Pie as Promised

 

     As promised, I will now post about the pie I created a few days ago; Strawberry-Blue-barb with walnut streusel topping. A couple of factors were at work in the creation. As always I was trying to take advantage (again for both health and ecology) of fresh local produce. I grew the rhubarb and picked the blueberries myself.

That said, I'm not a big dessert eater, and am always trying to super-food up every dish I make. How can I tweak a traditional recipe to make it better for my body and the earth?
     With old fashioned desserts I start by reducing the white sugar that the recipe calls for. It's simple to do and often can be as much as halved. I find this actually improves the taste most of the time. Even though the strawberry jam I use is sweetened only with fruit juice it still does the trick quite nicely, especially when combined with the streusel topping.  Then I eliminated the top crust usually called for, reducing the fattening pastry by 50%. The addition of the streusel topping with both oats and chopped walnuts boosts the nutrition factor a bit. To stick with the super-food concept I would serve this with vanilla frozen yogurt if going a la mode. Anyway you slice it, this version got a lot of thumbs up.

Strawberry Blue-barb Pie with Walnut Streusel Topping

1 1/2 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, drained
small jar of all natural strawberry jam
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup oats
1/4 brown sugar
1/4 chopped walnuts


Directions:

1.In a large bowl, combine rhubarb, blueberries and jam. Combine sugar, flour and salt. Sprinkle over the fruit; toss lightly. Line a pie plate with pastry; add filling.
2. Cut butter into last three ingredients to make a streusel and sprinkle on top of pie.
3. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350; bake 35 minutes longer or until golden brown. Let stand awhile before slicing.