Foodie Friday: Patriotic Fruit Pie
- Johnna
- Sep 4, 2015
- 4 min read
One of my summer goals was to clean up my eating habits. They’re terrible! This past semester of graduate school really put a hurtin’ on my body, so I have been on the hunt for healthy yet delicious recipes on Pinterest! Actually, I’m always on the hunt for delicious healthy recipes, however, I normally am too lazy to follow through with them, or I don’t have time. So summer is my time to Pinterest food shine!
So when I went for a camping trip with my parents for the Fourth of July, I was super excited to try out a new patriotic recipe from a blogger that I have been following for years. Taralynn McNitt created this red, white, and blue berry pizza, and I decided to recreate it for our camping trip! For her full post on this recipe: http://simplytaralynn.com/2015/05/22/healthy-light-berry-dessert-pizza-for-your-memorial/
Ingredients:
1 Box Square Graham Crackers (Taralynn used a box of Back to Nature Graham Sticks)
1 Medium banana
1 Tbsp. honey
6 oz. Vanilla Greek yogurt
Two cups of Light Whip
Two Tbsp. Unsweetened shredded coconut
Diced Strawberries
Blueberries
Now let’s get to cooking, or baking, or whatever you want to call it…..
1. Put the graham crackers in a large bowl. Using a cup, crush the graham crackers, but not too much so that it becomes dirt like. It is suggested to leave some medium sized chunks, which will help later when creating the crust.
2. Add the banana (preferably in pieces) to the graham crackers, and combine using your hands. Roll the mixture into a ball.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. On a greased baking sheet, flatten out the dough with your hands. Make sure to fold the outer edges in and pinch to create the sides of the crust.
5. Drizzle the honey over the crust and spread it around. Keep in mind that since there is honey on the top of the crust, it will not harden as much as the crust side folds. It will be softer, and nice, and chewy after baking.
6. Place the sheet in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. I suggest keeping an eye on the crust, it will brown slightly but the center will be soft.
7. While the crust is in the oven, let’s make the cream! Combine the light whip and greek yogurt together and place it in the fridge for about twenty minutes as well to thicken.
8. Once both the crust had cooled off and the whipped topping was done, it was time to decorate it. I spread the topping across the crust, and then I decorated the top alternating rows of strawberries and blueberries. In her recipe, Tara also added shredded coconut in between the berries.
9. Cut and enjoy! Remember to also store in the refrigerator when not enjoying this awesome pie!
Nutritional Information:
135 Calories
4 grams of Fat
22 grams of Carbs
3 grams of Fiber
10 grams of Sugar
3 grams of Protein
My tips and shortcuts:
1. Tara suggests using a food blender for smashing the graham crackers if you had one. I began with the small food processor and I felt that it was crushing the crackers into a fine dust, so I just went with the cup crushing method.
2. I found that using an entire box of graham crackers was a tad bit dry with just one banana. I could not roll a ball out of the crackers, so I actually added a second banana to the dough and it worked a lot easier. It also gave a stronger banana flavor to the crust, so it was nice when mixed with the berries.
3. Continuing on with the banana, try to use overripe bananas. They work the best for baking.
4. The baking time for the crust will vary, I used a different pan and I was actually baking within a camper kitchen, so my oven was different from what Tara used, so my crust actually took a little bit longer because it was thicker.
5. The shredded coconut is not a popular item in my household, so I actually omitted the coconut when I made this pie. But Tara suggests using any kind of fruit you would like to top the pie with! I just followed her blueberry and strawberry idea to coincide with the Fourth of July.
Recommendation:
I loved this fruit pie! It was patriotic and fit perfectly in with our camping environment! The best part about this dish? It’s healthy! So I honestly didn’t feel guilty about going back for a second piece. Or maybe a third later in the day. It was relatively easy to make (would have been a lot easier to make if I was in a full size kitchen and not a camper kitchen, but hey, we made it work). This is a simple recipe and would be great for any occasion so make sure to give it a shot!
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