Anyone use All-Bran for pie crust??
 

I was playing in the kitchen this morning trying to make a "pie" and came up with the idea to use All-Bran cereal as the crust. Here is what I made....

1/4 cup of All Bran (original) - 40 cals
1 sugar free vanilla pudding snack pack - 60 cals
5 bing cherries - 20 cals

I added about a TBSP of water (I didn't measure but don't make it too wet!) to the all bran and let it soak a little. Stirred it and mushed it up to make an even consistency. Then I dumped the bran mix onto a small dessert plate and pressed it flat (it is kind of sticky and messy).

I didn't want to turn the oven on and bake it so I put the plate in the microwave to crisp up the "pie crust". I nuked it for about 2-3 minutes in 30 second and 1 minute intervals (30 seconds, check crust, 1 minute, check, 1 minute, done). I was waiting for it to be semi hard and crust like.

Once it is a little hard, gently release from plate by sliding a fork under crust. Mine stuck a little but came up easily once hard.

Allow to cool slightly. Cut and pit cherries. Place on top of crust in single layer. Add pudding to top. Enjoy! The crust does taste like bran so be prepared for that, but once you get over that it is pretty good :D



This was my first experiment making a crust out of all-bran and I was wondering if anyone else has ever tried it. I was thinking of mashing a little bit of banana into the bran to flavor the crust and then making a banana and pudding "pie". Does anyone have any suggestions for making the crust better without adding a ton of calories? Has anyone done anything like this before??

Thanks for your help!

(oh, and as a side note....I think I could have turned the bran into crackers if microwaved a little longer. Has anyone made all-bran crackers??)

I have used all bran as crust. I put it in a chopper until finely grounded, spread on bottom of glass dish, pour the stuff on top, cook as usual. Sometimes I spray the dish and top of the crust with olive oil before I add the other ingredients.

I also make Tarantula cookies by using one bag (1/2 box) of all bran and 6oz dark chocolate chips. (I use 90% when I make them for me but I love the more bitter taste). Melt chocolate in glass bowl, mix in cereal, scoop into chunks onto a cookie sheet and put in fridge until hard.

Those cookies sound good!!

For the crust, you don't add any water or moisture to hold it together?

I never have. I think the moisture from the pudding makes it firm enough. Or maybe it's because I use a coffee grinder so it's finely grounded. I usually grind more than I need and freeze the extra.

I think the olive oil spray helps when I make a full pudding pie. You can bake it in the oven until it gets a little crisp then add the pudding.

thanks for your help beachgirl!! I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes yesterday and they turned out great! I just ground up the all-bran like you suggested and spread it in a muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray. I put the ingredients (fatfree cream cheese, egg, splenda, spices and pumpkin puree) on top, baked in oven and the crust worked great. The pieces that weren't ground down enough didn't stick together as well, so I definitely see the advantage of making it into a powder.

Thanks again! :)