CLEAN EATS | SOUTHERN CHOCOLATE PIE

This pie is beyond fantastic! It’s rich, creamy, made with whole wheat, a lot of love and the best part - no one will even know this is a clean recipe. It's that good! If you’re looking for my traditional recipe, check that out here. Both versions are incredible; both have flaky golden crust and a fudgy chocolate filling. I rarely ever make my pies with meringue; I only toss on meringue when I’m trying to show off for the holidays because it's so pretty. So of course with Christmas coming around the corner, the clean eating version of the meringue below is phenomenal!

>>> Ingredients <<<
 
THE CRUST
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons super cold water
 
THE FILLING
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 tablespoons Truvia Spoonable or 18 packets
5 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon coconut oil
 
MERINGUE TOPPING [OPTIONAL]
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons Truvia Spoonable or 6 packets
 
>>> DIRECTIONS <<<
 
THE CRUST

First you are going to knock out the crust. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the wheat pastry flour and salt. Then plop in your room temp coconut oil. With a fork or spoon, press and stir the mixture together until everything is nice and crumbly.

 

Add the 2 tablespoons of super cold water and quickly fold a few times until you get a quick little dough. It only takes a couple of seconds. As I always mention, this is the part where you don’t want to work the dough too much, or it will get tough. You want it nice and flaky so fold, roll into a ball, then immediately take a glass pie pan and spray lightly with organic olive oil non-stick cooking spray.

Roll out your wheat crust on a sheet of wax paper. This always helps me with mistake proof crust. Roll it out into about a 10 inch circle, to fit in your 9 inch pie pan.

Flip the crust into the pie pan. Adjust it to where you want it, remove the wax paper, and poke the bottom and sides with a fork about 50 times. Place in your fridge for 10 minutes while you preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Now, I don’t have pie weights so I bake with rice. My grandmother is a magician. She can perfectly bake a crust with nothing in it. I’ve never been able to figure it out. My crust always slides and looks ugly. So place a piece of parchment paper over your pie crust, fill with rice and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Remove from the oven and pull off the paper with the rice inside. Voila! Perfect crust. Let this cool to room temp! It takes about an hour.

THE FILLING

If you're planning to meringue, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If not, skip the oven and just mix the pastry flour, Truvia, salt and cocoa in the top portion of your double boiler. Mix the egg yolks and almond milk in a separate bowl. Pour and mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture with a whisk and continue to whisk over a double boiler, cooking until it becomes thick - like the consistency of thick pudding. This takes about 5-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut oil and vanilla and pour into your cooled pre-baked pie crust. If you aren't doing meringue, this is it... you're done! If you're using meringue, follow the directions below to finish everything off...

MERINGUE TOPPING

Beat the egg whites with the salt until it forms soft peaks. Add the Truvia and beat a little more until just mixed.

 

FINISHING IT OFF

Pour the meringue topping right on top of the chocolate filling layer. This is the point where you can make cool dips in your meringue if you’d like. Put into the oven and bake until the meringue topping is golden brown, about 10-15 minutes. Remove the pie from oven and set out to cool.

 

SERVING

You can serve warm after an hour if you can't wait... or you can cool fully for at least 3 hours. To store, cover with saran wrap and place in the fridge. You can serve chilled from there on out and it will stay good for at least 3 days. Enjoy!