Wheat-free pie crust

9. December 2010 William Davis (17)
I've been working on wheat-free yet healthy recipes these past two months.

You can buy wheat-free, gluten-free foods at the store, of course. But the majority of these products are unhealthy because cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch are commonly used in place of wheat. Recall that these are among the few foods that increase blood glucose higher than even wheat.

Here's a simple recipe for wheat-free pie crust that works best for cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and cream pies, but not for berry or other fruit pies like apple.

You will need:
?
1½ cups ground pecans
6 tablespoons melted butter?or melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract?
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons Truvia™ or ½ teaspoon stevia extract or ½ cup Splenda®

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in bowl. Pour mixture into pie pan and press onto bottom and sides.

Fill pie crust with desired filling. You can fill it with your favorite cheesecake recipe (e.g., Neufchatel or cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and stevia; add pumpkin for pumpkin cheesecake) and bake, usually at 350 degrees F for one hour. 

Yes, the butter provokes insulin and artificial sweeteners can trigger appetite. But, for the holidays, a slice or two of pie made with this crust will not increase blood sugar nor trigger the uncontrolled impulse eating that wheat crust will trigger.
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Comments (17) -

  • Jack

    12/9/2010 4:11:10 PM |

    you just had to throw in that bit about butter and artificial sweeteners. butter is a staple. 2 tablespoons a day (minimum) for me. and sometimes working up an appetite isn't a bad thing. you gotta eat, right? but stevia is not artificial anyway.

    by the way... this looks like a yummy pie crust. i am forwarding this to my wife right now

    Thanks Doc!
    Jack K

  • Anonymous

    12/9/2010 4:54:39 PM |

    The recipes looks easy and delish but heads up on baking with truvia.I baked a batch of gluten free cookies with it then ate those cookies - a few each night with my bedtime tea.I had a cytokine cascade that a year later I can still describe in complete detail.It took a month to get over!

    There are three ingredients in truvia the last being natural flavors = they claim it's a secret propitiatory blend = weasel words.I got my money back for the product and was interviewed at legnth by the company medical representative who insisted the erythitol caused it.He refused to tell me what the 'natural flavors' contain.

    I suspect msg or a derivative of aspartame which is even more toxic when heated.What ever it is what I do know is it was a powerful neuro-toxin to me.I now use REAL stevia and temper it with xylitol or a little coconut sugar and am a happy baker!

  • Kathryn

    12/9/2010 5:50:23 PM |

    You could always use coconut oil, which is very healthy.

    I have extreme reactions to Splenda.  I don't think it is healthy for anyone, tho most people do not respond to it the way i do.  If anything, if you use Splenda at all, please notify guests that it is in products.  I was inadvertently poisoned by Splenda at a potluck last year.  That one landed me in ER.

  • Anna

    12/9/2010 5:52:48 PM |

    Why sweeten a pie crust?  Most of my pies are crustless anyway.

  • Anonymous

    12/9/2010 6:47:15 PM |

    I'd take my chances with a the occasion, small amount of minimally processed cane sugar, honey or maple syrup (used by humans for millenia) than something new, fresh out of the laboratory.

    And butter? Get the best butter you can afford and eat it. I use Irish butter from grass fed cows. Yum.

  • Anonymous

    12/9/2010 7:29:56 PM |

    Love this blog! This recipe sounds awesome. I would love it if you posted a picture next time you make it!
    Penny

  • Anonymous

    12/10/2010 3:12:40 AM |

    In regards to the reference to butter. What about pastaurized butter or grass fed butter? That would be ok in general to eat right?

  • Frank Hagan

    12/10/2010 4:30:33 AM |

    Great post!  Pecans and almonds can both be used for pie crusts.

    I found another great pie crust recipe in the 1967 Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  Called a "Nut Brown Crust", it can be made using almond meal (or almond flour):

    * 1 cup almond meal
    * 1 1/2 Tablespoons soft butter (or sub coconut oil)
    * 1 teaspoon liquid sucralose (optional)

    You mix the almond meal and butter together, then press it into a pie pan like a graham cracker crust, pushing it up the sides and forming it.  Then bake at 400 F for 8 to 10 minutes.  It works great with custard style fillings (I make mini-pumpkin pies in tart pans ... see an example on my blog.

  • Pat D.

    12/10/2010 5:37:19 AM |

    I need a recipe like this - thank you for posting it.  I can't use artificial sweeteners though.  I'll probably use one tablespoon brown sugar instead.  It might even be fine without any sweetening.  Pecans have a nice natural sweetness to them - I'll have to try it.

  • PJNOIR

    12/10/2010 2:32:34 PM |

    trivia is eighty per cent sugar, find a real stavia product.

  • Anonymous

    12/10/2010 2:35:01 PM |

    Please-no artificial sweetners (yuck)!

  • Anonymous

    12/10/2010 4:36:35 PM |

    Are you going to come out with a cookbook, Doctor Davis?  Or are they going to be for the Track Your Plaque website?
    Char

  • Anonymous

    12/10/2010 6:11:39 PM |

    How do you post about a "healthy" pie crust, and then talk about the insulin response from butter?  Seems a bit counterproductive.  Individuals who are actually worried about the insulin response from butter probably have no interest in a "healthy" pie crust.

  • Anonymous

    12/29/2010 9:54:58 PM |

    Here is an easy Pie Crust you might like
    1/4 cup oat bran
    1/3 cup almond meal
    3 tbsp. finely ground coconut
    2 tbsp. butter
    2 tsp. palm sugar or sweetener of choice
    Combine dry ingredients, then  cut in butter until it resembles a fine meal. Pat mixutre  into the bottom of springform pan which has been lined with parchment.Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes then fill with your favourite cheese cake filling.

    Joan Mercantini

  • Anonymous

    1/24/2011 7:44:24 AM |

    eating a wheat crust pie never triggered uncontrolled impulse eating in me.  you might be an extremist.

  • Sheila Korup

    12/13/2011 1:32:14 PM |

    Where is your pumpkin pie recipe?  I can't find it.  Thanks Doc.

  • Dr. William Davis

    12/14/2011 2:47:50 AM |

    I posted it on the Wheat Belly Blog just before Thanksgiving, Sheila.

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