A pastry chef friend of mine thinks it’s oh-so funny that people have such a hard time making a pie crust. I admit that even with all my baking experience making a decent crust from scratch isn’t my finest hour. If that’s true for you as well, then let me offer a better option that I found a few years ago in the Cardiac Recovery Cookbook I checked out from the library after my mom’s open-heart surgery. I like that it uses oatmeal, whole wheat, and almonds.
Crunchy Pie Crust
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Mix oats, flour, almonds, sugar and salt in a small mixing bowl.
Blend oil and water in a measuring cup with a fork or small wire whisk until blended.
Add oil mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. If needed, add a little more water to hold mixture together.
Press into 9-inch pie pan, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes (or until light brown).
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You can then use this crust for pumpkin pie, if that’s what you’ve been assigned for Thanksgiving. Or, I’ve used it just fine with fruit pies too. It might be a bit too crunchy for cream pies, though.
In that case, I recommend the premade graham cracker or cookie crusts like from the Magic Chocolate Coping Pie.
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Oh, and since I don’t have a food processor, I use my coffee grinder to deal with the almonds.
Alexandra has a point — I think the smell of this baking must be as good as the pie itself.
Ditto! And, healthier than the recipe I just read elsewhere, made with lard. It must smell really good, too.
This really sounds very good.
Ever since K went on her fancy homemade diet after pancreatitis, I never have the energy to do any cooking, except for her dog food. You wouldn’t believe how much time it takes. I’m really hoping that I figure out how to be more efficient!
So, I’ll be leaving the pie crusts to you!
I’m still just a seething garden failure compared to you. I’m glad I could offer a solution to your abundance of squash.
I’m no cook, but I’ll relay it on to the two superior bakers in my family – my mom and my grandma. Sounds yummy.
That sound like it would make good pie crust and I like the coffee grinder idea.
Sounds perfect for my buttercup squash pie! (We still have about 30 buttercup squash that need to get used for something – that’s a lot of pies!) I am so not talented in the kitchen, I generally just buy pre-made pie crusts. I didn’t even know what pie weights were until a few weeks ago.
Thanks for posting this. I was just telling my husband the other day I wish I had my mom’s pie crust recipe (and could do it). Maybe I can do this one!