Friday, May 22, 2015

Homemade Tart Crust Recipe- Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Vegan, and Refined Sugar Free

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I had decided the other day that I wanted to make a tart, and bought all the ingredients to go on the tart.
But do you know how many tart recipes don't even include the recipe for the tart crust- they just say to use puff pastry?
I never use puff pastry. For many reasons. Number one- because I can't eat gluten, and the puff pastry locally is nearly all with gluten. And number two because it is not healthy. Puff pastry locally isn't made with butter or coconut oil- it's made with hydrogenated oils. Which I avoid like the plague, because I figure- if there's one thing that the mainstream medical community and alternative medicine community agree on, it's probably absolute truth- and everyone's in agreement about how bad hydrogenated oils are...

So anyhow, I figured I'll just make my homemade gluten free pie crust to use instead of the puff pastry that was showing up repeatedly in recipes.

And then the time came to make the tart... and I just didn't have the energy to make the pie crust- I didn't feel like grinding the four different flours I use for it, I didn't feel like taking out the food processor necessary for my pie crust, and then cleaning it afterwards, and I didn't feel like dealing with rolling out pie crusts, etc...

I mentioned this on Facebook, that I had no energy to make the tart I had planned to make, and my friend Carly shared her easy gluten free, grain free tart crust recipe with me- one that didn't require me to use 4 different types of flour or a food processor or a rolling pin.
But it had eggs and white sugar in it, both things I try to avoid, so I played around with that base, and came up with this recipe- which is Paleo diet friendly and vegan, and so much healthier than the alternative of puff pastry, and was easy to make to boot.

You can use this as the base for any of your sweet tarts or tartlets.

As for what I did with the tart- that'll have to wait until tomorrow for the recipe.

Homemade Tart Crust Recipe- Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Vegan, and Refined Sugar Free

Ingredients:
1 cup packed ground nuts- 130 grams, about 4.5 oz (I used mainly almond meal with some walnut- because that's what I had in the house, but I'm sure this would work with any other nut or sunflower seeds even)
2 cups potato or tapioca starch (use tapioca starch to keep it paleo)
2/3 cup coconut sugar (you can use white sugar if you want to keep it cheaper)
1 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup coconut oil (another type of oil should probably be fine as well)

Instructions:
1. Mix 1/2 of the flax seeds with boiling water, and let them sit for 5 minutes.

2. Mix the ground nuts with the starch, coconut sugar, and oil, and the rest of the flax seeds.

3. Add the flax seed and water mixture, and mix well until it is uniformly combined.

4. Let sit for 10 minutes to fully absorb the liquids.

5. Press out onto a baking tray or into a tart pan or whatever you want to use.

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6. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

7. Cover with whatever tart toppings you want to use, then bake again.

Enjoy!

Have you ever made tarts before? What base do you use? If you have an easy, no food processor or rolling pin requiring tart crust recipe that is gluten free, I'd love to hear it! 
Does this look like a recipe you'd use?

1 comment:

  1. Would this work instead of a graham crumb base on a cheesecake?

    ReplyDelete

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