Quinoa Granola and modifications to the recipe

4 cups quinoa flakes (in mixing bowl)

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup canola or other oil

¼ cup honey

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Bring all liquids to a boil in a medium saucepan and then pour over quinoa flakes. Blend mixture well. Spread evenly over nonstick cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. For chewier granola, add more liquids and use half the amount of quinoa flakes.

*** To use this as a pie crust (I think it would be best for fruit or dessert pies rather than "meal time" pies because it is sweet-- I think it tastes like caramel corn), cut the quinoa flakes to 2 cups. You want to consistency of the mix to resemble that of a graham cracker crumb crust (crumbly yet moist enough to be able to smush ingredients into a pie pan and have them adhere together when cooking)

*** Pie Filling

This is a great resource for canning and other things but they also give a nice tutorial on making homemade pie filling. http://www.pickyourown.org/applepiefilling.htm

If you want to simply play around in the kitchen and brave it without a recipe (B and my favorite style! Recipes are too limiting sometimes. . .), I would recommend having a thickener (cornstarch, potato starch, arrowroot) and lots of the fruit you are using for the pie. Remember that when you cook the fruit, natural juices and sugars come out, so that will help in creating a nice syrupy base for your pie. Sugars to supplement the pie filling could help the taste too-- I plan on trying coconut sugar, but there is also maple sugar, date sugar, good old brown sugar. . . the list goes on. I was amazed at how many options Whole foods had. I may even play around with honey, simply because I love honey. 

*** You could also make a fruit crisp simply by making a syrup with fruit and sugar and sprinkling the granola over top. 

Fall and winter festivities mean pies, so bring it on! Good luck, all of you FPIES and otherwise bakers out there!