Deep Filled Blueberry Pie with Peanut Butter Pastry – a gluten-free recipe for breakfast or dessert
A recipe for a deep filled blueberry pie with a sweet, crunchy streusel topping and thick peanut butter pastry. A fancy weekend breakfast option which is such a treat, it could be served as a dessert. Top it with a generous dollop of thick and creamy coconut yoghurt and you’ve got yourself a little piece of food heaven.
When you give a food preparation a little more time and energy, you are rewarded with something a little extra special. Nothing beats a home-cooked meal with freshly prepared ingredients – it just tastes better and feels like a nice warm hug inside. I think weekend cooking should be just like that. Spend some time deciding what you would love to eat, plan the grocery shopping and choose the best, locally sourced ingredients you can find. Play some chilled out relaxing music while you make magic in the kitchen. The fruits of your labour will be rewarded in a dish you could not have bought at any supermarket. Maybe you could get close if you went to a local café where they supply freshly home-made food but you’d have to pay for the privilege and you can’t be helping yourself to a 2nd portion when you fancy! Granted, you have had to cook it and somebody needs to tidy up and clean the dishes (that will be me…) but you enjoy things so much more when you have worked hard for them and created them yourself. Cooking is something to enjoy – both in the doing and the eating. Immerse yourself in the process and it can become a really mindful, enjoyable, meditative experience (unless you’ve got hungry teenagers hanging about only interested in when will it be ready, chanting I am hungry right nowww… hmmm!).
About this recipe for Deep Filled Blueberry Pie with Peanut Butter Pastry
Pastry – traditionally made with a mix of flour, butter, ice-cold water and maybe an egg (whole or yolk). Well, I am always up for change and like a challenge so I set out to make a gluten-free pastry with a difference. That’s were peanut butter comes in. The addition of this delicious spread is actually the overriding flavour in the pastry – something I was delighted with when tasting it. The thick sides of the pie become biscuit like in a crunchy consistency – a delightful contrast to the juicy baked blueberries.
Think: crunchy peanut butter biscuit with blueberry jam and cream on top and you’ve got it – delicious right?!
The rest of the pastry consists of nutty ground almonds and buckwheat flour plus some good quality butter, an egg and some caramel tasting brown sugar for sweetness.
And that’s just the pastry…..
Now for the filling…..blueberries are delightful just as they are from the punnet – but mixed with lemon juice, lemon zest and a little sugar – now you’re talking. Mix some buckwheat flour and arrowroot powder in to thicken the juices as they bake and that punnet of simple blueberries becomes the star show of this deep filled pie. It’s all quick to assemble in one bowl, ready to fill your pastry when it comes out of the oven.
Topping – do you need a topping for this pie when it’s already got such a lovely thick, crunchy crust and generous amount of juicy blueberries? Not really, but life’s short and there’s only so many pies you’re going to eat in one lifetime so may as well go the extra mile and put a topping on that pie!! It will take seconds to rub some quick cook oats into some butter and brown sugar and it really does finish off this dish nicely – aesthetically and in taste.
Good things to know:
- Apart from the obvious ingredients in this recipe (blueberries!) the other important ones which make this recipe stand out from your standard blueberry pie, are; PEANUT BUTTER & LEMON JUICE/ZEST
- Topping your pie with a generous dollop of COCONUT YOGHURT I would say is essential in completing this dish.
- I use a silicone mat for rolling out the pastry. This handy mat has been so helpful to me when making pastry which requires a larger surface area for rolling and it also helps with the measurements when fitting pastry into your pie dish. You can find them on Amazon for under £10 – definitely worth it.
- It is best to make the pastry dough in a food processor due to the addition of the peanut butter. The blade on the processor helps to cut through the peanut butter and completely mix it into the dough. If you are making the dough by hand, be sure to really work the peanut butter into the flour before adding the butter so you are not handling the dough too much.
