HONEY NUT CHEERIOS YOGURT DONUT PIE

THE BACKSTORY
After making my first ever pie from scratch, a delicious strawberry cream pie, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to make even more pies!  With this in mind, I thought I would be a bit adventurous and set out to create my own pie recipe from scratch... 

The strawberry cream pie's silky smooth whipped cream filling got me thinking, I wonder if you could make a pie with Greek yogurt?  I posited that it may be possible to make a "healthy" pie that was just as delicious as any other pie recipe out there.  Using Greek yogurt as the starting point, I thought I could incorporate some other items that you might eat for breakfast. 

In this recipe I started things off by adapting a graham cracker crust recipe to instead use Honey Nut Cheerios / Belvita Breakfast Crackers.  I then made a creamy yogurt filling with some coconut, honey, vanilla protein powder, and of course I finished things off by making a topping with some dark chocolate almonds and some toasted cinnamon donuts! 

In the end the pie turned out to be pretty delicious, and you could not even tell that is was actually healthy, except for the toasted donuts ;)

I call this the "O"de to Breakfast Pie, which is my attempt at a play on words to reference the Honey Nut Cheerio Pie Crust.  I hope you enjoy!

SOURCES
I used a recipe from the Food Network for a Graham Cracker Crust, and adapted it to suit my ingredients. 
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/graham-cracker-crust-3326018

PIE CRUST INGREDIENTS

• 2.5 Cups of Honey Nut Cheerios
• 1 Package Belvita Breakfast Biscuits [4 crackers]
  
  • I used Toasted Coconut flavor
• 6 Tablespoons Melted Unsalted Butter [I used mine straight out of the refrigerator]
•  9 Inch Pie Dish

PIE FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cups Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • I used Fage Trublend Vanilla yogurt with no added sugar or sweeteners because it had lower sugar content.  
• 1 Scoop of Vanilla Protein Powder (31 g scoop)
  • I used Isopure Vanilla Protein Powder, but I am sure you could use any other protein powder just fine.  
• 1/4 cup Chopped Coconut
  • I thought this might help thicken the pie filling and give it some nice texture
• 3 Tablespoons of Honey
  • I added this to the filling to make it a little sweeter, and to be honest I did not really measure how much I put in.  
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon.  (I also estimated this amount here, but I added a couple dashes of cinnamon).  

TOPPING INGREDIENTS

• 4 Plain Cake Entenmann's Donuts
• 1/4 cup Chopped Walnuts
• A "Dash" of Cinnamon
• 3/4 Cup Dark Chocolate Almonds

 
DIRECTIONS 

​MAKE AND BAKE THE PIE CRUST

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Add the Honey Nut Cheerios and Belvita Biscuits to a food processor and pulse them together to break up the ingredients to a fairly fine powder. 
3. Chop the butter into smaller cubes (cold from the fridge), and put it in a microwave safe dish.  Microwave the butter on high for about 40 seconds to melt.  You can take out the butter and stir it with a knife, and if it is not fully melted just pop it back into the microwave for a little while longer to fully melt it, just be careful not to burn it!
4. Add the melted butter into the food processor (make sure the cover is on) and then pulse the ingredients together until the mixture has darkened and it is clear that the butter has coated all of your crumbs.   
5. Place your pie crust mixture into the 9 inch pie dish and gently spread it over the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish.  
6. Bake the pie crust in the oven for about 10 - 13 minutes.  I baked mine for about 13 minutes, and it may have just barely started to burn, but it came out well and held together just fine.  
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour [or until it is cool to the touch].

PREPARE THE PIE FILLING

1. Add the Greek Yogurt, Protein Powder, Coconut, Honey and Cinnamon together in a bowl and mix the ingredients together.  Feel free to add some other things to your filling if you so desire, but be careful not to add too much liquid, because this might interfere with the pie filling setting.  
2. After everything is mixed together just put the pie filling aside until you need it.  If you are not going to use it for a while, put the pie filling in the fridge until you need it.  

MAKE THE CRUMBLY PIE TOPPING

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Add the Donuts, Walnuts, and Cinnamon to a food processor.  Pulse the ingredients together until the donuts make about pea size crumbs.  
3. Evenly spread the donut mixture out onto a sheet pan and place it into the oven.  Bake the pie topping for about 5 minutes until the crumbly donut mixture becomes crispy.  [I would advise that you use your nose to help you make sure that it does not burn!]  Take out the crumbly donut mixture and set it aside until you are ready.  
4. Add the Dark Chocolate Almonds to the same food processor (you do not need to wash the food processor in between uses) and pulse them into a finer powder. Set this aside.  

ASSEMBLE THE PIE

1. After the pie filling has cooled, place a handful of walnuts on the bottom for some added crunch.
2. Spoon the creamy yogurt filling mixture into the cool crust using a rubber spatula and level out the top. 
3. Add the dark chocolate almond crumble evenly over the top of the pie.  
4. Add the donut crumble mixture to the top of the pie and make sure it is evenly spread.   
5. I put the pie into the freezer overnight to try and firm up the yogurt filling.  When I took the pie out the next day to cut it up, I realized it was frozen solid like a rock!  I would recomment that you take the pie out of the freezer at least a few hours before you would like to serve it, so that it is easier to cut.  
6. After you have served your first helping of pie, keep the pie covered and refrigerated until you are ready to serve again.  

ENJOY!