Date 'n Nut Pie Crusts (bake and no-bake!)

Bake version Ingredient list:

2 cups nuts

1 cup chopped dried dates OR 2 cups whole pitted dates

1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1/2 cup flax
1 tbs sugar
one egg (can skip per instructions below)
1/8 cup boiling water
Oil or butter and non-scorching flour (rice flour) for greasing pan

-See bottom of post for easier no-bake option.-

Hi!  So I made my pie crust, the bake-able kind, that you can put anything into it and everybody loves it.  (If you scroll to the bottom, the no-bake kind recipe is down there.)  Double Yum!  So this recipe involves a food processor.  I discovered that mine had a nice thick layer of sawdust over it as a result of my floor sanding project (which is going well, by the way) so the first directions for me were, clean off the food processor.

 Then once all the sawdust was cleaned off, and the reserviour and blade were located, I was ready to go.  See, much better!  And yes, this dang thing is huge.  I love it, and I'm sorry that a smaller one might be less convenient.  You could do half at a time to make it fit in a smaller one.  Sorry!!!  I LOVE my food processor, really, don't let the sawdust fool you, that can happen in just one day when you're sanding a floor.

 Put in 2 cups nuts and chop them until they are crumbly to powdery.  Here I'm using walnuts which is a really rich flavor.  Any nut will work.  Almonds give this a more delicate taste.

I forgot to photo a step here.  I guess I was getting way too into it, or maybe it was the phone call, anyways....
Add 1 cup chopped dried dates OR 2 cups whole pitted dates and chop until things look even.
The pitted dates take up more space each, that's why the difference in amount.
Okay, now for what's pictured below.
Add 1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum (you could skip this if necessary, but it's recommended)
Add 1/2 cup flax
Add 1 tbs sugar

Mix it all up again until it's all even again.

Add one egg and
It turns out (after accidentally skipping this one time) that this egg is mostly optional, expect the slices of pie to be difficult to get out of the pan.  To accommodate for this, be generous with the butter or oil in the pan greasing step.

At same time as, and on the opposite side as the egg, add 1/8 cup boiling water, and blenderize.

Now prep the pan.  Grease with butter or oil, sprinkle non-scorching flour in (I use rice flour for this purpose only, so the little bag I bought for $5 is lasting forever, literally years!  I keep it in the freezer.  Corn is fine too, although it has a flavor.)  Shake the pan so that the flour evenly coats the bottom of the pan.

Peel all that batter out of the food processor, ball it up and put it in the center.  Also you can notice I spread the rice flour in the pan out by shaking it around.

Smoosh this ball flat gradually with your finger to fit the bottom of the pie pan.

Get your fingers wet to finish shaping the crust to the pan.  The white color comes out when your your wet fingers touch the dough.  I think this is either the powder from the nuts, or the flax, or maybe it's just happy to see you.  Keep getting your fingers wet, since the idea is to keep this from getting sticky.  Your wet fingers will glide smoothly to help push the batter where it needs to go.

Bake at 400.  I never put much stock in rack height, but center worked just fine.
If your going to fill this pie shell and bake it again, then just bake for 15 mintues, and when you put it back in after it's filled, put a crust guard on until the last few minutes.
If your putting a cold filling in the pie, bake it for 25 minutes then cool completely before filling.

This crust is now in my chest freezer awaiting the big birthday party.  I will fill it with sugar free pudding and fresh garden fruit as a low sugar option for our guests.

Hope you enjoy this!!!!!

Hey, so there's an easier version of this same thing that doesn't require any baking at all!  It's a bit harder to serve since it's a smide sticky in the pan.
Easier no-bake.
1 1/4 cup nuts - blenderize
Add 1 Tbs water - blenderize until nuts are just moist
Add 1 cup whole pitted dates or 2/3 cup chopped dates (dry dates) - blenderize
Add 3 Tbs milled flax seed - blenderize
Use more grease and flour in the pie pan that the other recipe to help with serving this later.
Wet your fingers and shape this dough into the pie pan as before.
This will behave much like a graham cracker crust.  If you want to toast it a bit before filling it, go for it!

Alright, so there's your 2 for 1 Pie shell recipe post, have fun!