Pie, Pie, Pie!

Lately, I have all been all about the pie!  I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday.  Why not?  There is no gift giving involved, I does not last a whole season, and it's all about thanking God for His blessings and provision.  Plus, traditional Thanksgiving food is the best!  This year I do not want to compromise on flavor or texture, so we have been testing out many pie recipes.  With many family members with Celiac disease, gluten intolerances and dairy intolerances, and a preference for the paleo lifestyle, these pies should cover it all!  My mom makes wonderful, beautiful pies.  She has been using all her traditional, yummy fillings and putting them in a GF pie crust.  I'm not crazy about the crust recipe, and she has admitted that she is not either.  Here began my journey for a great tasting, great texture grain free, dairy free, refined sugar free pie.

My favorite crust is from the blogger, Brittany Angell.  I bought the $10 yearly membership to Club Angell for exclusive recipes.  So, I cannot share this crust recipe on here.  I will say that here Club Angell recipes are very good, but not incredible healthy.  They often are in the "occasional treat" category in my opinion.  They are very good and my kids have enjoyed most of them, so I'd say it's worth the $10.  Her price is about to go up, so subscribe during the month of November if you are thinking about a subscription.  http://brittanyangell.com/

First I tried 2 pie recipes from Danielle Walker's ebook, Thankful.  This can be purchased for $1.99 on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-Walkers-Against-All-Grain-ebook/dp/B00GP34AWK  I think it may have been worth it for the pecan pie recipe.  This was so good.  I used the crust and filling recipe from her ebook.

 
I used the Brittany Angell crust and the pumpkin pie filling from the ebook for this next pie.  It was good, but did not have the "traditional" pumpkin pie flavor.  Don't get me wrong, it tasted good & we ate it all, but it is not a winner for this Thanksgiving.

  
Then I used the Brittany Angell crust and used the filling from this recipe.  The texture was perfect and I liked that it made a nice full 10 inch pie.  It needs a bit more sweetness and definately more spice.  So, the search and experimenting continues for pumpkin pie.



I did make an amazing chicken pot pie with the Brittany Angell crust recipe.  The filling does have a small amount of dairy, but I bet it could be replaced with coconut or almond milk.  We hope to have this again!




Next up is this perfect apple pie.  I used the Brittany Angell crust.  As my 4-yr-old put it, "It's a winner!"  I used a recipe she sent out via email to her subscribers (this is free!)  I'm thinking you could easily adapt your favorite apple pie recipe with tapioca or arrowroot instead of flour and stevia instead of sugar.  I used Jonagold apples.  I left about 1/3 unpeeled and like how pretty it turned out.  



Now to continue the search for a really good paleo pumpkin pie recipe BEFORE Thanksgiving.  I don't think my family minds the journey, we ate pumpkin pie for breakfast today!