Cherry Pie with Quinoa Crumble Topping

Pie season is in high gear and I am rolling out enough Whole GrainSorghum Pie crusts to justify daydreams about this pie press.

But until then, we’ll keep on rolling...

My husband and I drove up to our daughter’s place in Chicago forThanksgiving. Of course, no Thanksgiving meal would be complete without pie - I brought a few frozen crusts with me, so making desserts for the evening meal was a real cinch.

I made the vegan pumpkin pie I shared with you a few weeks ago (find the recipe here). I whipped up the pumpkin filling back in Kansas because our daughter’s food processor isn’t quite big enough. It traveled for a day in a cooler just fine, and when I arrived, I simply blind baked the crust and then poured in the filling – quick and easy!

I also made a cherry pie, following the recipe my mom has alwaysused. It’s on the Kraft Minute Tapioca box and you can use fresh or canned tart cherries. I used canned cherries because they’re available throughout the year. Another great thing about canned cherries: the juice is so deliciously tart and great mixed with a bit ofsparkling water for a zesty spritzer.

Tart cherries are a good source of DietaryFiber and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin A and Iron.
At Ancient Grains Bakery, I experimented with making a top crust forour frozen piecrusts, but never discovered a good way to package them. Our piecrust dough is soft andmanageable when freshly made, but once it has been frozen and thawed it tends to crumble. So for pies that traditionally have a top crust, I instead make anice crumble topping, similar to a French Apple Pie topping but made with quinoaflakes from Ancient Harvest

The quinoa flakes I use from Ancient Harvest

Of all the ancient grains, quinoa is one that could most definitely beconsidered a nutrition powerhouse and has become particularly popular in the US becauseof its ease and versatility. In savory dishes, it can be treated much like couscous or rice, but with much higher nutritional content. Nowadays, you'll find quinoa in grocery stores and restaurants ranging from vegetarian to fine dining establishments.

The quinoa plant (Chenopodium quinoa). Photo from the University of Minnesota

This lovely whole grain, indigenous to SouthAmerica, was a fundamental staple for the Inca people. Quinoa is a superbsource of manganese. It is also a good source of magnesium, iron, copper andphosphorus.

Quinoa flakes are made from whole quinoa that is steamed rolled into aquick cooking flake. Although much lighter and smaller than oats, quinoa flakescan be used in similar ways in baking such as cookies, bars and toppings. Italso makes a super fast breakfast cereal.

Here, we've used the quinoa flakes in the topping for the Cherry Pie.

This cherry pie is a perfect alternative to the pumpkin and apple piestraditionally served this time of year. With its tart filling and rich, crumbly topping, this is a pie that willbe a great addition to any holiday meal.

Cherry Pie with Quinoa Crumble Topping

Ingredients:

1 - Ancient Grains Bakery Whole Grain Sorghum Pie Crust

Filling:

2- 15oz cans tart cherries, drained (reserve the juice!)

3 Tbl minute tapioca

½ cup organic cane sugar

½ cup reserved cherry juice

½ tsp almond extract

Quinoa Crumble:

1/3 cup coconut oil, palm shortening, non-dairy spread or butter

¼ cup organic cane sugar

1/3 cup sorghum flour

1/3 cup quinoa flakes

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350. Remove the frozen Whole Grain Sorghum Pie Crust from the freezer. Place crust ontop of a baking sheet to defrost. (If the contents of the pie bubble over it is a loteasier to clean the baking sheet than the bottom of your oven. Plus, the bakingsheet makes it easier to move the filled pie in and out of the oven.)

Mix cherries, tapioca, ½ cup organic cane sugar, ½ cup cherry juice,and ½ tsp almond extract together and allow the mixture to set for 15 minutes.

Stir the cherry mixture again just before pouring into the prepared crust.Bake for 30 minutes.

While pie is baking, place the coconut oil, ¼ cup sugar, 1/3 sorghumflour, 1/3 quinoa flakes, ½ tsp cinnamon, and ½ tsp salt in a bowl. Use a forkor your hands to crumble everything together.

