First I want to apologize for 2 things, 1. for not posting any recipes in so long 2. no pictures of this delicious creation due to my camera batteries being dead and I cant find the charger :( Moving on lets talk spring. Has anyone else noticed the gorgeous strawberries in the stores lately? They have just been screaming eat me eat me! I kindly obliged and bought some and somehow they managed to not get eaten so I went back bought another box and decided to combine the 2 and make a strawberry pie to take to a friends BBQ tonight. I have bought crusts and I have made crusts but I decided I wanted to make something similar to a graham cracker crust but instead use almond flour as the base with coconut oil as the binding ingredient for a hint of coconut in the strawberry pie. I finally found a recipe that I was able to tweak for the crust. Here is the original recipe which was for a chocolate cream pie I think I just might have to make http://www.elanaspantry.com/chocolate-cream-pie/
Of course I had to tweak it so this is how my crust recipe went.
Almond Flour Crust
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut oil melted (splurge and buy some good coconut oil it should have a fabulous scent when you open the jar)
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour,salt and baking soda and stir together until well combined. In a small bowl melt the coconut oil and then stir in the vanilla and agave (it wont mix together perfectly so just do the best you can). Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined. Pat dough into a 9.5 inch glass pie pan. It will take a little bit of work but just be patient. Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes until golden brown remove and let cool.
original strawberry pie filling recipe that I edited is http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/strawberry-pie-ii/detail.aspx
Strawberry pie filling
1 quart fresh strawberries (that's 32 oz folks)
1 cup agave
3 Tablespoons cornstarch (in the future I will use arrowroot powder instead in the same amount)
smidgen of water
arrange some chunks of strawberries in the baked crust not a ton just enough to mostly cover the crust with some space between berries. Chunk the rest of the strawberries into a medium saucepan with the agave and heat over medium mashing the berries (I used a potato masher). It doesn't need to be a paste so don't go overboard with the mashing. None of the berries should remain whole but you don't need to mash them into total unrecognizable oblivion. Mixture should start to boil over medium heat and when it does be ready with your cornstarch (or arrowroot). What I do is I put my 3 Tab of cornstarch (or arrowroot) in like a 1/2 cup measuring cup then when the strawberry mixture starts to boil I add a little bit of water to the cornstarch (or arrowroot) and stir it up until all of the powder is dissolved just barely. Pour the cornstarch (or arrowroot) mixture into your boiling strawberry mixture and stir while pouring being sure to get it mixed in well. Lower your temp to low and stir mixture for 10 minutes. Pour mixture into the crust and put it into the fridge to chill 4-6 hours. Lick your strawberry spoon and dream of eating your home made healthy creation later in the day. I do also recommend you then spend some time on your knees praying that God will give you the strength and giving spirit needed to share your pie. Enjoy!
