Whole Pie Crust?
 

Hi all,

Bf and I decided to make a chicken pot pie for dinner tonight, with tons of veggies and chicken and only topped with the crust to save on calories. As I was making the crust though, I wondered about the possibilities for a pie crust with an actual nutritional profile. What would happen if you used part kamut flour and part wheat flour? Or threw in a tb of flax seed meal or wheat germ? Has anyone tried this?

King Arthur Flour makes a whole wheat pastry flour that's supposed to work well with pie crusts.

There is a recipe for a whole wheat pie crust on my bag of whole wheat pastry flour. I think as long as you use a low gluten flour it would turn out just fine. It'll still be high in fat though.

I haven't tried this, but I have a recipe for a lower fat whole wheat pie crust. It's from The Enlightened Kitchen. Here it is:

2c whole wheat pastry flour
1/4t salt
1/3c silken lite tofu
2T mild olive oil
1/3c ice water

Spray deep-dish pie pan with oil.

Place pastry flour and salt in food processor and pulse to mix. Ad tofu and oil and process. With motor running, pour ice water and process until mixture comes together in a ball. Roll out in between wax paper. Peel off wax paper and press dough into pan. Crimp edge.

1/8th of recipe: 143 calories, 5g protein, 23g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 4g fat

Thanks for reminding me that I have this recipe. It's really the only reason I've held onto this cookbook. I need to try it soon.

Wow, I wonder what pie dough with tofu tastes like! Someone has to try that and report back.

I have some whole wheat pastry flour here at home that works nicely as a substitute for white flour; I'm just not always sure that the nutritional benefits of ww flour are enough to outweigh the sacrifices in texture that the substitution usually requires. WW pastry flour is a bit better though.

No one has tried sprinkling healthy stuff (flax, wheat germ, bran) directly into a pie crust?

And yes, it's still very high in fat, but if you want to eat pie crust once in a while, there ought to be a way to make it nutritious as well as delicious. :)

Well it shouldn't taste like anything with tofu. I've used silken tofu before and it is awesome stuff. If you are worried about texture, you could try half ww pastry flour, half white.

It isn't pie crust, specifically, but I often make homemade chicken pot pies with whole wheat pizza dough. I find it works well.

Anne