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HOW TO BAKE A NUTRITIOUS PIE
Pie is not usually where we turn to get our daily dose of essential vitamins and minerals, but that doesn't mean pies can't be filled with wholesome ingredients. Pie recipes vary, but here are some ideas to pack nutrition into every slice.
Building a Better Crust
First, let's look at the foundation of all pies - the crust. Crust is made up of lard, shortening, butter or oil, and flour...with a drop of water and a pinch of salt. Everyone has their favorite recipe and some might even include a mixture of fats - lard, shortening, and butter. Using the highest quality of simple ingredients like lard and butter will create a more nutritious base for your pie.
If you are using lard, look for lard from a sustainable farm such as Flying Pigs Farm - they raise their pigs humanely and it turns out that lard is actually lower in saturated fats than butter. If you are buying lard from a grocery store, make sure it doesn't include hydrogenated oils, which help increase the product's shelf life (but will shorten yours)! You might also check with your local butcher to see if you can purchase lard from them. If your butcher doesn't sell lard, you can buy fat from them to make your own lard. Check out instructions on how to render your own sustainable lard.
Though shortening blends well with flour, it has been chemically transformed into a solid state by hydrogenation. Hydrogenation creates trans fats and trans fats can lead to clogged arteries. As with lard, it is necessary to carefully read the nutrition labels for vegetable shortening. Crisco has recently made all of their products trans fat-free, but what about healthier alternatives to shortening? Olive oil, butter, or ghee (clarified butter) can be much more nutritious! You can buy organic butter at a farmer's market - free of dangerous pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones. At your local health food store or grocery store you can find organic olive oil and ghee. Both of these products are less processed than shortening and both have a long history of medicinal properties - olive oil in the Mediterranean region and ghee in Ayurvedic medicine.
And for flour options, choices include wheat, white, spelt, rice, quinoa, bleached, unbleached, enriched. Each one has different properties and will give your crust a different consistency. Many people mix flours (such as white flour mixed with whole wheat flour) to get the perfect texture and to add nutrients. A good place to start for the most nutritious flour is to choose the least refined and unbleached. Do you want benzoyl peroxide, chlorine dioxide, and potassium bromate in your pie? Probably not, but often at least one of these chemicals is used to whiten ("bleach") flour. The less processed a flour is, the more protein, fiber and nutritional value is left. Try to find organic whole wheat flour at your health food store and experiment!
Filling Your Pie
The different kinds of pie fillings are immeasurable - berries, custard, fruit, nuts, chocolate - and these are only sweet pies! Pie fillings contain a variety of ingredients, but primarily there is a star ingredient and a supporting sweetener. As with your crust, choosing the best quality ingredients will bring the most nutrition and flavor to your pie.
Sugar brings to mind white, non-nutritious table sugar. Table sugar, which is a simple carbohydrate, is stripped of any nutritional value by the refining process. Most sweeteners are simple carbohydrates, but going with the best quality, least processed, organic choice can add some minerals and other nutrients back into your pie. Maple syrup, for example, has manganese and zinc. Honey has been reported to have anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. Blackstrap molasses has been said to turn gray hair back to its natural color! OK, that last claim might not be proven, but blackstrap molasses is full of minerals and is a good source of iron. Using one of these or other alternative sweeteners will be a nutritious treat for those who eat your pie.
So, on to the main ingredient! The highest quality (local, sustainable, organic) filling you can get is going to make your pie the most nutritious and the most delicious. Fresh berries, whole pumpkin, dark organic chocolate, hand picked peaches - the closer to whole your ingredients are, the more  nutritious your pie will be. Leave the processed foods behind when possible. Visit your local farmer's market to see what is in season and create your pie around that. Find out what is local in your state by looking on our Eat Seasonal page. In the Northeast, fresh strawberries will make a local, seasonal pie in June, and blueberries will be available until October. In the South you can pick blackberries for a pie until September, and in the Southwest you can have raspberries until November! If you want a fruit pie in those bleak winter months, look to apples. Apples can be stored for up to 5 months, and in many places are often available until December. For custard pies, whipped cream pies, and ice cream pies, seek out an organic dairy farm - you can purchase organic dairy at many local stores and farmer's markets (check out the Eat Well Guide to find a store near you!).
All of your work to bake with fresh, local, sustainable ingredients will pay off. The environment will thank you and your friends and family will thank you for a mouthwatering and wholesome treat. If you must stick to an original recipe (maybe it belongs to your Grandmother) that calls for processed ingredients, try to offset the processed ingredients by picking your own fruit or by eating your pie with organic ice cream from a local dairy.
Just as importantly, enjoy your pie!
If you are looking for more on pie nutrition- the Whole Foods website has a great list of pie recipes with detailed nutritional information for each recipe!
-Dawn Brighid
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