- This pie is best served when cooled/at room temperature – just warm enough to start melting a dollop of coconut yoghurt or ice-cream. You can eat it cold from the fridge for the next 2-3 days too and it tastes just as good!
- The dough contains no gluten, so you do not need to worry about the gluten forming when mixing the dough. You can simply put all of the pastry dough ingredients into the food processor together at once.
- I used a baking dish 5cm deep by 24cm diameter round oven-proof dish
INGREDIENTS for Deep Filled Blueberry Pie with Peanut Butter Pastry (gluten-free recipe)
You will need;
- peanut butter
- buckwheat flour
- ground almonds
- brown sugar
- cold butter
- cold water
- blueberries
- lemon – juice and zest
- flour and arrowroot starch for thickening
- quick cook oats, brown sugar and butter for the streusel topping
- milk – for brushing the pastry
TOP TIPS FOR MAKING THE PASTRY:
- Best made in a food processor – pulse the ingredients until they form breadcrumbs and just start to come together.
- Pour the dough mixture onto a clean surface such a as a large silicone mat which is really handy for rolling dough due to it’s size.
- Do not worry if the dough looks very crumbly, it will come together with a little help of your hands to bring it together and make it into a compact ball ready for relaxing and chilling in the fridge.
- Chill your dough for 30 mins before using. You can either roll it out first or make it into a ball – personal preference. Either way cover and leave to chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Sprinkle the surface with a little flour to prevent the dough from sticking, then roll it out to fit your dish – remembering to accommodate the sides. For this recipe, I have made the side extra thick – I did this by rolling the dough an extra inch than I needed and folding that extra inch down inside the bowl, pinching it into shape.
- It is important to pre-bake the dough once it is in the baking dish. Fill the base with a sheet of baking paper and baking beads to prevent the base from rising and cracking. Remove the baking beads and baking paper and finish the pre-bake to allow the bottom to crisp before adding the filling.
- Brush the pre-baked pastry outer crust with a little milk before the next stage of baking (with the filling). This will prevent it from browning too much or burning.
Deep Filled Blueberry Pie with Peanut Butter Pastry
Equipment
- 5cm deep by 24cm diameter oven-proof dish
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Pastry Dough
- 2 heaped spoonfuls peanut butter
- 250 g buckwheat flour
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g brown sugar
- 120 g butter cold from the fridge, cubed
- 1 large egg
- 2 TBSP cold water
Filling
- 800 g blueberries
- 1 lemon - juice & zest
- 1 heaped spoonful buckwheat flour
- 1 TBSP arrowroot powder
Topping
- 100 g quick cook oats
- 50 g butter
- 1-2 TBSP brown sugar
Extra
- 1 TBSP milk for brushing the pastry
Instructions
Peanut Butter Pastry Dough
- Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the mixture comes to a breadcrumb consistency. The moment it starts to come together, stop the processor and pour the mixture onto a clean worksurface. Use clean hands to quickly bring the mixture together into a ball. Place the dough ball in a bowl in the fridge and cover. Chill for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the fridge and dust a surface with a little flour. Roll the dough out to the size of your oven-proof dish, plus 1 inch.
- Carefully transfer the rolled dough to the baking dish. Fold down the extra 1 inch to create a thicker side and use your fingers to form the outside of the base, pinching on the outside and inside, creating a wave or crimped effect.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C (fan). Place a sheet of baking paper into the base and fill with baking beads. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, remove the baking beads and baking paper and return the dish to bake for a further 5 minutes, until the base is starting to golden and crisp.Remove the dish from the oven, ready to fill.
- Brush the sides of the pastry with the milk - to prevent burning during the 2nd stage of baking.
Filling
- Place all of the filling ingredients into a bowl, mix together with a spoon and pour the ingredients into the pre-baked pie base.
Streusel Topping
- Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and use clean hands to gently rub the ingredients together. Sprinkle these ingredients over the blueberry filling mixture.
- Bake the pie in the oven at 180 degrees C (fan) for 25-30 mins.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving with a generous amount of coconut yoghurt.
