Berry Pie

Here is a recipe that I just made up. Okay, not totally from my head but from different recipes and advice. Thought I'd post it but I will have to wait 20 more minutes to taste the final product.

Filling:
3 cups fresh organic raspberries
2 cups fresh organic cranberries
3 T white flour
1/2 C sugar
1/8 t salt
1 T lime juice
1 T butter (the real stuff, no margarine for me!)

In a large Ziploc bag, mix flour, sugar and salt. Add fruit and lemon juice. Zip closed and shake until fruit is covered. Set aside.

Crust:
1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour (unbleached)
3/4 t salt
2/3 C coconut oil
about 7 T water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix flours and salt thoroughly. Add coconut oil and use a pastry blender to cut the shortening until the pieces are very small. Sprinkle 1 T at a time over mixture; gently toss with a fork and then move the moisturized dough to one side of the bowl. Do this until all of the dough mixture is moistened.

Use your hands to form dough into two even balls and place in refrigerator.

Sprinkle alittle whole wheat flour on the table and begin to roll out the dough into a circle. Make sure that the dough will fit the bottom and sides on pan. Place it into the pan and cut the edges around the outside; mix leftover dough with 2nd dough ball and repeat.

After the second dough ball has been rolled out, pour the fruit from the Ziploc bag into the bottom pie crust. Place the butter on top of the fruit and cover with the top crust. Cut away the extras and fold sides under, being sure to pinch the upper and lower crust together so that the fruit mixture doesn't leak. Cut a design in the top to allow airflow and throw it into the oven!

Cook pie at 425 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking for 30-40 minutes.

Now, what should you do with the extra dough? My favorite thing is to make mini cinnamon rolls! Melt 1 t cinnamon, 1 t sugar and 2 t butter in the microwave for 15 seconds. Roll out extra dough in a rectangle and then spread sugar mixture all the way to the sides. Roll up and cut into small pieces. (usually makes 5-6) Put into the oven for 10-12 minutes (with the pie of course) and you have a great snack while waiting for your pie to finish cooking!

Note: the pie smells somewhat like coconut but the taste is minimal. I use coconut oil rather than shortening for many reasons:

1. it's all natural
2. it's melting point is 75 degrees so it's just as easy to mold
3. no hydrogenated oils!

Of course, when using coconut oil, the only way to go is extra virgin, organic coconut oil. Let me know if you want more into and I'll make another post! Also, let me know if you try this recipe and tell me how it tasted or how you made it better!