Fresh Milled Wheat Fruit Bars with Pie Filling

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About 2 years ago I canned a bunch of triple berry pie filling. I’m finally nearing the end of my stash and I’m planning to can some more this season! I’ve got my strawberries and black raspberries in the freezer. Next up is to pick and freeze some blueberries! And not to mention find my jars, canning pot and pectin from my garage, since we’ve moved not once, but twice in one month. But that’s a story for another day. 

Anyways, back to the point of this blog. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THE PIE FILLING YOU CAN?! 

Well there’s actually quite a few things you could use it for. We mainly use it for: 

• pie (obviously!)
• topping pancakes and waffles
• homemade sourdough pop tarts
• the best berry crumble (THIS RECIPE!)
• yogurt topping
• cheesecake topping

Things you probably could use it for, but I’ve never tried:

• ice cream
• smoothies
• mixing with applesauce to add some variety to your life
• muffins
• cake

Ok, so some of those ideas I’m going to have to try in the near future, because ummmmm yummmmmm. But for now, I’d really like to share the berry crumble recipe. 

I’ve adapted this recipe from Nora Cooks. For three reasons. 

1. I’m not vegan and I love butter (and think it’s a vital fat for humans!)
2. I prefer to use fresh milled grains in non sourdough baking (I love using this stone ground traditional inspired grain mill)
3. I have an abundance of pie filling and not preserves. (What is the actual difference? I have no idea) 

So we follow her basic recipe whilst substituting our preferred fat, grains and fruit. Easy peasy. Kind of. You see, with milling your own grains things can get a bit tricky. I can’t just throw 2.5 cups of grains into the mill and get 2.5 cups of flour. 

I can however use this handy dandy conversion chart someone on the internet blessed me with. (And I just created the graphic)

So, we’ll use 320 grams of berries and get 2.5 c of flour! Saweeeet. Let’s do this. 

I like to use parchment paper always. It’s my safeguard against sticking since we don’t use nonstick pans or anything over here. It’s just less toxic. 

Making the Bars

So, in order to make this recipe you need softened butter. I always just leave a brick of Aldi grass fed butter on the counter when I want to make this like the day before. 

So, I mill the grains in my mill. Add the flour, sugar and salt to a mixer and mix to combine. Add the butter and let it crumble! Once crumbled separate 1 cup of the mixture and set aside. Then press the rest of it into the parchment paper pan and bake. After 15 mins you add the pie filling and sprinkle what you had set aside on top of the pie filling and bake the rest of the time! Sooooo easy! And seriously so yummy!! 

I really love that this recipe can be used for so many things. One year we got invited to a Passover feast and I was told to bring a dessert without leavening. That’s when I found this recipe! And adapted it to our needs. It has been a Passover favorite since (and I make it every Easter as well!). It’s great for summer baking because it’s not labor intensive and it bakes for awhile so you can be out in your garden. I also love eating it for breakfast! It’s so very versatile! 

I’ve not yet tried to make it with different types of sugar (coconut, panela, etc.) but I’d be super interested in hearing if you did!! 

My pie filling is canned with honey and all natural Pomona pectin, so it’s probably going to be way sweeter if you use pie filling with sugar. So maybe just cut the sugar a bit from the shortbread recipe.