Gluten-Free “Graham Cracker” Pie Crust
This gluten-free “graham cracker pie crust recipe will turn your pie-making into a snap! It’s so easy, you’ll wish you’d tried it years ago!
Gabriel’s been mentioning lately how much he loves key lime pie and how long it’s been since he’s had one.
I can take a hint, I really can. But to my shame, I’ve just kept putting it on the back burner. I mean, for real, I’ve never even bought limes or lime juice in my entire life.
Well, Gabriel’s been out of town for a little while, and he’s coming home tomorrow. Woot! So I decided that key lime pie would be a great way to welcome him home. I even made a special trip to town to get the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk ( in retrospect, I suppose I could have made the latter from scratch).
This morning, as I was getting ready to make Gabriel’s pie, I was faced with that old dilemma that many of us gluten-free bakers encounter.
Graham cracker crust.
I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in making gluten-free “graham” crackers only to crush them for pie crust.
I started thinking about this oatmeal crust. I found a recipe one time when it hit me. Why not just use granola?
That may sound a little unusual at first, especially since I also have to make granola, but unlike graham crackers, granola is actually easy to make. Besides, I usually have some on hand anyway. Since granola is toasted, it should crush easily and soak the butter right up – just like a graham cracker.
You probably wouldn’t want to use granola with a bunch of stuff ( like dried fruit) in it. Mine just has oatmeal and coconut in it, which is great for fruit pies.
Once it’s blended up, you could easily have mistaken the granola for blended graham crackers.
The results were great! I’m thrilled to have an excellent substitute for Graham Cracker pie crust. Now, maybe Gabriel will start getting served his beloved pie more often.
Update: I’ve updated the recipe to be made from scratch if you don’t have or want to use granola cereal. It only adds a few minutes to the total time, and has a great, natural flavor for when you don’t want the coconut (or whatever) flavor in your pie.
Mock Graham Cracker Pie Crust
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups granola cereal
or - 1 1/2 cups oatmeal + 1 tablespoon of melted butter + 2 Tablespoons or sugar
- 4 Tablespoons butter
Instructions:
If you don’t have, or want to use granola cereal, mix the oatmeal, butter, and sugar.
Toast on a cookie sheet in the oven at 300º until golden brown, stirring every ten minutes or so.
Proceed as follows:
Blend granola (or oatmeal) in a blender or food processor until fairly fine.
Next, melt the butter…
Mix the two together and press into a nine-inch pie plate.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.
Voila! That’s it!
Enjoy!
Do you know how this recipe does in the freezer? Or is this a recipe that’s best used fresh?
Thanks in advance for your help 🙂
I’m not sure how well the finished crusts would freeze as I’ve never tried it, but you could definitely blend up the granola to freeze for future crusts, which makes it really easy to add the melted butter and press into a pan.
Wish you would put recipe in one place all together so we could print it out.
Hi Barbarra, Sorry! Our recipe plugin which allows you to print is on the fritz – but we’re definitely working on it!
In the mean time, the best way to print out a recipe is to scroll down to the bottom of the post and click the little green “print PDF” button on the right hand side.
Hope that helps!
I’m confused by the portion of the recipe that uses oatmeal instead of the granola cereal. The oatmeal recipe calls for 1 T of melted butter then another 4T of butter. Are the first two ingredients (oatmeal & 2T melted butter) combined; and then add the 1T sugar and 4 T butter?
I have the same question about the butter
You do realize granola is gluten… right?
No, it’s not. Granola can contain gluten if you make it with wheat germ, or other gluten containing products, but it is not inherently glutinous.