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Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pecan Coconut Pie Crust

Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite things to make in the fall.  I love the smell of it while it's baking, and I love the taste of it when it's done!  I always look forward to the arrival of autumn, so I can start baking pumpkin pies again.

A few years ago, I started to modify my pumpkin pie recipe to make it with a graham cracker crust.  If you've never tried it, I think it's much better than a traditional pastry crust.  Now that I'm gluten free, I either need to buy GF graham crackers to make a crust (which can sometimes be difficult to find) or come up with another solution.

I've had good luck with a lot of nut-based baked recipes, so I decided to go in that direction for the pumpkin pie crust:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1/2 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add in butter and pulse several times in short bursts until the crumbs are moist and begin to fall away from the sides of the bowl.

Pour the crumbs into a 9-inch pie dish and spread them evenly. Using your fingers, gently press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides, about 2/3 of the way up.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 7 minutes to set.

Add pie filling and bake as directed.