back and let me know if it works because I would love to add a note to the recipe. 🙂
I tried it with tapoica flour because I was out of arrowroot. It worked great. I had to add a little extra water (about 1/4c). I don’t know if that was just my measuring or the difference between tapioca & arrowroot.
Amanda,
Thanks for the feedback!
Mickey
Looks fantastic! Did it slice up very well?
It isn’t super thick and solid, more like a cobbler. I am willing to sacrifice traditional texture for natural, minimal ingredients! I served it at a birthday party and everyone loved it 🙂
Yum. Thank you so much! I am going to make this tonight!
I made this last night. Loved the cobbler-like consistency! I’ve never cooked with arrowroot flour before, and was surprised to find it to be very bitter. Any thoughts on sweetening it up a bit, maybe cinnamon? I thought you might have suggestions. 🙂
Veronica – are you sure it was the arrowroot, and not the blackberries? Cinnamon could work, and you could also replace some of the coconut oil with honey when you mix the dough. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe! I made it last night with peaches instead and my husband and I really liked it 🙂 Your website has been such a helpful resource as I have been doing the AIP.
Beth – Delicious! I have also made it with peaches, which are in season right now. So good!
Did you peel the peaches before cooking them? I don’t have blackberries on hand but I do have peaches. Will try this tonight. Thanks for the idea!
Could the crust be made with palm shortening instead of coconut oil?
You could try, or you can also try lard.
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Any chance of getting rid of the coconut flour? I absolutely can not eat coconut. I like tapioca products though.
Anna,
I have a couple of coconut-free desserts, you will find them under the “recipes” tab up above 🙂
Mickey
I have the same problem & was thinking of using the ginger crust from the pumpkin desert above for the crust on this.
I just bought your Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook after seeing Against all Grain post Tomatoless Meat Suace. Thank you so much! I am going to try this recipe with some frozen berries but will add some Great Lakes gelatin to the berries to get more of a pie like consistency for the filling. I’ll report back…
How did it work out with the gelatin? I was thinking of trying the same thing.
I made this today using fresh picked blueberries instead of blackberries. I doubled the sweetness and also added 2 tsp of arrowroot to the filling to make it firmer, which worked out very nicely. At room temperature it’s fairly sliceable. The crust turned out nicely. My husband and I gobbled up the crust just fine, but unfortunately the 3-year-old declared it yucky. 😉 I think it has potential to be made 3-year-old friendly though, so if I make it again I’ll add at least double the salt and maybe 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar.
Anyway, thanks for a great jumping off point! A lot of wheat-free crust recipes have dairy or eggs in them, so it was nice to find one that fit our diet. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback Elizabeth! Happy you guys enjoyed it!
Mickey
Hi there! I started Paleo a few weeks ago and LOVE picking fresh berries and homemade pies…. And I need to make but free for my toddler… So excited about trying this out… Is there any way to get the crust more pie like instead if cobbler like? And how would I do this with using blueberries? My favorite pie recipes have been through Betty Crocker lol so if I can make her pies Paleo if be in pie heaven!!!! Please help 🙂
Sorry I meant nut free
Hi Annie,
I don’t recommend changing the crust, I tested it many times and it is delicious the way I wrote it. You are welcome to do some tests in the kitchen to see if you can make it more pie like, but this is difficult with a grain and nut free crust. See some comments from others about using blueberries… it totally works!
Good luck!
Mickey
[…] Blackberry Pie (super easy) […]
Hi Mickey,
I couldn’t find the tutorial for “cutting in coconut oil” and have no idea what that even means. Help?
Thanks!!
Fernanda–here it is!
https://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/11/pie-crust-101/
Mickey
[…] […]
[…] Summer Blackberry Pie (Autoimmune Paleo) […]
Yummmmmmmm!!! My non-AIP roommates loved it and I’m going back for another slice.
Thanks for the recipe. Will be trying this with blueberries tomorrow.
P.S. I tried giving the recipe 5 stars but the site won’t let me. :-/
Thanks for the feedback Josianne! Happy your crew liked it 🙂
Thanks for this recipe! Do you think the pie would freeze well, either before or after baking? I don’t have any experience freezing pies with non-traditional crusts, so I’m not sure if freezing and baking will work as well.
Hey Sarah! I can’t comment because I haven’t frozen this one before. I would guess that freezing after baking would yield a better result than freezing the dough, but I can’t be sure. If you try, will you pop in to let us know how it goes?
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