After the pie with the filling has baked for 30 minutes, carefullyremove it from the oven. Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the pie andplace it back in the oven. Continue baking for at least 30 minutes or until thejuices from the cherries bubble up from the top and hopefully a bit over thesides. I love this perfectly baked look for a pie.

*Special note:

I use organic extra virgin coconut oil because I love the flavor, baked texture and the simplicity of it, but it does cost more than the other choices. I buy a lovely, fine-milled white sorghum flour from AgvantageNaturals in New Cambria, Kansas.

A Pumpkin Pie (and Grain!) for Everybody

This gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free pumpkin pie is also FULL of flavor and perfect for Thanksgiving!

As a nutrition educator and cook, I love the challenge of creating new recipes for favorite foods so that they’re free of many common allergens. Years of mixing and matching this and that have led to many tasty flat breads, cookies, biscotti and now pie crust.  

The holidays are often accompanied with many foods that contain gluten, eggs, and milk.  Today I want to share with you a quick and simple recipe for a pumpkin pie that's free of all three, using pre-made Ancient Grains Whole Grain Sorghum Pie Crusts.  It tastes just like the creamy, rich pumpkin pie that we all love, but with ingredients that will leave you feeling energized instead of heavy and tired.

Read below to learn about sorghum, one of the main ingredients in my pie crust, and to get that delicious pie recipe.

Ancient Grains Bakery Whole Grain Sorghum Pie Crust

Our pie crust is made with whole grain sorghum flour and flax seeds and sold in the frozen section of these stores.

Never heard of sorghum? You're not alone. Here are some facts that may spur your interest in this lovely, gluten-free grain. 

Sorghum

Sorghum is considered to be the fifth most important crop in the world- which means that it is the most commonly eaten food after rice, corn, wheat and potatoes.  It is also the dietary staple of more than 500 million people in 30 countries and has untapped potential for people everywhere, including here in the US.  According to The Lost Crops of Africa, “If the twentieth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and maize, the twenty-first could become the century of sorghum.”  

Image from here.

Sorghum offers many benefits:

• a gluten-free grain
• grows in both temperate and tropical zones, and thrives in both drought and heavy rains.
• an incredibly versatile food: different types can be boiled like rice, cracked like oats for porridge, "malted" like barley for beer, baked like wheat into flatbreads, popped like popcorn for snack, or even made into syrup.

• flexible growing methods: most sorghum is produced under rain-fed conditions, while some is irrigated and a little is grown by transplanting seedlings as is done with rice. Like sugarcane, it can also be ratooned (cut down and allowed to resprout from the roots) to provide crop after crop without replanting. It is ideal for subsistence farmers on the one hand and can be completely mechanized and produced on a vast commercial scale on the other.

Here in the state of Kansas, sorghum holds a small but significant role (don’t worry…we’re getting to the pie part in a minute). The Sunflower State is the country’s leading producer of sorghum, also known as milo. As a heat and drought tolerant crop, sorghum is ideal for the open plains of Kansas and Texas. The U.S. trails only Nigeria in world sorghum production, but holds the top spot in exports. (For more information about sorghum production in Kansas please visit this link.)

While the huge majority of this sorghum is still grown for animal feed, a growing gluten-free market is offering farmers a view of a possible increase in demand for the mild-flavored grain.

And now, back to that pie.

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Hilary's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Crust:

Start with an Ancient Grains Whole Grain Sorghum Pie Crust. Remove it from the freezer to thaw just a bit while the oven preheats to 375. Prick a few holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork- this prevents it from bubbling up during the blind baking. Place it on a baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly brown and puffed up a bit. Remove to cool on a rack.

Ingredients featuring Central Soyfoods Tofu

Now, whip up this filling that highlights Kansas’ own Central Soyfoods tofu- a leading producer of organic tofu for over 35 years.

Filling:


Ingredients

1-14oz block Central Soyfoods Organic Tofu or any organic tofu

1-15oz can pumpkin

1/3 cup organic canola oil

½ cup organic cane sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

1 Tbl black strap molasses

¾ tsp ginger and cinnamon

¼ tsp cardamom and cloves

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Reduce heat to 350.

