Graham Crackers

The final post for my Thanksgiving 2012 Meal, the best part...DESSERT!  I made my favorite chocolate pie that I have already posted on my blog.  The last time I made this pie, I used a date nut crust which I was not thrilled about.  I think rich chocolate pie pairs better with graham cracker crust.  However, it is very difficult to find a somewhat healthy vegan and gluten free graham cracker crust, so I decided to make my own out of homemade graham crackers.  For this post I'm going to include 2 recipes.  The first is how to make homemade vegan and gluten free graham crackers and the second is how to turn those graham crackers into a pie crust.

This graham cracker recipe was adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp gf rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp coconut sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2-4 tbsp water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with foil and grease lightly with non-stick spray.
2. In a food processor, pulse rolled oats into flour.
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
4. In a small bowl, combine all wet ingredients and stir. (Start with 2 tbsp water and add more later if more liquid is needed.)
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined.  (Add extra water if needed, if it is too wet you may need to add more flour.  You want to be able to form a ball with the dough.
6. Once everything is combined, roll the dough into a ball with your hands and place on a sheet of wax paper.  Place another piece of wax paper on top of the dough and using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a square forming a thin graham cracker width, or to your desired thickness.
7. Cut the dough into squares to form your crackers and place on the prepared baking sheet.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until crispy.

To create a pie crust with the homemade graham crackers I followed this recipe also adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups homemade graham cracker crumbs
• 4 tbsp almond milk

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine homemade graham cracker crumbs and almond milk and pulse until combined and crumbs stick together.  (Add more almond milk if the crumbs are not sticking together.  Add more crumbs if the mixture is too liquidy.)
2. Pour  the sticky crumbs into a prepared pie pan and firmly press onto the bottom and sides of the pie pan with your hands to form a crust.

If you do not have enough crumbs to completely fill your pie pan, add more crumbs and almond milk until you have enough.  Now you have a graham cracker crust that you can fill with any pie filling.  Once you fill the crust with your favorite pie filling, just bake according to your pie's directions!

For the graham crackers, based on using Bob's Red Mill GF Rolled Oats and Sorghum Flour and Silk PureAlmond Milk, this entire recipe yields approximately 745 calories and 17g protein.


My other Thanksgiving 2012 dishes:
Homemade Tofurkey
Quinoa Sage Stuffing
Sage Gravy
Walnut Brussels Sprouts
Sweet Potato Casserole
Chocolate Pie with Graham Cracker Crust