Low Fat Healthy Graham Cracker Crumb Pie Crust Without Shortening – Delicious!
What fillings can you put in this homemade graham cracker crumb pie crust?
- Pumpkin Pie try my no bake, whole foods recipe here!
- Banana Cream
- Lemon
- Cherry
- Chocolate
- Apple, and more….
Yummy!!
How to make a whole food pie crust from scratch, without butter?
It is super duper quick and easy.
It is very convenient to keep graham cracker crumbs in the cupboard.
Then, whatever size pie crust you want, you can easily mix up a crust, spread it out in the pie plate, give it a quick bake while you prep the pie filling, and have a delicious, fresh, crowd pleasing pie.
Easy low fat, dairy free pie crust recipe
I experimented with various margarine substitutes and found that a simple mix of water, maple syrup, and almond flour make a great healthy easy and tasty graham pie crust.
I used to buy pre-made graham crumb crusts, and often they would go stale, or crack, or be too small.
Plus they are greasy, have preservatives in them, and just don’t taste as good as this fresh made pie crust does.
Mix the graham cracker crumbs with water and maple syrup
Also, add some almond flour – this replaces the butter/margarine the original graham crumbs package recipe probably calls for.
The crumbs will turn into balls, pour them into your pie plate.
Use a spoon to press the crumbs into the pie plate
Make a consistent thickness, especially up the sides.
At this point your crust is still raw, and would look like this:
Do you need to bake graham cracker crumb crust? Yes, bake the crust, then it will be ready for filling
Put the raw crust in the oven for 11-13 minutes, blind bake it, and then it will be ready for whatever yummy filling you have planned.
Follow the instructions on your pie recipe for whether the crust needs to cool or not.
Some recipes may require the pie to be baked again after filling it. Others, like my Whole Food Vegan Pumpkin Pie and Banana Cream Pie do not.
Is this a vegan pie crust? Â Sorry, no, ethical vegans may avoid honey because it is produced by animals
It is very difficult to find graham cracker crumbs that don’t contain honey. This may be a concern for some of us.
According to this article, not all honey is produced the same way:Â Is it Possible to Find Honey that Doesn’t Harm Bees?
Apparently, when honey is certified organic that also means it’s been extracted without using harmful beekeeping methods.
So possibly then, if we use organic graham cracker crumbs, we may be making a better choice for bees. Â I leave this up to you to decide.
How is pie crust with no margarine better? Â Health benefits of WFPB whole food pie crust.
My recipes do not include margarine, butter, or oil. Recipes on veganenvy use whole plant based foods like seeds and nuts instead of margarine or oil.
Why? Because man-made oils and fats provide no minerals, vitamins, nutrients, or fiber. Oil is what is left once all the plant goodness has been stripped out. Â Also, to make oil and margarine shelf stable, it is highly processed.
Whole foods like nuts, and seeds contain healthy fats, bundled in fibre, so you get nutrition, gut biome probiotics, antioxidants, fresh taste, and less calories!
Eating oil or margarine or butter (or meat) contributes to clogging our arteries, and can lead to heart attacks, strokes and dementia. Pure fat is the highest calorie food there is, so eating it usually leads to us consuming more energy than we can typically use, causing weight gain.
Please enjoy this wonderful graham cracker crumb crust that is margarine free! Â
Your body will thank you.
Easy Low-fat Whole Food Graham Crumb Pie Crust WFPB No-Shortening
Equipment
- 9 inch or 9 1/2 inch Pie Dish
- Oven
Instructions and Ingredients
Vegan Graham Crumb Crust for Pie
- 2.5 cups Graham Crumbs
- 3 tbsp Almond Flour
- 2 tbsp Maple Syrup Optional, or substitute water.
- 3 tbsp Water
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1) Prepare and Blind Bake the Graham Crumb Crust in 9 or 9.5 inch pie plate. This prevents the crust from being soggy.
- Add the dry crust ingredients (graham crumbs, almond flour) to a medium bowl, and mix well.
- Mix the maple syrup and water together, add to the crumbs, mix with a fork, until crumbly balls form.
- Pour all the crumbs into the pie dish. With a medium sized spoon, press the crumbs into the bottom, and up the sides. About a centimeter (1/3 inch) thick.If the crust is too thin, you may have trouble getting pieces out later. Make sure it is thick, especially up the sides. Tap/press down on the top of the sides to make a flat thick edge.
- Bake crust alone, for 11 - 13 min. The crust will rise slightly, it does not need to be browned.
2) Prepare Pie Filling
- While the crust bakes, prepare a filling.
Pour Filling into Baked Pie Crust
- Take the crust out of the oven. It is ok to pour hot filling from a saucepan over top of the hot crust, into the pie plate. No need to cool the crust, but if it did cool a while, that shoud be fine too.
If is a No Bake Pie, Let the Pie Set / Cool
- Place the fresh cooked pie in the fridge or freezer to speed the cooling process. Depending on your filling, once the pie is a bit warmer than room temperature it should be firm enough to be served.
If it is a Baked Pie - Bake the pie crust again, with the filling in it.
Add Toppings
- Top your pie with vegan ice cream or coconut whip cream and enjoy! Cover with plastic wrap to keep fresh in the fridge for a few days.
Nutrition
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