Place tofu in the bowl of a food processor. Blend for 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times. This must be very smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend thoroughly, stopping to scrape down the sides. 


Pour into baked pie shell. Smooth with a spatula. Bake for 10 minutes (tofu is cooked! and no eggs!) - this just helps it to set up nicely. Cool and then refrigerate.

*Note: If using a traditional pumpkin recipe with eggs and milk, don’t blind bake the Ancient Grains pie crust. Just fill and bake following the filling instructions.

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When I am sampling my foods at local grocery stores, I give my message over and over again: “… And this has no wheat, no gluten, no dairy, and no eggs.” Someone will inevitably say, “Well, what is in it?” 

"Plenty!"


I am enjoying this opportunity to share ideas for cooking with whole gluten free grains, minimally processed, with no eggs and dairy, and creating tasty healthy foods.  Let me know if you try out this recipe and tell me how it goes.

Thanks for joining me and eat well this Thanksgiving!

A Welcome and Introduction

           

Hi, I'm Hilary Kass, the owner of Ancient Grains Bakery.  Thanks for checking out this blog - we will be sharing information, tips, and recipes about the ancient grains that we also feature in our products.


We hope this blog can become a resource to learn about less commonly used grains and seeds that can be eaten as healthy and interesting alternative.

My History with Food and Ancient Grains

When I was a kid growing up in 1970’s California, my two favorite activities were watching “The Galloping Gourmet” and making cookies. I was lucky to have parents that were happy to give me free reign of the kitchen, where I could often be found creating yummy dinners for a busy working family.

Growing up in a hotbed of new and alternative ideas, I was always dipping out for blocks of fresh tofu from a five gallon bucket at the health food store and enjoying salty, mineral rich nutritional yeast.  On the other hand, I also just as routinely ate frozen dinners with my family …on a TV tray…in front of the TV. A nice balance, I guess.

So while I was learning to make wonderful traditional foods like oatmeal cookies, chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, meatloaf and scalloped potatoes I also learned about chile rellenos, Indonesian Bami, and Szechwan eggplant.

And so I have been enjoying a lifetime of cooking. Everyone’s got their “thing” and food is mine. I studied health promotion and disease prevention as an undergraduate and later on in graduate school. I started teaching cooking classes at a local hospital wellness center, then at the Community Mercantile Co-op in Lawrence, KS.  With a whole foods approach, I helped people increase the amount of unprocessed whole grains, unrefined sweeteners, fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and beans.

I have also worked as a nutrition consultant, providing direction to people interested in making improvements to their diet. Several years ago I began seeing more people that were experiencing health problems that couldn’t be explained. For a long time, holistic health practitioners were identifying food allergies in many of their patients, but mainstream doctors were slow to come to this table. Nowadays, fortunately, there are simple blood tests to determine if some foods just don’t work well for people.

Three of the most common foods that many people are sensitive to are wheat (which contains gluten), dairy, and eggs. I would provide store tours showing the products that are available that were free of these ingredients. Many of these fine products are made with white rice flour and tapioca starch to mimic the qualities of our beloved all-purpose flour. But where were sorghum, millet, quinoa, amaranth, tef and buckwheat- the rich, heavier grains full of flavor and nutrition? There were bags available on the shelves but few readymade products were made from these nutrient-rich “ancient grains.”

This provided the idea behind Ancient Grains Bakery.  I began to experiment, first with cookie dough made with sorghum flour, then flatbreads made with millet and amaranth, and then biscotti made with tef.  Most recently, a piecrust made with sorghum and brown rice flour. I now have these products available through my bakery, Ancient Grains, in Lawrence, KS with a growing distribution.

It is my mission to prepare convenient, nutritious, interesting foods using the highest quality ingredients and to educate regarding the benefits of eating a variety of these whole grains.  My belief is that these grains do not simply provide a “replacement” for wheat products, but more complex and interesting ingredients in their own right.  And in an environment where wheat has been genetically modified or stripped of its nutrition, these grains offer a diverse and nutrient-dense alternative.

 So whether you are sensitive to wheat or gluten or are just looking to expand your culinary and nutritional experiences, try some ancient grains today.