Good News for Your Sweet Tooth: Blueberry Crumble Pie

Lately, I just can’t seem to get enough sugar. I want pudding, bread with peanut butter and honey, chocolate granola, jam and butter, cheesecake, and Nutella on anything. (Speaking of Nutella, anyone manage to catch its most recent commercial, where a doting mother/consumer is touting it as a … health product?) The problem is this: I rarely crave sweet foods, and I happen to never crave them at the grocery store, so I never have sweet foods on hand to munch on when those cravings strike.

The other day, the pain was particularly bad, and not only bad, it was specific. I wanted pie. I wanted pie bad.

Anette and I had just finished making a delightful lunch out of nothing (as usual), and I mentioned my craving. She said, “I have some frozen blueberries,” and in a flash I realized I could make pie. Or I could make something almost like pie.

I want to share this recipe with you because it was so ridiculously easy. We whipped it together in about ten minutes and then just sat back and relaxed while pie magic happened in the oven. So if you, too, find yourself pie-less, you can change the facts of your life with things you probably have somewhere.

Blueberry (or whatever) “Pie”
There’s this amazing pie crust recipe which calls for 2 cups flour, 2/3 cups vegetable oil, and 1/3 cups milk. I used this recipe and scaled it down to fit a small half-sized pie dish.

For the crust:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Splash of milk
Pinch of salt

For the filling:
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp. honey

For the crumble:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats

Knead flour, vegetable oil, milk, and salt together until a lightly glossy, not sticky ball of dough forms. Press it into a pie dish. In another bowl, mix your pie filling and put it in the dish. We used frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, sugar, cinnamon, and honey. But other things you could make into pie in a pinch: apple slices, raisins, jams, dried fruits, dates, nuts, Nutella (er… maybe). Then, make a quick crumble crust by blending together the butter, flour, brown sugar, and rolled oats with your fingers. Crumble the crumble over your pie filling and bake in a 450 F oven for 45 minutes. Until it’s done. You’ll know. It’ll be bubbly and gooey and smell like heaven.